Giving teens their own clothing budget changes the question from “Can I have it?” to “Is it worth spending my money on?”  gonghuimin468/Pixabay   Back in February I started a radical experiment…. I started giving my 14-year old twin girls a budget of $100/month each. They have to use that money to buy all of their clothes, shoes, accessories, make-up, skincare, and fancy toiletries (I buy the basics). I gave a one-month update back in March. But now that we’ve been doing this for much longer, I wanted to give an update and share how its going. There have been a few surprises! We never did a big “back to school” shopping haul.  This one surprised me! My girls are shoppers. It’s fascinating to me, because I loathe shopping. I’m a get-in, get-out type of girl. I don’t like window shopping or trying on clothes. I don’t care about name brands (though I do care about quality). In fact, I buy lots of clothing on Amazon! Ha!  During the first few months of our budget though, it was money in, money out. The girls shopped every month and always had plenty of items on their wish lists. By the time back-to-school season rolled around, both girls felt like they already had a nice, new, up-to-date wardrobe from the pieces they’d been picking up consistently throughout the spring and summer. They didn’t need anything specific for the start of school, so we skipped the traditional back-to-school shopping entirely. Both girls have started saving! This surprised me too! There was definitely a learning curve during which they spent nearly everything they received. Eventually though, their immediate wants were met. I also think the “fun” of spending someone else’s money has worn off now that it’s their money. They often say they’re “broke,” and I have to remind them that they have hundreds of dollars sitting in savings specifically for clothes, makeup, and similar purchases. They’re beginning to save for winter items like fashionable boots, sweaters, and hoodies. (As an aside, we live in Arizona, so our winters are extremely mild and no specialized snow gear is needed. I know that stuff can get pricey!) Sometimes I have to remind them to spend their money. This is still shocking to me, but the girls talk as if they have no money at all. I have had to remind them to buy new socks and underwear, for example. Having to use their own money makes them stop and think: Do I really want this enough to pay for it myself? Sometimes the answer is yes. But often, they decide they don’t want it quite that badly after all. They’re learning to save for larger purchases. Both girls have started thinking about new shoes. They like name brand shoes, and the styles they want routinely cost between $100-150. That’s more than an entire month’s budget, so buying a pair requires some planning. They have to decide whether they want to use money they’ve already saved, set

For anybody considering hiring an advisor, it’s important to know exactly what you want. That is, it’s best if you go shopping for an advisor who meets requirements that you have selected, rather than letting somebody come to you to sell you their services. One way in which advisors can be categorized is by what services they provide. At a very high level, the options would be: Advice-only (i.e., they provide advice but do not […]

We all get caught up in marketers’ hype. We see the ads and get sold on the idea that if we only had this one … Read more

Your grocery store’s free app carries digital coupons the register applies only if they’re loaded to your account before checkout. Spend five minutes before each trip clipping every offer on your list, add any rebates a cash back app offers, and pay with a card that earns extra on groceries. Source

Learning how to be frugal can feel a little strange when you’ve never really had to watch your money before. Maybe you’ve always been able to fill your grocery cart without paying much attention to the total, replace something when it broke, grab takeout when you didn’t feel like cooking or buy something you wanted without giving it much thought. But sometimes life changes. Maybe your income has changed, you’re approaching retirement and realizing you want your […]

You split another checkout into four payments, tapped approve, and moved on. That habit used to be invisible to your credit score no matter how many apps you used. Not anymore. New scoring models built specifically for buy now pay later loans are rolling out at the credit bureaus in 2026, and nearly 130 million Americans who use these apps are about to find out what that means for their credit. Here is what actually […]

There are a lot more places that sell stamps than just the Post Office. You can buy postage stamps at grocery stores, pharmacies, warehouse clubs, convenience stores, office supply stores, and even some ATMs. You can also order them online and have them delivered to your home. The best place to get stamps depends on what matters most to you. The Post Office offers the largest selection, while grocery stores and pharmacies are convenient if […]

Don’t miss an episode of our podcast, Personal Finance for Long-Term Investors. Available on all podcast players. Here’s the latest episode: Small change, giant impact. One challenge in financial planning is when a “small” decision creates much bigger than we assumed. “End of Plan” is one such decision. Some planning software might call it “planning horizon” or “life expectancy” or any number of other euphemisms for “when might you die?” Yes, death is scary to consider. And it’s obvious how our lifespan affects our finances. The longer we live, the more money we need to live a successful retirement. But there’s so much more! If you’ve ever dabbled with financial planning software (Boldin, Pralana, eMoney, RightCapital, Empower, etc.), you might be unaware of the unintended side effects that “age at death” is creating in your plan. Defining the “Problem”… The (frequent) “problem” I witness follows this logic: Running out of money is a scary idea. I don’t want to underestimate when we’ll die. I’ll overestimate instead…I’ll live until 90. My wife, 95. Boom. I’ve “solved” the problem of running out of money. [Narrator: But they were completely unaware of the unintended side effects…] I agree that it’s important to “stress test” whether you’ll run out of money. Changing your assumed age of death is a good idea. But what else are people missing? Let’s dive into what people often miss. Side Effect 1: Social Security Claiming Extending your End of Plan to age ~85+ almost assuredly pushes your Social Security claiming strategy out to age 70. If you live a long time, you wouldn’t want to claim Social Security early. This one is straightforward. In fact, it might be less of an “unintended side effect” and more of a “known headliner.” Plenty of couples should be claiming Social Security before 70 — at least for one of the two spouses. But if you model your End of Plans out at 85, 90, etc., then the planning software might encourage you both to delay until age 70. Side Effect 2: Roth Conversions Roth conversions are tricky. Decades of unknowns lie ahead, and you need to account for them in today’s Roth conversion math. It’s a gray area. Nevertheless, what’s the effect of assuming someone lives until age 95? The main effect is that said person would have 20+ years of required minimum distributions, the last of which would be more than 10% of their account value. These RMDs would push this person into higher and higher tax brackets, likely making present-day Roth conversions more and more attractive. Said succinctly: later death = more Roth conversions today. But if that same person dies at 75? Roth conversions might be outright bad. If they die at 80? Perhaps much smaller Roth conversions would be appropriate. The choice of modeling death at age 85, 90, or 95 can encourage