NEW RULES MEAN CHANGE WHICH ALL COUPLES SHOULD EMBRACE Marriage IS financial, marriage IS physical and marriage IS emotional and without a balance that kingdom will crumble and fast. Marriage issues typically arise for more than one reason but for Mrs. CBB and I we created new rules this year to build up instead of tear us down. Be the contractor of your life together. Some people might question why would have any marriage issues when we are debt free but remember, money doesn’t make people truly happy from the inside out. It’s easy to fake a happy relationship when money is priority with fancy cars and a frosting of glass that no one can see through, but the both of you. Let’s be realistic, NO marriage is perfect BUT if you choose not to work on it consistently then it will never flourish. On the day we got married we thought we knew everything there was to know about each other but 11 years later and we were dreadfully wrong. Just because you fall in love and spend time dating before you get hitched doesn’t mean you really know the person you are marrying. This could […]
Woman Has Rich Family Poor Family Dating Concerns : The Saturday Weekend Review #240
SOMETIMES EVEN THE RICHEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD THINK THEY ARE POOR AND THE POOREST BELIEVE THEY ARE RICH. It’s amazing how all walks of life whether they come from a rich family or poor family have different perspectives about money and how to live their lives without outside influence. Sadly money IS a huge influence in relationships for many people and with good reason, no one wants to struggle financially. Growing up in a poor family means that you struggle to provide the necessities of life and have little to no savings. At least that was my understanding growing up in the UK when some of my mates would tell me that they couldn’t afford to attend certain events that cost money because their parents couldn’t afford it. This wasn’t just once, it was almost always. We weren’t rich nor were we poor, JUST HAPPY. I received an email from a CBB reader who wasn’t sure whether she should continue to date her boyfriend because she comes from what he would consider a rich family. She’s finding it increasingly difficult to come up with conversations that they can both relate to since he comes from a poor family. […]
Should Couples Be Financially Stable Before Pregnancy?
PARENTING WHEN YOU’RE OLDER DOESN’T MAKE IT ANY EASIER THAN IF YOU’RE YOUNGER. Yes, I’m a 40 year-old dad with a 3-year-old toddler, a career I love, zero debt, mortgage free and ability to offer experiences to our son that I didn’t have. This wasn’t the way I had envisioned parent-hood to be but it was the way it turned out for us and we’re surviving just fine. Being financially stable has nothing to do with getting pregnant and everything to do with surviving and never giving up. There are couples out there reading this who are struggling or struggled in the past to get pregnant after many miscarriages and NO results on a pregnancy test. There are also couples who have different parenting styles which may or may not make them “cool parents” but that’s not what parenting is about. There’s more to sharing your heart than all the money in the world. Related: Do Dollar Store Pregnancy Tests Work? Whether you are working or not becoming parents means that you must provide for your child in any way you can. Often this may lead parents to seek support from family, friends and the government system when available. […]
Shocking List Of Baby Products We Wasted Money On
FIRST-TIME PARENTS CAN EASILY GET CAUGHT UP IN THE MARKETING GAME OF BABY PRODUCTS JUST LIKE WE DID. Â It was time to say bye-bye baby store and welcome back to our living space which was taken over by our first baby all because we thought we needed more for him than he really did need. I bet you are wondering why we were so shocked at the amount of money we blew on baby products we didn’t need and the answer is simple, marketing.As finance nerds we should have known better to watch out for gimmick items but it’s tough when you’re a new parent and limited support around you. Most of all you don’t really know what to expect. Our biggest baby research tool was the internet and chatting to other parents when they noticed the baby bump and started chatting about their own children. We could have asked our parents however times have changed and parents must ensure babies are in a car seat and hot water bottles are frowned upon. Overwhelmed Parents The Mrs. and I literally felt like we were running a baby goods store from the time our son was born […]
Thrift Store Back To School Clothes Are Still New Clothes
Back To School Shopping: In With The Old Out With The New Back to school is typically associated with buying new school clothes and supplies only because we’ve been sucked in by a mass marketing system. The further we get pulled the more we believe and want rather then simply spending money because it’s a need. As soon as August rolls around the Back to School deals start showing up in the local flyers and media because they want parents to get ready ahead of time. With many families struggling to get ahead financially spending a fortune on school clothes is just out of the question. Then again you might be a parent who buys a new wardrobe year after year to go to work. Why is there this need to always wear something new or different? I’m pretty sure most people spend their time worrying about other things rather than what John or Suzie wore to work. Maybe clothing is the next step up the career ladder and if Suzie dresses better than Sarah she’s a shoe-in. Sounds daft BUT this really does happen. We put too much emphasis on what people wear rather than what their skills […]
Men, Women, and How They Think About Money
MONEY IS MONEY BUT ADD GENDER TO THE MIX AND THE MEANING BECOMES SOMETHING MUCH DIFFERENT. Money is central to our existence and we all know it. We need, want it and got to have it. There’s nothing new to report here about any of that. It’s the basic reason we all get up every morning, battle the elements and the traffic, and hunker down at our jobs every day. Whether you are a Canadian or an American like me, there are differences between the genders. If you’re a man, you’re more likely to be coming home from work each day, unwinding and spending your time as you see fit. If you’re a woman, not so much. For as long as there have been people working outside the home, women have born most of the burdens of taking care of the home, kids, chores, and those kinds of things. When you look at the last 30 years of changes to our society, i.e. the big addition of women to the workforce, there may have been some changes in that old school approach…but not enough. Men still fundamentally think of women as the responsible party when it comes to family, […]
5 Inexpensive Gadgets All New Parents Should Own : The Saturday Weekend Review #220
IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR A BABY SHOWER GIFT THESE GOODIES HAVE BEEN THE BEST PARENTING INVESTMENTS YET. I’m sure many parents reading this can think back to some baby gadgets or products which made their new role as parents a bit easier. Hands up if you’re one of those parents who bought too much useless baby stuff just because you thought you’d need it. Yes, that was us. >>>Both hands in the air. Now that our son is almost 3 years-old (wow where did the time go) Mrs. CBB and I have gone through boxes and boxes and boxes and boxes of baby clothes (I know, right?) and piles of stuff we never used. The biggest problem was that we read too much, believed too much and fell into the “new parent syndrome” mode making sure we were fully stocked with what we needed. Related: How having a baby affected our monthly budget I will admit that we have boxes of baby diapers that haven’t been opened yet, clothes that still have the tags and other crazy things that have never come out of the box. We have a formula mixer that we bought just in case our son […]
What Basic Money Skills Should Be Taught In High School?- The Saturday Weekend Review #216
PERSONAL FINANCE IS MORE THAN JUST BUDGETING YOUR WAY TO FINANCIAL FREEDOM. Teenagers may find out the hard way in the world of personal finance if they don’t understand finance basics. In the past parents were the financial leaders responsible to teach their kids about money. They still are but things are about to possibly change in Ontario. Personal finance for teenagers has slowly been easing its way into the education system because it’s not just a need it’s critical. This is something that we should all be happy about because not all kids get taught about finance basics at home. The other thing to consider is that the kids are getting taught enough about money or aren’t getting the hands on experience. There’s the learning and then the doing and this is how we build a stronger understanding of what is right and wrong and how to prevent financial disaster or at least avoid it. Personal finance education has long been discussed in Ontario and Education Minister Mitzie Hunter will be announcing the plans for rolling out a Pilot Project teaching 700 teenagers in 28 local high schools about Basic Money Skills in the next week. Personal finance […]
