by Elisabeth Donati | Jul 20, 2012 | Financial Literacy, Uncategorized, WEALTHwork™, What you can do
Guest Post by Brian Hamilton, Bestselling Author of 90 Day Money Challenge. Please visit his site for the other 3 reasons budgets don’t work.
Who should handle the budgeting in a marriage? The husband or the wife? The spender or the saver? The nerd or the free spirit? If you want to be wealthy, you need to do what wealthy people do. And their answer is: both of you!
The #4 reason that most budgets don’t work is because you don’t work together with your spouse.
The Budget Committee Meeting (BCM)
If you’re married, it’s time for the BCM: a quick budget meeting with your spouse before every month for the rest of your lives.
You are not taking over the money, your spouse is not taking over the money, you are going to work together and you both have a vote. You are both adults. You’re not daddy taking care of a spoiled little girl or mommy taking care of a little boy and dishing out his allowance; you are two adults working together.
BCM Ground Rules
This meeting should take place at the kitchen table with the TV off.
Nerds:
1. Do a rough draft of the budget
2. Bring it to the meeting
3. Be quiet (all of your opinions are on the page)
4. Make it brief
5. Let the free spirit change something (you’re getting their support when you make it “our” plan)
Free Spirits:
1. Come to the meeting
2. Talk at the meeting and have mature input
3. Agree to every number on the page or vote to change it
4. You can no longer say, “Whatever you want to do” (this is part of having mature input)
A Contract
Once both of you agree on the budget, it’s now a contract for the month. Pinky swear and spit shake that you will both stick to spending the amounts you agreed to at the meeting.
The BCM is the biggest thing that can improve your marriage and stop money fights, assuming you can keep your word and you have integrity. Make each other a promise and keep that promise.
We’ve had a BCM every month since we’ve been married and we’ve never spent any money that wasn’t in the budget without having an EBCM (Emergency BCM) first. That’s where something comes up in the middle of the month and you add an expense to the budget, rebalance it, and agree on it with your spouse before you do the spending.
Warning
If this is the first time you have done a budget with this much detail, I can almost guarantee it’s not going to work out according to your plan. But it does get easier. The first month may take close to an hour, but we now spend about three minutes per month on this (because our budget doesn’t change much anymore).
If you implement the BCM, you’re going to learn to work together in a way you’ve never worked together before and you’re going to see your marriage improve dramatically.
Question: Are you having any trouble getting your spouse on board?
Please leave your comments below.
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 28, 2012 | Financial Literacy, Uncategorized
Creative Wealth in Santa Barbara is gearing up for it’s one and only summer Camp Millionaire July 28-29th.
With our focus shifting to training others how to teach their own Camp Millionaire and Money Game events, we’ve only got one camp scheduled…but there are a few more around the country.
Here’s a short list of summer financial camps to choose from:
Santa Barbara, CA
July 28-29th, 2012
Ages 10-14
Cost: $199/25% sibling discount
Scholarships…a few left.
Call 805-957-1024 or visit www.campmillionaire.com for more info/to sign up.
Anaheim, CA
Fairmont Private Schools
15310 West La Palma Ave.
Aug. 6-10, 2012
Age: 10-14
Cost: $300
Contact Darren Orshoff at 951-323-2119
Los Gatos, CA
July 9-13, 2012
Ages 10-13
Cost: $349
July 16-20
Ages 14 and up
Cost: $349
Contact: Kathleen Fitts at 408-335-3959
UC – Riverside
July 23-27, 2012
Ages 10 and up
Cost: $360
Contact: Danielle Wright at 760-565-3636
Atlanta, GA
Jonathan Rosen Foundation
3805 Crestwood Parkway
Duluth, GA 30096
Sat/Sun, Aug. 1-2, 2012
Ages 13-16
Cost: $199
Sat/Sun, Oct. 20-21, 2012
Ages 10-13
Cost: $199
Contact Tracy Tanner at 404-692-0892 or visit: www.rosenfoundation.org
Canton, MA
All sessions run TUESDAY- FRIDAY
Time: 1:00-4:00pm
SESSION 1 JULY 17-JULY20
SESSION 2 JULY 24- JULY27
SESSION 3 JULY31- AUGUST 3
SESSION 4 AUGUST 7 -AUGUST 10
Location: Canton Recreation Department
William Armando. Jr Recreation Cent
91 Pleasant Street
Canton, MA 02021
Ages: 9 and up
Cost: Fee (s) $160.00 for first child/session
$120.00 for siblings (25% off)
Contact: Janet Maguire, Director
ALSO IN ATLANTA
Creative Wealth Train-the-Trainer
Oct. 14-18, 2012
Come learn our entire Camp Millionaire program!
