From the category archives:

Kids and Money

Should Americans with No Kids Be Able “Opt-Out” of School Taxes?

I was at a family gathering this summer and the usual topic of complaining about the ineptitude of local government officials and school boards came up. That then led to older participants questioning what their tax dollars were being used for and why they’re even paying school taxes to begin with. It led to an […]

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Tutoring Gone Wild in America

While I always knew tutors existed and my wife even considered doing it for some time since she was a teacher before opting to stay home with the kids, I didn’t realize the extent to which tutoring and costly tutoring at that, occurs in America. There was a NYTimes article this weekend outlining not only […]

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For-Profit College Scams – Really Think Before Enrolling

The GAO released a damning study of the for-profit college industry which showed outright lying and deceptive tactics by personnel in order to dupe prospective students into enrolling in their programs when it was questionable as to whether doing so was in their best interest. Many of the personnel used high pressure sales tactics and […]

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401K Match: Is This Employee Perk Going Away or Coming Back?

The 401(k) match has been something employees like myself just took for granted for decades now. While the benefit varies company to company, the conventional wisdom had always been to make sure you contribute at least enough to max out the company match since it’s free money. In essence, if your company provides a 50% […]

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Why Your Kid’s KinderGarten Teacher is Worth $320,000

There have been some rather controversial yet entertaining posts on teacher pay in the PF blogger world of late. First, Evan at MTJM threw some fuel on the fire by venting about Why Teachers Anger Him. Well, with my wife being a teacher and seeing first hand the various myths and misunderstandings about teachers, work […]

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Harvesting Our Own Food for Health, Fun and Savings

This weekend, the family went strawberry picking at a local organic farm. We also started a small garden last week at home. While eating organic, local farming, home gardening, sustainable foot, etc. seem like trendy fads these days, we’ve been giving these ideas a try and we like the experience and the results. How to […]

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Simple but Important Calculation: How Much Should You Have Saved for College Today?

While not all parents agree on which type of college their kids should attend, how much of the cost they should front, or whether a college degree is even worth the immense upfront expenditure at all, what is virtually unanimous is that given recent trends in tuition it’s a terribly expensive undertaking that will likely […]

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Is Putting in a Swimming Pool Worth It?

It’s that time of year again where the weather’s getting nice and the pool parties are starting. We just went to our first one of the year and as always, my wife says, “Boy the kids would love a pool. We have the room. Would it be crazy if we did a pool?” In years […]

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The Hidden Cost of Staying Home with the Kids

Whether or not to stay home instead of working often comes down to money. Often times it doesn’t, and mom would really just rather be working, but for many families, mom would love to stay home but the numbers don’t work for varying reasons and they go back to work after maternity leave is up. […]

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