When I was a little girl I was a big fan of Peter Pan (the Lost boy not the peanut butter) and I believed in fairies. I remember making fairy wings with my seven-year-old girlfriend, they were beautiful. We would walk up a few steps in her house’s open circular stairway leading to the second floor. Then we’d jump and “fly” with our wings. Our goal was to jump from the second floor. We kept flying off “one more step” until we were halfway up and got caught by her mom. Drats! Our airborne hopes were “grounded” and we went back to playing Chinese Jump Ropes instead.

If there is one tip you can use that is almost like sprinkling fairy dust over your finances, it would be to improve your FICO (or Fair Issac Credit Score). Currently, a good FICO can make the difference between paying $900 a month in mortgage payments or $1400. It can mean a $395 car payment or a $600 payment. It can mean you pay more in car insurance with a low FICO or you lose the job or the promotion because your employer checked the scores. This list could go on and on, but a better FICO can literally save you thousands of dollars each year—and its so easy to improve your score in three simple steps:

• Step One: Pay A Day Early Rather Than A Day Late – Late payments can cost you as much as $45 dollars in penalty fees and they are a hit on your FICO as well. Set up an automatic payment online at your credit card provider’s website and you’ll never be late again.

• Step Two: Pay A Bit More Than The Minimum – By paying as little as $10 more than the minimum balance on your credit card bill, you will improve your score. This shows up on the record as “paying down” your debt and it helps a lot!

• Step Three: Proportionality Plus - Keep the proportion on your various cards at 50% or below to improve your overall credit picture. This means that if you have a $5000 limit on a particular card, you don’t want to charge more than $2500 on this card. Redistribute the debt on your existing cards to remain at 50% or less and you will truly help your FICO score.

Peter Pan had a score to settle–and you do, too! But you don’t need fairy dust, you’ve got a good FICO to keep your finances flying high!

Ellie Kay
“America’s Family Financial Expert” (R)
www.elliekay.com

I would bite my tongue until it bled….

What I wanted to say was, “What do you mean do I really work? I work a heck of a lot harder that you do, mister! I’m an accountant, a contract administrator, a chauffeur, a nurse, a soccer mom, a stylist, a wife, and a chef! Plus ten other job specialties! I do all these things as a mom—I’M A CEO MOM, MISTER!”

They usually didn’t ask the same question twice.

These days, as a financial writer and speaker—and a mom, I’ve talked with scores of spouses who work outside the home because of the status of our economy and by necessity–not choice.

Each year, Salary.com issues a report on what a mom’s time is really worth. According to this site, “Based on a survey of more than 40,000 mothers, Salary.com determined that the time mothers spend performing 10 typical job functions would equate to an annual salary of $138,095 for a stay-at-home mom. Working moms ‘at-home’ salary is $85,939 in 2010; this is in addition to the salary they earn in the workplace.” That’s a lot of worth associated with this great job of motherhood!

What is your time worth? You can log into a calculator that tells you what you would be paid on the economy for all the work you do as a SAHM or as a mom who also works outside the home and inside the home!

How effective is the mom’s work outside the home? Does it pay to work in today’s economy with rising prices and a modest hourly wage? Many spouses who move frequently do not often have the luxury of annual pay raises at the same company. For example, let’s look at Jennifer.

Jennifer was an administrative assistant who needed to work outside the home to make ends meet. She made an average wage of $8.50 per hour and felt she contributed greatly to the family’s finances. She only had one child in day care, traveled a short distance to work, and paid no state income taxes. Then Jennifer attended one of my Living Rich for Less seminars and was challenged with the idea of “crunching the numbers.” She completed our “Working Mom’s Compensation” form and was shocked. The online version of this is a one income calculator .

The amazing fact Jennifer discovered was, by working full time–she was making $3 per week! She didn’t realize how those extra pizza nights (because she was too tired to cook), and the trips to the beauty salon (to maintain a professional hairstyle), and all those lunches (away from home) added up! She realized she needed to make some dramatic adjustments. She decided there was a better use of her energy and quit her job outside the home.

But Jennifer didn’t stop there. She implemented some money savings strategies found on this blog and is making ends meet at home. She has less stress in her life and the freedom to contribute to her family’s financial needs through saving money and by launching her own homebased writing business. In her case, a penny saved was more than a penny earned.

Jennifer’s Salary – The Working Mom’s Compensation Form

Gross Income Per Week Jennifer’s Yours

($40 hrs @8.50/hr) $340 _________

Less:

Tithe or donations (10%) $34 _________

Federal Income Tax (18%) $61 _________

Social Security Tax (6.2%) $21 _________

Transportation (10 trips/8mi/@.45/mile) $36 _________

Childcare (1 child) $90 _________

Meals/coffee (@$7/day) $35 _________

Convenience foods at home $29 _________

Extra clothing (includes cleaning) $12 _________

Beauty Shop $14 _________

Other (‘I owe it to me’ items) $5 _________

Total Expenses $333 _________

This is a picture of one of the cutest babies you’ll ever see. When I showed Joshua a picture of his niece and told him we call her “our little tomato” he immediately asked, “Is she organic?”
There’s obviously been a wee bit too much emphasis on organic groceries in the Kay house. But we’re not alone in our quest for healthy food at a bargain. More and more families are purchasing “fair trade” or organic products and there are cheaper ways to get more in this area.
• Spot the ripoff – Look for the products marked “certified organic” in order to make sure you are getting what you pay for. In the produce section, grocers are required to stock the organic produce in a separate section so that the water run-off from misting machines won’t contaminate organic items with pesticide residue.
• Organic Sections – Just because a product is in the organic section of the produce area or aisles does not mean it is organic. Look be misled, for example, by the “all natural yogurt” in the organic section of the dairy case—unless it’s marked “certified organic” it probably is not.
• Web Coupons – I’ve noticed a huge increase in the number of coupons for organic products in recent years as their popularity increases. Conduct a product name search on the Web to find these valuable coupons including the following brands: Annie’s Homegrown, Earthbound Farm, Health Valley, Organic Valley, Stonyfield Farm, and Muir’s.
• Shop Discount Stores – Walmart and Sams have an entire new line of organics and those sections are expanding all the time. Ask the sales associates where the organic products are located because sometimes they are hard to find.
• Buy Generic – One of the really cool things about the interest in organics is the natural continuation of store brands. Look for these generic brands (which go on sale, too) and save even more.
• Food Co-ops – These are great sources of discounts on organic products. To find a local co-op, go to www.coopdirectory.org  or www.localharvest.org/food-coops .
• The Food Mile – In the grocery industry there is a term known as the “food mile” which indicates how many miles food has to travel to end up in your local store. The shorter the food mile, the less expensive the product. Buy items with the shortest food mile.
• Buy Produce in Season – Oftentimes, the shortest food mile will be indicated by buying produce in season. By eating (and freezing or canning) your food in season you can save money today and tomorrow.
• Compare Online Grocers – There might be lower prices for staples that you need found online at some of the best organic grocers. Go to www.sunorganic.com , www.diamondorganics.com , www.urbanorganic.com  or www.doortodoororganic.com
• Go to the Farm! – By going to an organic farm in your part of the world, you can save even more and buy the freshest organics possible. For a complete list go to www.LocalHarvest.org/organic-farms

So whether you are buying baby tomatoes, canned or fresh–follow these tips and you’ll save money!

Ellie Kay
America’s Family Financial Expert (R)
www.elliekay.com

Frau Blueker!”

New York, New York, it’s a beautiful place to a week! On one of my recent trips, I had to take a cab to Jersey for work and it was suppose to take 25 minutes but the driver (who could not speak or read English) took 1 hour 45 minutes to get us there. If it weren’t for the “take charge to help” personality of a colleague, we’d be in Maine by now. To the cab driver’s credit, he did stop to ask directions–from a man who could barely speak English.

On one of my previous trips, when I was here on business, my son Philip joined me while on break from the Naval Academy and we wanted some entertainment! We called the New York USO at 212-695-6160 or www.usonyc.org , hoping to get surplus Broadway tickets for a $3 donation (to all military id card holders–and their dependants) and much to our delight, we got to go see Young Frankenstein and Phantom of the Opera. They didn’t have the “free” tickets, but we got a code for the tix we bought and saved 50% without having to stand in the 1/2 Price Ticket booth line! Plus, we actually sat on the FRONT ROW of Young Frankenstein. “Why, sank you doc-tor!”

Other places to score great prices on entertainment tickets: www.broadwaybox.com, www.goldstar.com, www.travelzoo.com, and www.fillaseat.com .

