By: Laura Walton AFC® It seems we are trending in that direction. Financial understanding is falling while our confidence in making financial decisions is rising – perhaps the worst of both worlds. We’re making poor decisions but with confidence! See how you score on this 6 question quiz. Arizonans averaged 3.25 correct answers out of…
Zachary and Jasmine make saving fun – you have to see the look on their faces! There’s a lot of literature on how to teach kids about money and a lot of regret as they become adults over lessons not learned. Most of us end up learning the hard way. Below is a heart-warming story…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Good math skills + good behavioral choices = good financial outcomes…but we struggle with both. Statistics show that two-thirds of us are poorly prepared to make good financial decisions! The National Assessment of Educational Progress, aka the Nation’s Report Card, tells us that just 37% of American high school seniors were…
By: Laura Walton AFC® About 2% of our spending goes to vacations – but that’s an average of all kinds of vacations – from driving and staying with relatives to flying and staying in a hotel. I’ll share a low-cost, high-value vacation a friend took recently but, before that, let’s look at our average spending…
By: Laura Walton AFC® I was lucky. My brother and I, along with our cousins, spent much of our summers out of the Phoenix heat in a small community of 50 cabins seven miles outside of and a 1000 feet above Prescott. It was here I got my first lesson in personal finance. My grandmother…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Those were my client’s opening words at our last meeting. We’d met a year earlier and agreed on an aggressive savings goal to meet his retirement needs so I was, of course, interested in his epiphany. “I realized I needed to save $100 a day!” The good news? He’s doing it!…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Even when we identify something we’d like to change, it’s not often easy. After all, we’re likely replacing one habit with another. But, as with most challenges, there are tricks to succeeding. First, of course, you have to commit to something – your goal. The commitment is your rational choice –…
By: Laura Walton AFC® A successful life isn’t often the result of winning the lottery, being plucked out of obscurity by a talent scout or even being born into a wealthy family but rather it’s the result of doing the right things consistently over time. I tossed aside my idea for today’s blog when I…
By: Laura Walton AFC® A fellow I met recently had what I thought was a great strategy for easing his son out of the family home and into his own place. Then a similar idea appeared in an online article – it must be good enough to share! David’s son had graduated from a barber’s…
By: Laura Walton AFC® Sixth-graders in Chicago competed in the money equivalent of a science fair. Let’s see how two teams tackled the cost of prom and getting a dog. Gail MarksJarvis, an award-winning financial columnist for the Chicago Tribune and contributor to the Arizona Daily Star, was among the judges for the competition “Talk…