How on earth is it December already?

Well, maybe not December quite yet, but still, this year has absolutely flown by and time shows no sign of slowing down for me.  As may be apparent from the length of time from my last post, I have been busy.  No progress this year on the charitable front, and a bit of a stall in the development of my kids' education in all things financial.  As much as I hate resolutions in January, there is going to be some goal setting going on over the next 30 days, and more than a couple of them will relate to this project, as well as the kids' continued education.

All of that aside, I am taking the time this weekend to try and establish a different kind of Black Friday tradition.  Rather than shopping, how about we take some action on something that will improve our financial well being in the coming year?  Great idea for all of us, and it may be a simple thing like ditching the Starbucks one day per week.  For my daughter it is the launch of her own real life debit card.  For me it is an evaluation of how much we spent last year on her activities, and what changes, if any, we should make for next year. 

One change that will be made is that rather than her allowance simply creeping up the $1 per week that it has historically, we will now be making her responsible for a portion of the previously mentioned activities.  Over the next 30 days we will set the annual budget as well as the amount that she will be responsible for as a percentage.  From there it is time to work with her on budgeting.  Timing and amount of expenses will be discussed, as well as the mechanisms to employ to deal with the larger expenses that may happen before the entire budgeted amount has been set aside.  Easily done if there is a solid foundation, a bit of problem if she is living paycheck to paycheck, so to speak.

Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks!