Teaching kids about money.... (how to handle it, and hopefully how to save)

A while ago I wrote a BLOG post describing how my wife Cheryl and I tried to teach our kids the value of saving...and how to put money away for later purchases. (or a rainy day)

The idea was to make them see the value of saving, and the value of interest paid for doing so.....I just had to exagerate the interest so that they would "see" how it works in a short time.....vs over 20 years.

Well, there are plenty of other aspects of handling money that we need to teach our kids....and I remembered that when I read this article that was written to explain just that.

But let me say this about all of that.....I truly believe that money is but a tool. We must not let it rule us.....but we MUST rule it, or at least respect the place it has in our society. (and take responsibility for ourselves)

My dad used to say, "Money doesn't make the world go around, but it sure greases the wheel." I believe that, and it means we at least have to make it a part of our sphere of responsibility. We don't want to worship it, but need to take responsible of it in our lives.

So teaching our kids about it is important if we ever expect them to do the same.

Slow and Steady wins the race? (didn't I post about this before?? :-)

I was reading through by list of finance BLOGS when I came across this one....and I have to day I was very pleased to read it.

First of all. most people are doom and gloomers....and I guess I'm also not at the top of the heap of positive people when you start talking about our economy...the exporting of jobs....and the value of our currency......but there are bright spots all around that we should be able to point to.

I was shocked to see this article suggest that 1 out of 3 people in the USA are Millionaires....that is, they have a net worth above $1,000,000. That's outstanding....and it is even more interesting to see that these people did it "the old fashioned way"....they "SAVED" it.

No venture capital start-ups.....no gambling in Vegas......no leveraged stock buys......just spend less than you make and invest the surplus "for a rainy day".

This actually makes perfect sense when you consider another statistic......did you know that the great depression of 1929 only had unemployment rates of about 25%. Now that's high for sure, but given what you read about times back then and all the rationing and shortages that were in existance.....a full 75% of the families were working. (Though I am not sure that tracked "underemployment" as they might today.)

But then if you read other BLOGS like this one and then this one that describe the workings of the 1929 depression, you will note that they talk about the great disparity of income and net worth that further caused problems. Apparently wages increased 9% in the 10 years after 1929, but that incease was not across the board, but heavily skewed toward those making more. (the top 1% wage earner made a 75% increase while the average factory worker only 8% while their productivity increased 32% for the same period)

So what to do you ask? I guess the first thing......stay out of the debt snare. What to do with savings....this is the $64,000 question, isn't it.

Cool Approach to Creating Demand Solar Energy Use through Lowering the Cost of Entry!

I went to a local Home Show today in Manchester, NH and I came across a cool is company called CitizenRE, at the website http://www.jointhesolution.com

They take the up-front cost of solar energy and make it go away! They do this by essentially leasing the solution to you....but with a very interesting wrinkle...they calculate your average power usage, design a system to meet that average daily load exactly, and then install the system for FREE (no purchase or installation cost)...all you have to do is sign a 25 year lease to them for the exact amount of your average monthly energy bill.

This is kind of cool because your energy bills then remain constant for the next 25 years....which a actually a great deal, unless you think energy costs are going to go down. (Which I suppose they could....but I doubt it given the rate of energy growth world is currently has and the amount of energy we import into the USA.) If energy costs continue to rise at least at the rate of inflation, then the system will actually be "saving" you significant money in a few years....and the unit is transferable to the next owner so it will actually raise the value of your home!

Another great aspect of all this, the CitizenRE company takes care of all maintenance and repair! (as part of your lease)

The company itself is very vertically integrated with the company incorporated in Delaware, the hardware design happening in Cambridge Ma, and their solar array assembly plant being constructed in Maryland.

Their system is also quite simplified as well with what they call an inverter-less design. Ok, it isn't actually sans-inverter....the inverter is integrated into the solar panel itself...so when you add arrays, you automatically add exact matching inverter capacity....it all scales perfectly! (and there are no batteries because it relies on net-metering laws to run the meter backwards when you have a surplus of energy being made)

But this means you need to have a good Net-metering law in your state to make this interesting.....but they have a page on their site that talk about those laws in all 50 states.