Kids Ain't Cheap

But They Sure Are Worth It

Archives for August 2014

3 Creative Ways to Save for Your Child’s College Education

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saving for collegeWhen my child was only five weeks old we opened a registered education savings account for her.

Neither my husband or I had any financial help for our education from our parents and ended up taking on significant debt to pay for it. While our intentions are not to pay for everything she may need for post secondary education we will be saving and contributing to it somewhat.

What we save is what she will have at her disposal, we won’t be compromising our own financial goals to pay for her education but that doesn’t mean we won’t still be able to contribute a decent chunk of money towards her savings. It just means we have to get creative.

Here are three ways we’re saving for our daughters college education.

Ask For Money

Given that she is the first child born into the family in quite some time, she is well taken care of.

People love to buy her little gifts and shower her with affection. There is very little she actually needs as so we have made it very clear that especially while she is still so young and doesn’t know, that rather than people giving her unnecessary toys or gifts, that they contribute to her post secondary fund instead.

We would rather the $10-$20 invested and gaining compound interest for the next 16-18 years than a toy she will play with for a few days before it gets lost in the shuffle. While some people aren’t comfortable with giving money (and that’s fine) most people are more than happy to not worry about what to get her and hand us a little cash to deposit on her behalf. This saves mom and dad on toy space and helps contribute to one of the best gifts she’ll ever receive, a good education.

Sell Their Stuff

Some things we’re holding onto for potential future children but other stuff we plan on selling. We just don’t have the room to store every item of clothing or every toy that enters our house. Given that these things were purchased for her, the money made from the sale should be reinvested into her. In our case we will be putting monies gained from selling her stuff into her education fund.

Have Them Save Their Own Money

While she’s so young we obviously manage her money now but in the not so distant future she will be managing her own. Birthday gifts, babysitting money and part-time jobs will give her a cashflow she will need to manage herself (with our guidance obviously).

Once she starts being responsible for her own money it will be important that she starts saving for things she wants, especially her education. We will teach her the importance of helping save towards her own goals, even if they seem impossibly far away. While she’s a kid living under our roof there will be very little that she will need so it will be expected that most of her money go into savings. I’m confident she will thank us on her graduation day!

Though not every kid pursues post secondary education it is money that needs to be in place in case they do because it can be a very costly venture if there are no funds in place, trust me, I know.

How to Find a Decent Job

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decent jobYou found yourself unsettled, whose fault is this?

You are unemployed and in vain for quite a long time tried to find the job that would satisfy at least some of your needs. Don’t think that this is your fault, you’re not the only one. The situation on labor market remains unstable and fluent. And these days the level of unemployment remains high and tends to grow. It doesn’t mean that the state ceased to need qualified specialists or simply working force. The current economic and social situation dictates new rules of labor relationships that lead to massive turnover due to failed adaptation. Today one must be flexible and alert to keep one’s place and rely mostly on own recourses. Here comes the age of individuality.

What to do to get out of unemployment.

Once you decided what you need in life you have to think about the ways to get it. To make stable your future first stable your present and clear all your demands. Check your abilities and opportunities to apply them in order to receive a deserving reward. Remember that your place of occupation must not only implement your talents and bring sufficient income but also describe you as a person. This is the right way to be satisfied with what you do and experience personal growth not constant fatigue and yearning on the week-ends. If you agreed to less than you had planned soon you’ll have to search for another job and start all from the beginning.

Some vocations however are predisposed to professional fatigue and require long leaves and different encouraging such as travel expense benefit, meal allowances and many others. Among them the most popular are teaching and nursing. If you check nurse jobs in mass media and the Internet resources you’ll find that there is always fresh blood needed. Also you could find all RN nurse job vacancies on JobTonic, Indeed, Monster and other job search sites. Choosing this profession you must be ready for hard days and sleepless nights.

How to make it faster.

