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When it comes to teaching children and young adults about managing money, most schools in the United States get a failing grade.

Without a formal national or statewide curriculum in place, learning to balance a checkbook registry is about as far as most schools go (if you’re lucky) in teaching our kids financial responsibility.

Parents must take proactive measures to ensure their kids have the money skills they need to lead prosperous (i.e. less financially stressful) lives.

By no means am I an expert in early childhood development, instead I’ll share what worked for me growing up, and what seems to be working as my wife and I raise our own kids.

Teaching Your Toddler about Money (Ages 1-3):

The Concept of Buying Things:

Young children seem to grasp the concept of “buying” things at an early stage. From thei

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By Jeff Apton

In today’s healthcare debate nobody seems to be talking much about the high cost of dentistry, or the lack of insurance coverage. Maybe you’re lucky and squeak by with a few cleanings and a filling here and there. For those who are not so lucky, the cost of dentistry can be devastating, with bills that can run up to $60,000. What can someone do who wants to keep their teeth but who does not want to empty their bank account (assuming they even have that money)?

One solution is “dental tourism,” the act of traveling out of the U.S. to receive quality care, save money and perhaps even make a vacation out of the experience.

The cost of dental care has about tripled in the past 20 years. For the 50% of Americans who have dental insurance, reimbursement is usually capped at about $1,500 a year, as it has been for decades. The 50%

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Credit cards are far from one size fits all and the big names in lending know it. That’s why they’ve devised each credit card to target a specific demographic and income level. Whether it’s so you can get the most rewards out of the credit card or it’s so the credit card companies can get the most profit from you is debatable. Either way, it’s interesting to see the vast differences between luxury credit cards and plastic for the poor, unemployed and possibly even bankrupt. Check out some of these outliers on either side of the spectrum.

Luxury Credit Cards for Big Wigs and High Rollers

The American Express Centurion (aka the Black AMEX)

Centurion, literally, means an officer in the Roman army. In other words, one of the most powerful individuals amidst one of the most powerful empires in history. And that’s exactly the message that the Black AMEX means to convey. This invite

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A visitor recently posted the following complaint about Advanta.  While I ordinarily don’t post single complaints as blog entries, this complaint is astounding.  Advanta, which went bankrupt and stopped issuing credit cards last year, has been increasing some interest rates to more than 30%.  Here’s one customer’s unenviable recounting of an Advanta credit card nightmare:

“I have perfect credit with a middle credit score of 755 as of 02/10/2010. In January the prior month I went over the due date on a payment by several days. About 7 days after the due date I logged into my account to make my payment and to my surprise they had changed my interest rate to 32.99% from 7.99%. I was furious as I had never been late or missed a payment. I called Advanta no less than a half dozen times and they also called me constantly. I explaine

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This article is part six of a series I’m writing explaining exactly how my family and I paid off over $90,000 of consumer debt in less than two years.

With only three debts remaining as of November 2004, my wife and I were thrilled with the progress we were making using the debt snowball method to repay all of our outstanding debt.

In the previous article, I explained how we paid off our final credit card and decided to hold off on our two remaining student loans (the next smallest balances in our debt snowball repayment schedule). 

Instead, we focused on paying off our higher interest automobile loan for the extra savings in interest (sorry Dave Ramsey). 

We “only” had $37,028 of debt remaining at this point (we started with $90,415), and our monthly expenses were going down (thanks to intense budgeting)  while our income was rising (lots of overtime).

There’s a Reason It’s Called a Debt Snowball:

The amazing thing about the debt snowball method is how efficiently it allows you to pay off your debt. Whenever I tri

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