Most parents just want to see their children be successful, but unfortunately that can turn into power struggles when it comes to career choices. Although your life is ultimately your decision, it is often hard for parents to stay out of the decision, since many parents help pay for college. They want to see that their money wasn’t wasted. Telling your parents that you’d going to avoid the job search and instead be a freelancer can be daunting.
My parents are supportive, and proud that I can make a living as a writer. That’s not to say that they weren’t nervous …read more

How much work would you have to do in order to pay for your stuff?

Would you let your child help you fix your family finances?

July 4th is among the most frugal of holidays.

Parents are starting to feel a greater pinch as more and more college graduates join the “boomerang” generation . The recession, along with the natural inflation that comes with tuition and rent, are squeezing college students and post-grads, sending them back home to mom and dad. An email I received from IBISWorld highlights this growing reality:
“We can expect to see a surge in the boomerang generation
[ages 18-24]
returning home and continuing financial dependency on parents due to a scarce and competitive job market,” said Toon van Beeck, senior analyst at IBISWorld. “This phenomenon has become more apparent in recent years, …read more

Watch out for scams aimed at seniors.

Are you going on a staycation this summer?

The deposits you make into your family’s emotional bank accounts will never decrease by half.
Making your kids laugh always yields high returns.
You’ll never lose your job as father, sister, brother, mother, son, or daughter.
Encouraging words always hold their value.
Those who lived through the Great Depression and went on to rebuild America are, thanks to Tom Brokaw, now commonly described as the Greatest Generation. Whether or not you beleive that generation is truly better than any other generation, there’s no denying that hard times cause us to concentrate on those things that matter most.
Down at the yoga studio we say, it’s …read more

The McKinsey Quarterly reveals household consumption statistics in India in their article on “India’s Rising Middle Class Wants a Better Life“. Whenever someone complains that India, and other countries, are taking jobs away from the US via “virtual” business processes enabled by technology, I point out the inevitable rise in living standards that will result and the costs of doing business this way (miscommunication because of culture and language, technology, customer frustration/perception). The article shared this information on the changes forecast:

The composition of the spending patterns reveals the trend toward expecting to be paid more:
“…discretionary outlays (such as mobile phones) …read more