Today's Parent | Parenting Resources… Articles, Advice, Help & Tips

According to a survey by Lawyers.com, only 51% of Americans have an estate plan in place.  Are you one of the statistics? Have you ever considered who would take care of your minor children if something happened to you?

This question scares most parents because they do not know or have not put it in writing.  Unless you have an estate plan in place and have named a guardian for your minor children, a judge will make that decision for you. While courts often appoint a relative or family friend, the court is not required to do so.  The court can appoint anyone it determines to be in the “best interest” of the child.   Is this what you want?   If not, it is extremely important you have an estate plan and name someone to act as guardian of the person as well as the property.

Another scary thought is in Florida, guardianships terminate at age 18 and all funds held in the guardianship are distributed outright to the child then.  Would you want your 18-year old to inherit money?  Most 18-year olds I know are not mature enough to handle funds responsibly.  Thus, the best solution would be to name a guardian of the person in your will (to make living, school, medical decisions) and create a trust for your children (to handle any funds they will inherit). If the trust is prepared and funded properly, a guardianship of the property might be avoided altogether.  The added benefit is it allows you to pick the person who will control the finances for your children and allows you to determine when the funds will be distributed to them.  A trust of this nature is easy to create with proper planning.

What is estate planning and why is it so important?

Estate planning is the process of arranging for the disposal of your assets at your death and deciding who will handle your affairs.  Your estate plan will also name a guardian who will care for your minor children if both natural parents are deceased.  Depending upon the size of your estate, it may also include some tax planning to help defer or avoid estate tax.  Estate planning also encompasses arranging your affairs in case you become incapacitated. Documents that provide who will make health care and financial decisions for you should always be part of your estate plan. Read More

There are three insurance policies that you need to check and verify the coverage on before your child heads off to college.

Health Insurance

It is extremely important that you verify that your insurance will cover medical care away from your home area and in the state that your child will be living as a student. Many out-of-area insurance companies restrict the services they will pay for away from home. It is best to inquire and ask specifically what services are covered by your insurance company prior to your child leaving for school.

Ask for a separate insurance card in the child’s name or letter stating that the child has coverage. Insurance cards should be considered as valuable as a credit card and any loss needs to be reported immediately. Monitor and look over your health insurance statements verifying their accuracy.

Many colleges and universities include a health insurance charge as part of a tuition bill. Opt out or you might be paying for insurance twice.

Car Insurance

If your child is taking a car to campus, you will want to check your auto insurance policy. Since the car will be in a new location for at least eight months of the year, this might make a difference in your premiums.

It is important that the company be notified of the new address where the car will be kept. Also inquire about “Good Student” auto-policy discounts for your child. Read More

Paying for college can be intimidating. Financial aid has its own language, including an alphabet soup of acronyms like FAFSA and EFC. It changes rapidly, with new programs and tweaks to old programs occurring every year. College tuition also continues to increase faster than the consumer inflation rate. Even financial aid professionals have trouble keeping track of it all. So what can a parent do to save money on college costs and avoid making a mistake that will ruin their child’s future?

Mark Kantrowitz, a nationally-recognized expert on student financial aid, student loans, scholarships and paying for college, provides ten tips about the most important steps parents should take to cut college costs. Mr. Kantrowitz is also the publisher of FinAid.org, the most popular free web site for clear and unbiased student aid information, advice and tools, and Fastweb.com, the largest and most frequently updated free scholarship matching web site.

1.  Save money in a 529 college savings plan. Start saving as soon as possible because your greatest asset is time. If you start saving at birth, about one third of your college savings goal will come from earnings, not contributions. If you wait until your child enters high school to start saving, about ten percent of the savings goal will come from earnings.

You can invest in any state’s 529 college savings plan, but 32 states and the District of Columbia provide a state income tax deduction for contributions to the state’s 529 plan. That’s like getting a discount on tuition equal to your marginal tax rate. (Some states require that you keep the money invested for a year before taking a distribution, since the state income tax deduction is based on contributions net of deductions.) If you start saving when your child is young, however, you should focus on the state 529 plan with the lowest fees. These are usually the 529 plans that are managed by Vanguard, TIAA-CREF and Fidelity. Also invest in the direct-sold version of the plan, not the adviser-sold version, as the fees are much lower. Use the age-based asset allocation within the 529 plan, as this will reduce the risk of losses as college approaches.

It is also cheaper to save than to borrow. If you save $200 a month for 10 years at 6.8% interest, you’ll accumulate about $34,400. If instead of saving, you borrow this amount, you’ll pay $396 a month for 10 years at 6.8% interest. The difference is that when you save, the interest is paid to you, while when you borrow, you pay the interest. So you can pay less after college by saving more money before college. Every penny helps. Read More

Parents want their children to have all the life skills they need to live happy and fulfilling lives. The current recession has brought our awareness of the lack of financial education in our society to the forefront. Managing money wisely should be an integral part of a child’s overall education, but it’s not included in the school curriculum. Because many parents feel inept at managing money themselves, they are uncomfortable teaching their children about it. Unfortunately, this often this leads to avoiding the topic completely and many children are never taught about money at all.