Try different ways while searching for a new occupation. Don’t rely on news-papers or bulletin boards only. Involve your personal contacts and make everybody know you’re in need of a suitable job vacancy they may accidentally come across. Browse the Internet, it gathered people with the same purposes all over the globe. On-line bulletin boards now offer huge data base. Most modern companies have own sites where post the information about vacancies you may be looking for. Improve your communicative skills and self-discipline while preparing for the interviews you are to be invited. And never give up, success always comes in the long run.

5 Smart Ways to Save on Back to School Supplies

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save on back to school suppliesIt’s hard to believe that we’re more than half way through August. Depending on where you live and the type of school system you’re in, kids may already be back to school but the majority of kids have a couple more weeks to enjoy before hitting the books again.

There is a local radio station trying to fundraise and gather a bunch of school supplies for local underprivileged children.

It’s funny, I always think about stuff like food and shelter but don’t often think about the necessity and cost involved with stuff like school supplies, after all it was something my mom always just took care of. The station has been quite successful and I’m glad too since having school supplies may be the key to getting out of poverty for some of these kids. There’s no doubt that proper school supplies are expensive but there are, like most things, way to save.

Reuse

I used to beg my mom for a new zipper closed binder every year and most times she’d say no since there was nothing wrong with my old one. Since she was buying I didn’t have much room for argument but she was right. If there is something that can be reused (zipper binders, book bags, math sets) do it! If you take care of your stuff there’s no need to re-buy everything each year.

Buy Used

At least this is the case with post-secondary kids. There is often no need to buy brand new text books. I never had any issue (in two university degrees) buying used books. Unless the texts were changed entirely, and they rarely are, I could always get away with using an edition one to two years old, the profs often giving the readings to multiple editions for this very reason.

Stock Up

If there’s a really great sale on an item you’ll know you’ll use (like paper and pens) stock up for a few years. I remember one year packages of loose-leaf paper were on sale for $0.09 with no limit. My mom bought enough for almost four years’ worth of education for my sister and I. Obviously this is space limited for certain items.

Shop the Sales

Pay attention to local sales and shop around. A lot of larger box stores will not only price match but beat by 5-10% with can add up to a large savings in the long run especially if you have more than one kid!

Buy Year Round

For things like school clothes, though there are good sales late summer pending fall return to school, I find the best sales for clothes to be after Christmas. Though this is often an expensive time of year anyway, if you can, it may save you money for upcoming school years to buy clothes then instead of August/September.

School definitely isn’t free, there are plenty of costs involved from supplies, clothes and projects year-round. If you have time to properly plan what, when and where you’ll buy certain things though, it could save you a ton of money!

Is Private School Worth the Cost?

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private school costsA lady I work with is paying for her daughter to go through an elite Catholic private school in the city. The other day at lunch she was telling me how stressed her and her husband were about now discussing paying for post secondary education.

Apparently the daughter announced that she was looking more closely at an expensive university in our nations capital, tens of thousands of kilometers away. The parents assumed she’d always stay close to home and live with them until university was finished, moving was never in the question.

I tried to remind her that she could still potentially get scholarships (she’s only in grade 11) or, worst case, get a student loan. Mom was appalled I had even suggested a loan. When I asked why, she said it was her ”duty” as a mother to provide 100% for her child, all education included. She would work full-time until she was 80 if it meant that her kid finished any and all post secondary debt-free. This, after paying $12,000 per year for the last 12 years for the private school.

While I agree that yes, it is a parents responsibility to provide for their child to the best of their abilities I am of the opinion that private school is a luxury and if my child choose to pursue a post secondary education beyond what my husband and I could help her with, then she’d be on her own to figure out the difference.

