preparing "long term" for the new economy we live in ?

[Melinda29]

Originally Posted by ulawolf I guess we try to go back to the way my grand parents lived. We teach all of our kids from a young, age to do for themselves. They all learn to sew, cook from scratch, change oil, basic handy man fixes. They learn about financial independence from an early age. They learn debt is saved for a house not credit cards. We teach then to save fire wyatt they want instead of buying on credit. We make then save half their bday and any earned $ from baby hood (we save for them). I feel this is something that I can give my kids. I think economy is such that financial awareness and tools for that are becoming top priority.

This.

In addition to life skills, we are making them take Dave Ramsey in high school. We start doing chores at age 2 and they earn their spending, saving, and giving money. We save their birthday money until they have their own baby emergency funds, then save 10% of it after that.

[Melinda29]

Originally Posted by srw.mutter The best thing my parents did for me (who are still alive and live in the suburbs, so no inheritance and no land) is pay for college. They borrowed most of the money in the form of parent loans (or they paid my student loans). This allowed me to graduate without debt and not start off my adult life already "indebted". I look at my peers and see what crushing debt does to people emotionally, physically, etc. College not only gave me the education to get a good job, but without debt, it gave me the opportunity, which I took, to stay home with my son/future kids. With debt, I know I would have pressure from all sides (including from myself) to get a job to contribute to the family income Yes, we live very frugally, but I love my life, and would not have had the opportunity to live comfortably this way without being school-debt free. This is what I will do for my kids (and save enough so that I as a parent don't go into debt). They can then start their adult lives with a good education and not be in the red from the very beginning.

And this. My parents and DH's parents did the same thing, paid for college with the agreement that we could keep whatever was left AFTER the bachelor's degrees were earned. We could "earn" the extra money by working hard in high school for scholarships amd such. We both graduated with money leftover, enough to put DH thru grad school AND a down payment on a house. Our parents also bought us each a nice, cheap car in college that DH still drives (and I drove mine for 10 years). Starting adulthood with a good education, a vehicle, and no debt was the best "inheritance" we could ever have receieved.

They also made us take Dave Ramsey when engaged. Best wedding gift ever

[Melinda29]

It is very generous of you to want to help out your kids.

I would strongly discourage setting up a family business or partnership with the plan for your kids to work in the business in the future. Aside from the fact that they may not WANT to do that kind of work as adults, being in business with family or friends is almost guaranteed to damage their personal relationship. It also hurts your pride as an adult to have your parents trying to do SO much for you.

I say this as someone whose parents set up a family business partnership for me and my siblings. I appreciate the gesture, but I wish more than anything I could get out of it. Two of my three siblings feel the same. Unless we can get our brother to agree, we are just stuck

I wish they had just given us each a piece of farmground instead, and taught us how to manage it. That would "live on" into the future, but we could each manage our piece independent of our siblings.

[jesajane]

Originally Posted by ulawolf I live within five miles of most of my family and dhs. it is awesome and horrible all at once.

This is so funny and I completely relate.

[specialdelivery]

I think it is amazingly sweet and generous of you to think of your kids's future in that way. You obviously have put quite a bit of thought into this. I will say that I have been very blessed by my family. I graduated from 5 years of undergraduate work with no student loans. For 3 of those five years I worked 30-35 hours per week. It was not enough to cover all the bills, but my parent's made sure I always had enough money in my account to cover my needs and a few of my wants.

Since I wasn't paying off loans and had learned from my parent show to live within my means, I was able to save a portion of my income right out of college. I bought my first home as a single teacher at the age of 25.

I will add that I will eventually also receive an inheritance. Part of it will be an incorporated farming business that my grandparents built. I was just telling dh that I need to get on the ball and start asking a zillion questions now about running it so when the time comes I'll be prepared. I am ever so grateful to have it in my future and I want to make sure it will be there to pass onto my kids as well. As much as I would love to move back home and be closer to my parent's and the farm, it's not in the cards. As a pp mentioned, I feel guilty that there is both land and property (my childhood home) waiting there for me, but that isn't somewhere my dh will ever move to. It is amazing to know though that if something were to happen with where we are (dh's childhood home) we still have options.

[ulawolf]

Originally Posted by jesajane This is so funny and I completely relate.

lol it is. you know it really is wonderful except I swear every time we dtd one of our parents are for sure going to try too stop by . We dtd every day at different times depending on kids schedules., it's like living at home trying to sneak your bf in

[pgkcb13]

Originally Posted by ulawolf I guess we try to go back to the way my grand parents lived. We teach all of our kids from a young, age to do for themselves. They all learn to sew, cook from scratch, change oil, basic handy man fixes. They learn about financial independence from an early age. They learn debt is saved for a house not credit cards. We teach then to save fire wyatt they want instead of buying on credit. We make then save half their bday and any earned $ from baby hood (we save for them). I feel this is something that I can give my kids. I think economy is such that financial awareness and tools for that are becoming top priority.

I <3 this. I think that teaching them to be self sufficient is absolutely the best thing you could offer them. I mean, if my parents had taught me that I can't imagine how things would be different!

We also save for them, we deposit their birthday/christmas money for them and anything else gets put in their piggy bank. Once a year we split it into thirds- 1 part for charity, 1 part for savings and 1 part to spend. ODD has loved picking out a charity to donate to. We also put a small amount into each child's account each month. It's nothing huge, and it's not college savings. It's money they can use when they become an adult, to help buy a car or house, to help start a business, to go to school, whatever it is they need to get started in the life they want.

I also agree with those who say it's important to plan for yourself (retirement). We have friends who have been putting off having kids for years now because they are saving up to support her parents. They spend like money is going out of style, just bought this huge 6 bedroom house for the two of them. Apparently they seem to think the government is going to give them whatever they need to pay their bills when they retire. No matter how many times my friends have tried to explain differently or talked to them about it. I know it causes them a huge amount of stress. I also worry about my parents since my mom doesn't have any retirement saved up and my dad is the 'bread winner' working at safeway... and my mom's a shopaholic...

Anyway, I guess my point is, our hope is to teach our kids to be as self sufficient as possible, and part of that is good modeling (hence our push to get out of debt while they're young!). I think that will go a long way towards setting them up for a bright future.

Now if we had money laying around I'd love to buy a huge chunk of land! 'Family land' is a concept I've always loved

[happiness]

We would like to contribute to college, but we won't have a savings plan. Just not in the budget and with 3 kids and possibly more to come I am not sure how to divide out funds for that. We will encourage them to pick a state school, community, or live at home during college to save money. I still have 7/9 years left on my student loans, a balance of about 35K. What we really want to do is have no debt and own a free and clear home by the time our children are adults.