Posted July 15th, 2009 by Vicky H in Financial Series, Guests, Organization
Article compliments of
Todd Herrenbruck (Part of Our New Financial Series)
You’ve shopped for new clothes, bought their school supplies, enrolled them in after-school activities and arranged the carpool.
Congratulations, you’re well on your way to starting the new school year on the right track!
But what about next year and the years following?
If your back-to-school checklist doesn’t include a plan for future education needs, you might need to make some additional preparations.
It may seem like college is years away, but waiting to save for those expenses — even for one year — can make a great difference.
Planning For Their Future
Children grow quickly, and the cost of a college education is growing at an even faster rate. Today, many of the elite institutions cost upward of $30,000 annually to attend—and those costs are projected to double in 18 years.
The sooner you start thinking about future college costs, the more time you’ll have to develop and implement a solid education plan.
- 5.9 % Average increase in public university tuition from 2006–2007 school year to the 2007–2008 school year
- $ 148,004 Estimated cost of four-year public university in 2026
- 5.9 % Average increase in private university tuition from2006–2007 school year to the 2007–2008 school year
- $ 300,000 Estimated cost of four-year public university in 2026 (Statistics from CollegeBoard.com)
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Posted July 12th, 2009 by Vicky H in Communication, Guests, Parenting
Featured Guest Article
by Sara Puls
“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” — Mahatma Gandhi
In June of this year, a teenage girl in New York City was charged with arson, burglary, criminal trespass and felony aggravated animal cruelty after she broke into her ex-roommate’s apartment seeking revenge. Among other destructive actions, she confessed that she put her alleged ex-girlfriend’s kitten in the oven to die and afterward told investigators “I hate cats.”
Animal Abuse Statistics
According to a 1997 study by the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) and Northeastern University, animal abusers are:
Does this mean that if a child abuses an animal that they are guaranteed to grow up and become a criminal?
Not necessarily, but animal abuse can be an indicator of a deeper problem and it does mean that animal abuse needs to be taken seriously.
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Posted June 21st, 2009 by Vicky H in Guests, Parenting, Software
Featured Guest Series
by Todd Jordan
In the previous articles we’ve talked about a variety of tools you could use to keep your kids safe online. There are browsers, suites, and toolbars, but each requires something not included in the package.
That something is parental involvement.
Increase Your Knowledge
Internet safety is more about knowledge of the pitfalls and coming along side children instead of waging a war of prevention. Each of the tools already mentioned require downloading, installing, setup, and monitoring.
That said, they lull parents into a false sense of security. They make us tend to set and forget, and hope for the best. What can we do to step out off attrition mode?
Get safety smart and get involved.
Get Safety Smart … Get Involved
So what’s a parent to do to get educated and take part?
I recommend play! You can have a good time and learn a bit at the same time, so dig in!
Get an account on your kid’s favorite network – (let’s take Faceboook for example, very popular these days)
Step 1: Set up your profile
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Don’t share your birthdate – real friends will know, for the rest it doesn’t matter
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Don’t share your phone number – again, your real life friends should already have this
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Leave the address information blank – it adds no value, and those that need to know do
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Leave the Political views blank – not only do your friends know, this is a magnet for trouble
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Religious views – this is a safe one to fill in – but realize this won’t ward off folks of opposite beliefs
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Instant message – leave it blank to start with
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Work and college info – leave it blank – this is not picked up on by Facebook except for ads – there is no automatic connection with others involved
A little more common sense about our profile
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What is in your profile is visible and searchable by others, at least in part?
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When you make someone a contact, they have much higher access to your profile information.
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Leaving fields blank isn’t dishonest. (Don’t be trapped into the myth that only predators keep information private)
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Anything shared with your profile that’s public is not only searchable, but likely to be permanently available in Internet archives.
More… »
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Posted June 14th, 2009 by Vicky H in Guests, Productivity, Quality Time, Technology
Featured Guest Article
by Chris Garrett
One of the reasons I love the work that I do is that it helps me be closer to my family.
As with most people who run their own business, there are pressures and challenges involved that can work against family life, especially if you are not careful, but over all when talking to other parents I feel blessed that I can now work in a way that allows me all the family benefits that we enjoy.
I have gone from a job that I found frustrating, working for a marketing agency, a traditional commuting and office job, to having my own consulting business, running online courses, writing, running sites for income such as http://creditcardmatcher.com and blogging with friends on sites like http://promotions.co.uk/blog or for companies like http://cogniview.com – the transition was not easy but well worth the effort and I now love my work.
The best part is as well as being happier in myself, which is always a key ingredient in the recipe for better family life, I now get to see my family more often, in more quality ways.
Some of the ways technology helps me …
1) Time – my time is more productively spent.
The biggest example is sales, or rather the removal of a need to do any sales. Where before I would have to write proposals, travel down to London to pitch, present my pitch, then travel back, now I do not need to do any of that. Customers come to me via the internet, and 99% of them I have never met in person. This is a massive time saving. Just the train journey to London is over two hours one way, when it is on time. By car it is nearly four.
Of course I still travel, but I choose when and how, and it is never to pitch or sell. More… »
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Posted June 3rd, 2009 by Vicky H in Communication, Fun Stuff, Guests, Quality Time
Featured Guest Article
by Anita Bruzzese
 Christmas Card vs |
 Family Newsletter |
Several years ago a bit of a tiff started in newspaper advice columns regarding family newsletters.
On one side were the people who said something like: “I’m sick of getting these ‘updates’ that are nothing more than a chance for people to brag about how wonderful their perfect children are and what awards they’ve won.”
Who cares?!
On the other side were the folks who said they looked forward to the missives, and they didn’t even care if a little bragging was involved. “It’s a chance to stay connected,” these people argued. “It’s nothing to be mad about.”
“In every conceivable manner, the family is link to our past, bridge to our future. ” — Alex Haley
The Doubt
As someone who faithfully sends a family newsletter every year, I worried.
What were my family and friends saying about me?
Was my newsletter something to be reviled and chucked in the recycling bin after they blew their nose on it?
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