Do you have a tax refund coming? Some would say it means you over-withheld and should have paid less last year. Others look at it as a non-interest-bearing savings account. I’d look at it as an opportunity to improve your financial picture and prepare for the next inevitable downturn—whether it happens next week, next month, or five years from now.
What do inner-city families trying to save $500 for emergencies have in common with trust-fund heirs? Their common interest, it turns out, is financial literacy.
I had the chance to listen to Dan Heath recently. He’s the coauthor, with his brother Chip, of Switch, a new book about making changes. I’d read their last book, Made to Stick, and thought their conclusions were valuable, so I was looking forward to Dan’s talk.
Thank you for all of your comments on my “Generation D” blog post. We heard from students, recent grads, parents, and investors. Your comments were insightful and passionate, and pointed to several major themes.
Some of you admitted to, or alluded to, confusion over the terms of student loans and the implications of those terms. “Read the fine print” was the phrase that struck me. (I was looking at a promissory note from Sallie Mae this week, and it’s not an easy document to get through.)
My wife and kids are off visiting our relatives in Tokyo, and so I’m at home alone for the next couple weeks, reliving my bachelor days for a little while. Plenty of cold pizza for breakfast!
In place of the usual ritual of bathtime and bedtime stories with the kids (is there anything cuter than a three-year-old in a tub of bubbles?), I’ve lately had more time in the evening to sit down and noodle at the family finances. This got me to thinking a little bit about the various ways people do this—or don’t—and how it might affect investment behavior.
