Have you heard about my personal mission?

It is my personal mission to help as many kids and teens as possible to grow up to be financially healthy adults.

To accomplish my mission, I need your help! Here are 3 simple steps:

1. Please Take My Survey. It only has 5 questions and your answers will be kept confidential. I will use your feedback to help me develop more great programs for Financial Coach for Kids and Teens.

2. Look for my new Newsletter. You can be added to my mailing list by entering your email in the right hand corner on the blog. I promise the emails will not jam your inbox but instead they will be filled with timely information and special discounts. And, you can unsubscribe at any time at the bottom of the emails (no hard feelings).

3. Please share my blog with your friends and family. You can LIKE my Facebook fan page here. And I would love for you to comment on my weekly posts with your own stories or tips. We can all learn from each other.

Thanks for helping me make my personal mission a reality.

Boot Camp for Me

I attended a Boot Camp last week. No, it was not an exercise camp (although that’s much needed). It was a financial boot camp for educators! It was sponsored by the NJ Coalition for Financial Education (NJCFE).

It was a very interesting two days for me. First, I was the only “non-teacher” in attendance. I discovered that for a large majority of the teachers, they were going to be teaching personal finance for the first time this fall. This Boot Camp was their primary training on “personal finance” curriculum.

Did you know that the New Jersey State Board of Education added “at least 2.5 credits in financial, economic, business, and entrepreneurial literacy, effective with the 2010-2011 grade nine class” as a requirement for graduation?

While this is an admirable policy (and a much needed life skill), a few of the teachers I spoke to at the Boot Camp felt like the requirements for students to graduate are becoming overwhelming. Some teachers spoke about all the other pressures of AP classes, standardized tests, and extracurricular activities such as sports, jobs or volunteering.

The good news is that the Boot Camp was informative and full of resources for the teachers to develop great curriculum on financial literacy. I plan to incorporate many of the materials into my workshops.

Teaching a financial literacy course in school, while a great start, it is not enough. As parents, you need to continue the financial conversation with your kids and teens. They need real world examples and they need to have their own financial experiences.

I am committed to helping you, as parents, to help your kids and teens. My blog is full of useful tips and lessons with links to other excellent resources for you as you teach your children to become financial responsible adults.

Starting this fall, look for my line-up of new workshops and my eBook launch, 5 Steps to a Successful Allowance Program.

Economics 101 - for teens!

Over at Kent Place School in Summit NJ, the students who took AP Economics will continue their work over the summer. Why, you ask? Because it’s fun! Economics, fun? It is when your teacher is Elaine Schwartz, AP Economics professor and author, and you help her run a website called ECONLIFE.com!

I guess I should disclose that I was an economics major in college, but that aside, this website is a fantastic way to get your teens interested in economics. A daily Blog relates a current news story to an economic lesson.  The Pulse gives readers a chance to rate what’s hot or not.  Each day, the students must find a news story and summarize in the Notes section.

ECONLIFE is a way for teens to see that economics is a dynamic social science. Students work with their amazing teacher to connect economics to everyday life, current news and history. Check out the Tools page where there are many links for your teens to further their new found interest in economics.

Let me relate this website about economics to my mission to teach kids and teens to become financially responsible adults.

If you look up the definition of economics in the MerriamWebster on-line dictionary, it says:

Economics: a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services.

This means that your kids and teens are practicing economics when they are making decisions on what to buy with their allowance or hard-earned summer job money. As a parent, you can help teach them about trade-offs and learning to live within their means.

Now that’s an economic lesson for all of us!

Money Tunes

It’s the unofficial start of summer so let’s have some fun and sing songs about money. Here’s a list to get you started:

Can’t Buy Me Love by The Beatles

Money by Pink Floyd

Money, Money from Cabaret (“Money makes the world go around…”)

Money for Nothing by Dire Straits

Material Girl by Madonna

She Works Hard for the Money by Donna Summer

Take the Money and Run by The Steve Miller Band

Tax Man by The Beatles

Money Can’t Buy It by Annie Lennox

Independent Women by Destiny’s Child

Money, Money, Money by ABBA

And…when I search on iTunes for titles with the word “money” – there are 50 separate selections to download!

Don’t see your favorite? Please add your fave money tune to the comments!

I am a Guest Blogger, too!

Check out my posting, Getting Energized, as a guest blogger on Bound 4 College. It is a great blog about parenting your college bound teenager.

Don't forget...let me know if you would like to be a guest blogger for my blog!

Spring Cleaning

Happy Spring! We are finally getting some nice spring-like weather and just in time. I am ready for some May flowers and some spring cleaning!

This is the time of year of renewal. With that in mind, I wanted to take the time refresh my blog with a couple of ideas. And I need your help.

Make Your Comments:  I would like to move my blog to be more of a conversation…a place where you can ask questions. I welcome your comments to my posts. Please feel free to add your thoughts and comments to a posting that strikes home to you.

Survey Says: I am looking for your input on topics that you want to hear about. What areas do you want to know more about? Would you like more age targeted information? More parent tools?

Success Stories: I am always looking for a Success Story. Do you have your own Success Story?  If so, I’d like to feature you in a future “Success Story” posting. Tell me what you have done to help your kids and teens become financially responsible. I am interested in all your stories. It can be a small story or an amazing experience.

Guest Blogger: Would you like to be a guest blogger? It’s your turn to write a post about your experience teaching your kids and teens about financial responsibility. Maybe your child or your teen would like to write a post about their experiences learning how to manage their money.

I look forward to your comments, ideas and success stories! And who will be my first guest blogger??

April Showers Bring…Financial Literacy Month!

President Obama has issued a Presidential Proclamation that April 2011 will be National Financial Literacy Month. He calls “upon all Americans to observe this month with programs and activities to improve their understanding of financial principles and practices.”

It is terrific that our government has designated a month for financial literacy however we should inspire to make financial literacy an on-going educational activity. I am proud that I have chosen to focus my career on helping our kids, teens and young adults become financially literate.

So, in support of National Financial Literacy Month, here are some websites that have great educational information for parents and their children:

Charles Schwab’s Money Wise
Jump$tart Coalition has Financial Smarts for Children
ING has Planet Orange
Northwestern Mutual’s The Mint
American Institute of CPAs has 360Degrees of Financial Literacy
US Government has My Money and Consumer Finance

My best advice to celebrate National Literacy Month:  Please start an allowance program for your kids and teens. I’d love to hear about your allowance success stories both big and small so please share them with me by posting a comment!

May April "shower" you and your family with newfound financial knowledge!

I am on the Radio...next is a Music Video!

Seriously, I AM on the radio...Blog Talk Radio! I was interviewed by Catherine Morgan, Transition and Life Coach of Point A to Point B Transitions Inc.

Check it out:

Listen to internet radio with PointAtoPointB on Blog Talk Radio

Catherine has been an amazing coach for me as I relaunch my business. She has been instrumental in getting me to focus my ideas...as well as keeping me motivated on a daily basis.

You might be wondering why I am "relaunching" my business. I founded GGC Ventures (the official name) in 2004 with my workshops and personal coaching. However, "Life Happens" and I took a detour back to the financial planning industry. Over this last year I began to think about what I enjoyed most about my career in the financial world and how I could help others. After some careful and deliberate thought, I decided to relaunch my business to focus on helping kids and teens become financially responsible.

Check out the Pages at the top of the blog for more information on my Workshops, Personal Coaching and School Workshops.

Enjoy the Blog Talk Radio interview.

As for that Music Video...don't expect that anytime soon!!