Contact 805-957-1024 for more information
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 28, 2012 | Financial Literacy, Uncategorized
Guest post by our newest Expert Panel Member, Claudia Mulcahy
In Alice in Wonderland, Alice is lost, and asks the Cheshire cat for directions to get out of the place in which she currently finds herself. The cat tells Alice that getting out depends on where you want to be, and then asks Alice where does she want to get to.
Alice says, “anywhere.” The Cheshire cat tells her that if she wants to be anywhere it really doesn’t matter which way she goes!
Do you want financial freedom?
What does that mean to you?
What are you doing to welcome wealth?
What goals, visions, or dreams do you have?
Have goals bigger than your fears?
Dream big, and carry a big stick! That stick may come in handy. It can be used to fend off negative attitudes, beliefs and fears.
There will be those who can’t support your big dream. That’s because it’s too big for them to conceive. They can’t imagine it.
To pull again from Alice in Wonderland, it was the Queen who said, “Sometimes I imagine six impossible things before breakfast!”
If your goal is big, or long range, break it down. It could be a few months out; it could be a years. Either way, you’re moving toward your dream; your goal.
Could you swim the first you got in the water? Did you have immediate success riding a bike? It takes time. It takes commitment. It takes persistance.
Standing where you are, look in the direction of where you want to go. Let’s call where you are, Point A and where you want to go, Point B. The next step is to build a bridge from point A to point B.
Do you need to set up a savings account specifically for travel, or a buying a car?
Do you need to get a passport, or driver’s permit?
Those are actions that it may take to build your bridge…and everyone’s bridge is different.
Do your research. How much money do you need? By what date? Do you have someone who will hold you accountable to what you say is a priority? (Yeah, but. . . doesn’t work in a budget.)
What works? Focus works. Commitment works.
“Make every step you take go in that direction.” — Socrates.
Click here for a free download to help get you started on building your bridge.
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 27, 2012 | Latest News, Media Attention, Uncategorized
You all know that I’m big on getting financial literacy done instead of spending valuable time, energy and money on more development of more ways that don’t work to teach money.
Here’s another example. I just got this in my email and copied it as is.
It’s a letter from our ‘trusted’ treasury department, specifically the Office of Financial Access, Financial Education, and Consumer Protection. Now I don’t know about you, but I have no desire to put my financial literacy faith in a government agency on financial education when the government itself is in HOW MUCH debt? You get the picture.
So here they are…sponsoring a contest to develop an APP! APPs don’t teach financial literacy! Teachers and experience with money teach financial literacy! Jeesh.
I would venture that if we took the $1000 from the first ‘challenge’ and the $10,000 from the second ‘challenge’ and combined that with all of the time, energy and money being spent on these two ‘challenges’ we could teach a whole lot of kids a whole lot of things about money and end up with a few more financially savvy politicians in the long run.
But that’s just me. What do YOU think? Please leave your comments on the blog. Thanks.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
From: Melissa.Koide@treasury.gov [mailto:Melissa.Koide@treasury.gov]
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2012 12:45 PM
Subject: MyMoneyAppUp Challenge
I am pleased to announce that Treasury will launch the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge today, Wednesday, June 27.
Background
The MyMoneyAppUp Challenge is a two-component competition:
- The IdeaBank Challenge – the public will be encouraged to submit brief (140 characters or less) ideas for apps. The public will get a chance to vote for their favorite ideas on the challenge website, and a panel of judges will select the winner. The winning entrant will receive a cash prize of $1,000.
- The App Design Challenge – individuals and teams will compete by submitting comprehensive design proposals for apps. Finalists will be invited to come to Washington, DC to participate in a special event in Fall 2012, where competitors will pitch their app designs to a panel of national experts and winners will be announced. The winners will receive prizes ranging from $2,500 to $10,000.
Treasury is sponsoring the challenge in partnership with the D2D Fund and the Center for Financial Services Innovation. Support for cash prizes and the administration of the Challenge by CFSI and D2D for the MyMoneyAppUp Challenge come from the Ford Foundation, Omidyar Network, and the Citi Foundation.
How You Can Help with the Challenge
We welcome your assistance with spreading the word about the challenge. Please share the attached fact sheet with your networks.
The Challenge will be launched officially today, June 27, via press releases by the Treasury, the D2D Fund and the Center for Financial Services Innovation. A special Challenge website will go live today, at this address: mymoneyappup.challenge.gov
If you would like additional information, please contact Jim Gatz of my staff on (202) 622-3946 or via email on Jim.Gatz@Treasury.gov
Best,
Melissa Koide
Deputy Assistant Secretary
Office of Financial Access, Financial Education, and Consumer Protection
Melissa.Koide@treasury.gov 202.622.9892
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 22, 2012 | Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized, What you can do
I’m going to make this short and sweet…or at least that’s my intention.
I just stumbled on a prepaid card called the UPside Visa Card but I don’t see any upside to this.
Why would you pay a monthly fee to use a prepaid, preloaded ‘debit’ card if you could just put that same money into your checking account and spend it using a REAL debit card? This is just flat out stupid (yes, ask me how I really feel).
This card, called the UPside Card is dubbed as ‘the prepaid Visa card for teens and their parents’ and well, I must be missing something because I don’t understand the point. They say on their website:
UPside Visa is a reloadable prepaid Visa card designed for the 13-25 age group and their parents. The card remains under the supervision of parents.
OK, so if the teen has it, HOW exactly is it still under the supervision of the parents?
This is text right from their site:
- For high school students, it’s a great alternative to cash allowances that are unsafe, offer no spending control and often require trips to the ATM. It’s also a great educational tool to learn about financial literacy.
- For college students, it’s a convenient way to manage their money, track spending in real-time and stay away from credit cards. College students can receive occasional funds from their parents, receive a pay check directly onto the card and even write checks online (For cardholders 18 or over)
Let me get this straight…if you have this card, kids can control their spending but if they have cash they can’t? This is completely bassackwards as my mother would say. When kids SEE the cash start to run out, they stop spending but if they can’t SEE what’s on the card, they have to stop when the card doesn’t work anymore!
As far as a convenient way to manage their money, track spending, etc., my experience is that my checking account using Quicken or my old fashioned check book register certainly does the same thing!
FEES…there are ALWAYS fees!
If you’ll look here, if you want to be able to access your money via an ATM, you pay $2.99 or you could just pay a $29.95/year fee (evidently that’s a better value than saving the $29.95 in your saving account and not using this card).
But look…they don’t charge the parents a fee for putting money INTO their kid’s card from their checking account but don’t try to load it from a credit card…more fees. How generous…NOT.
And finally, don’t be fooled by the Rewards program. Note that you redeem some of the points in the UPside Mall (oh goodie…a trip to the mall) but they do offer some cash rewards.
Bottom line: USE THE BANK. Teach your kids to use THEIR money using a REAL bank account and then when they’re ready to handle the responsibilities of a real credit card, have them apply and manage a credit card wisely. And tell them to get a card with points so at least if they are going to use a credit card, they can use the reward points to book a flight home to visit you once in awhile for free!
by Elisabeth Donati | Jun 21, 2012 | Coaches Corner, Financial Literacy, Latest News, Uncategorized, What you can do
Have you ever wanted to work from home, work for yourself or market a new product idea or invention?
Have you been stopped in your tracks by all the ‘what abouts’ that you don’t know about? You know, the “What about this and what about that?”
If so, you’re not alone. And…it doesn’t have to be this way.
Today, I’d like you to invite you to think differently about starting a business for yourself. Here’s what you do….
DON’T THINK ABOUT EVERYTHING AT ONCE…and this is what I mean.
For those of you who have been following Creative Wealth and me for awhile, you have probably guessed that I have more ideas in one hour than a lot of people have in a lifetime. I want to start lots of businesses and bring a lot more of my business ideas to reality. And I know that I can’t do them all…or at least not all at once.
I can, however, create as many businesses as I’d like as long as I do them One Step At A Time.
I’m currently in the beginning throws of starting down a new journey that started when I switched to all Gluten Free baking. At first it was a challenge because I had a hard time figuring out how to make my yummy muffins and cookies (ask the neighbors how yummy:-) gluten free and still be yummy.
Over the last couple of years, I figured it out and now I’m in the process of starting Santa Barbara Gluten Free Goodies…an online and offline company that will market my very own Muffin and Cookie Flour Mix as well as deliver fresh, homemade muffins and cookies to local homes, businesses and coffee shops.
Do I know how to do this? NO!
Am I learning one piece at a time? YES!
Am I having fun? ABSOLUTELY!
All you need to do is take one small, baby-step forward on your new business idea and pretty soon you start to see a business plan. A little bit after that you start seeing the real thing materialize before your eyes.
What? You say you’ve tried this method before and weren’t successful? Well, you either had an idea that wasn’t going to work (this is not about you…it’s just an idea that isn’t marketable…get over it) or you needed some coaching to move it along. Either way, there are lots of great ideas waiting to happen and lots of great business coaches wanting to help you be fabulously successful (me for one).
So if you’ve always wanted to have your own business, offline or online (hint…online is easier!), START RIGHT NOW. Take some notes, create a binder for those notes and everyday add to the plan:
- Your vision
- What you want to sell, make, market
- Product and service details
- Competitor information
- Marketing ideas
- Contacts to make or ones made
- Steps, steps, steps
- Etc.
Then one day, out of the blue, you’re going to look in that notebook and see your first Action Step and then you’re going to take it.
The next day, you’ll take another Action Step…and on and on and on.
Finally, you’re going to wake up one day and have a full-fledged business of your own.
It’s that easy…
p.s. Take your kids along for this ride. Maybe by the time they’re out of high school or college they can either work for you or have their own business up and running. How cool would that be?
Just something else to think about…