Take Action

For this generation of children, it is crucial that they develop financial independence in adulthood because in the future it is unlikely that there will be corporate pensions or government programs to take care of them. Our current economic situation clearly demonstrates that children with a strong financial background will have a big advantage in life. Parents don’t need to be financial experts to help their children learn about managing money, but they do need to take action. If parents can teach their children early on that true financial wealth is not about how much they earn but rather the choices they make with the money they earn, it will make a huge difference in the children’s lives.  Having the ability and willpower to make good decisions is crucial for success and developing good habits at a young age is much easier than after bad habits have set in. Read More

Some of my favorite childhood memories are from my family’s vacations. Every summer my parents, three siblings and I would load up the station wagon and set out on what always promised to be a bonding experience. As soon as we got back from one vacation, we would take steps to plan the next one. Because of the memorable times I had as a child on those trips, I made summer vacation a top priority as a parent, myself. Now if you were to ask my children about some of their favorite memories, it would probably be a story about one of our family trips.

Here are some tips on how to plan a great summer vacation:

Have a family meeting to decide what kind of vacation your family has in mind. There are many options: road trips, educational, beach resort, cruise — the list goes on. Get a consensus so that everyone feels that they had a say in what you decide to do.

Stay within a pre-determined budget. You don’t want to spend your whole vacation worrying about how you’re going to pay for it. Fortunately, there are some great vacation packages available. All-inclusive trips and cruises have the benefit of upfront costs, and they often include many extras. We have a vacation fund that we add to throughout the year so that the money is there when we are ready to go. Read More

Credit scores, loans, interest payments and budgets. … Most adults are familiar with these terms and what they mean. However, unless their parents have taken the time to discuss these key financial topics, many teens may not be as familiar.

Teaching teens about finances and how to make informed and responsible financial decisions is one of the most valuable lessons parents can provide — and an increasing number of moms and dads are taking steps to ensure that young adults develop financial discipline.

A recent study of high-school seniors conducted by the Jump$tart Coalition found they were able to correctly answer less than half of the financial literacy questions posed to them — a failing grade. This means that many young adults do not have the financial survival skills they need to succeed.

A new online guide, “Parents, Teens, and Money: A Clear and Simple Guide to Discussing Financial Responsibility,” offers interactive tools and resources to help parents engage their teens and guide discussions on a broad range of financial topics. The comprehensive guide, published by Chase Card Services and College Parents of America, is available at www.chaseclearandsimple.com and www.collegeparents.org. Read More

Five tips for combining work and leisure while on the road

When your job takes you away from home, bringing your family along may actually make good business sense. Combining work and pleasure not only helps keep the family together, but could save you money.

According to Travelocity, half of all business professionals include a leisure component in their work-related travels, with more than 70 percent planning to bring family with them on trips this year.

“The blended business/family trip is quickly becoming a significant trend,” said Dorothy Dowling, senior vice president of marketing for Best Western International. Read More

For parents with growing children, finding clothes they can wear that are comfortable, practical and will be worn on a day-to-day basis isn’t exactly child’s play. But it can be done if you remember there are some looks in kids’ fashion that never seem to go out of style. It is important to find those pieces and center the rest of your child’s wardrobe around them.

Happily, investing in key pieces for a growing child and learning what to do to maximize a child’s wardrobe can be both economical and satisfying. Here are some suggestions from the experts at Crazy 8, a children’s clothing manufacturer that offers an entire line of basics, seasonal and active wear to outfit kids every day from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Focus On Key Categories

Buy clothes in several key categories, including jeans, T-shirts, sneakers, pajamas, socks and weather-appropriate pieces for rainy days (a rain hat, rain jacket, galoshes), snowy days (a hat, jacket, snow pants, mittens, boots) and for a sunny summer day (a sun hat, T-shirt, shorts, sandals). Read More

Parents and students looking for help answering the confusing questions surrounding student loan financing now have an easy-to-use resource center to turn to for step-by-step guidance. The Smart Borrowing campaign, launched by The First Marblehead Corporation, offers information about the lowest-cost ways to finance a college education.

The campaign begins with www.smartborrowing.com, a Web site that serves as a “study guide” for anyone seeking to undertake a self-education in higher education financing. The site is divided into five sections that focus on smart financing moves: Read More

Parents always want the best for their children, and for parents of student athletes, helping their children navigate the recruitment process and gain a college athletic scholarship can be stressful. With recent stories about parents’ involvement in the process, such as young David Sills who was offered a scholarship to USC for 2015 due to the aid of his father and private quarterback coach, the question of how to balance supportive yet not too involved at the same time has come into question.

The country’s leading college athletic recruiting organization, National Collegiate Scouting Association (NCSA) has outlined eight tips for parents to follow to help them define their role in the recruitment process in the book, “Athletes Wanted”.

“Parents’ primary challenge is walking the fine line between guiding their student athlete through the process and becoming overbearing,” says founder of NCSA and author of “Athletes Wanted”, Chris Krause. Here are the golden rules for parents to help their children. Read More