Private School Considerations

Our daughter is only two. We’re not yet thinking too much about where she will attend primary education, but I still think about whether or not we will enroll her in private school or public school. If we enroll her in private school there are many things to consider:

  • Arguable that she would get a better education and have a much more ”fun” time while in school since private schools have opportunities that public schools may not. However, both my husband and I, along with many of our friends who attended pubic school, had a very positive experience and many of us are quite successful. I have to wonder if, with our daughter growing up in an environment catered to nurturing her education, she would gain that much more in educational experience?
  • There’s the $12,000++ tuition every year for private school that, while a tax deduction for us parents, in my opinion may be much better used invested for post secondary opportunities (FYI: we already save monthly in a registered investment savings for post secondary for her). We could use the $1,000/month in many beneficial ways for our daughter in terms of extracurricular activities, travel, educational experiences as a family rather than for one member of the family.
  • Could be argued that if she is successful in private school, she may have more scholarship opportunities, combined with the arguable better education, may not need any savings from mom and dad.
  • Both private schools in the city are pretty far from where we would ever live and we’d need to deal with the expense of getting her to school everyday (gas, bridge tolls etc) in today’s dollars, based on our current location, would cost about $100 more per month in travel.

I’m leaning more towards public school and allocating a large portion of ”would be private school money” to other things for kiddo.

We couldn’t afford private school as well as many extracurricular activities. Both my husband and I will be very involved with her schooling, there’s no doubt she will be successful wherever she goes but we need to do what’s best for the family. If we have more than one child we certainly couldn’t afford two kids in private school, which is a whole other issue.

Did you/will your kids go to private school? Was it ”worth” it?

The Importance of Reading to Your Child

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reading to your childWhen we were in the hospital after I delivered my daughter one of the things that was given to us was a cloth bag with a few children’s books in it. When I asked what it was she explained that the hospital gave out this package to all new families as a way to encourage early reading. I thought it was crazy that they would need to even need to implement such a program (thinking about the cost of the program) but the program coordinator was the first to open my eyes to the growing issue of children simply not being exposed to books anymore.

Reading in the Digital Age

Kids aren’t getting read to, out loud, as much anymore. With the growing use of electronics especially, digital programs are replacing time with mom and dad and reading good old fashion books. Most pediatric societies argue children should have zero screen time until at least age two, some even older citing kids should have zero screen time until the age of five to seven. Screen time including television, computers and all other electronic devices.

While I do agree that screen time should be seriously limited, my daughter, being two years old is allowed to watch an episode or two of her favorite show. Where I draw the line though is introducing her to a computer or tablet device, especially to replace time she reads books.

Reading Aloud – The Old Way

My house is overrun with children’s books. We have hundreds of them, and it drives me crazy sometimes but listening to my just two year old run around the house yelling her ABC’s at the top of her little (ok, not so little) lungs makes me happy and reminds me why we have so many books.

We started reading to her as part of her daily routine which we implemented from a very young age. While she was really young, and not so active and on-the-go, we would read and look at books all day long, I mean what else could she do?! Now that she’s a very active toddler and outside playing and with other kids, we still set aside time to read every day.

She gets quiet time and books at a minimum before her nap and bedtime which, given how busy we are, is more than sufficient for me and much more than most kids are getting unfortunately. In a recent study, parents who did not read to their children on a regular basis (almost 50% of children by the way) cited not having enough time in the day to do it. To which I argue my husband and I both work full-time, have other responsibilities and side jobs, there is no way I could ever justify not having five to ten minutes a day to read to my child.

I’m not totally hating on technology but studies have shown that reading (old school) books out loud with pictures and words develops children much more than any electronic. Children who are read aloud to every day are stronger academically and have a much broader vocabulary. Benefits aside, I wouldn’t trade my evening reading and cuddle time for anything in the world, it’s my favorite part of our day!

For more on reading, and how to make sure you spend the best time with your children doing so, check out these great articles.

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library Wants To Give Your Child a Free Book Every Month
A Fun and Economical Way to Get Kids Interested in Reading: Comic Books
Here are 8 of the Best Kids Books On Audible
4 Best Mini-Safes to Protect Valuable Comic Books

Do you read aloud to your children?