Entertainment on the cheap can still make for front row fun–just so long as you don’t have to cab it to Jersey!

Ellie Kay
“America’s Family Financial Expert” (R)
http://www.elliekay.com/

When Joshua was seven years old, he loved to check the mail for me, it was his “job.” He would scour the letters, as most kids do, looking for mail for himself. I would ask my girlfriends to send him a letter, just so he could receive mail! One day, he was bringing in an arm full of junk mail and paused to sort through it, looking for that golden letter. All of the sudden, I heard a huge shout as he ran into the kitchen where I was working.
“Mama!” he was more excited than just getting a letter in his name, “Mama! We won! We won the publisher’s clearinghouse! We won ten MILLION dollars!”

I looked at the junk mail in his hand, saw that it was the usual clever packaging, designed to fool adults with the IQ of a seven-year-old. It was just a chance to be entered into the contest if we bought magazines.

How many of us waste valuable time, energy, and effort going through all the junk in our e-boxes and mailboxes? Not to mention the phone calls that come in the middle of watching the fabulous HBO series on John Adams! If you’re wasting effort in this area, it’s time to stop the madness. Here are a few tips on how to keep the junk mail junkies from poisoning your life:

• Listless – Get off mailing list by going to the Mail Preference Service registry of the Direct Marketing Association at http://www.dmachoice.org/ and select “Remove my name.” This service is free and takes care of 80% of your problem with junk that arrives in the mail. It’s good for three years at your current address, when you move, change it again.
• Numberless- To stop telemarketing solicitors, go to the National Do Not Call registry at 1-888-382-1222 or go to http://www.donotcall.gov/ and register all your phone numbers. Don’t forget to register cel phone numbers as well because these numbers are now released to telemarketers and the consumer pays for the call. Telemarketers should not call your number once it has been on the registry for 30 days. If they do, you can file a complaint at this Website.
• Formless - When you register a product, you are opening yourself up to a whole new realm of junk. Most of these forms are for recalls, so just don’t fill them out, the same goes for contests and sweepstakes–those are like standing on the middle of a wildlife reserve with a piece of meat in your hand and a bunch of hungry lions under the nearby trees–you’re just saying “come and get me!”
• Creditless – Some of the most dangerous email are the preapproved credit forms you receive–these should be SHREDDED to avoid Identity Theft. If you call 888-567-8688 and give your social security number, you’ll stop the mail and reduce your chance if ID theft.
• Anonymous-When you sign up for your grocery store card or other frequent buyer programs, you can do so anonymously, without giving vital information. Use a different name, with no address, to protect your privacy.
• Catalog-less-To opt out of catalogs (a frequent occurrance if you shop online), go to http://www.catalogchoice.org/ and stop the temptation from arriving in your mail.

A word of caution: the only instance in which you will give your social security info in order to opt out of junk is the credit card form. Do not ever release your SS # for any kind of other opt out.

Now, with all that extra time you have, go out and have a cup of coffee with a friend, take the time to enjoy those who enjoy your company because life is too short for high maintenance relationships or junk mail junkies!

Ellie Kay

http://www.elliekay.com/

America’s Family Financial Expert (R)

• Clubbing – Warehouse clubs, like Sam’s or Costco can be a great place to save but not if you overspend to get quantity discounts. Buy these items with a friend and each will take home half of the bounty with all of the savings.

• Perishables –While you’re at the big box store, remember that produce is least expensive purchased in bulk and in season. For example, a bushel of peaches or flat of strawberries cost less than “by the pound” purchases. Go in on these big buys together and save even more.

• Two Fers – Department stores often run “buy one item and get the another item for a discount.” One time Brenda and I bought a trendy shirt for $20 with the second one free—so we each only paid $10!

• New Card Discounts – If you (or a friend) want to open a store charge account for convenience then do it on a day when you’re shopping together. There is usually a “first day” discount that can range from 10% to 25% off all purchases—including clearance items. Pay your friend the cash immediately for your purchases and encourage her to pay the charge account as soon as it arrives in the mail.

• Coupons – After all that shopping and saving, it’s time to have lunch and rest. Go to http://www.entertainment.com/ for a coupon booklet that has local restaurant values or check the Sunday paper for the coupon inserts. When you use a coupon, share the savings and double the fun.

Happy Shopping!

Ellie Kay,

America’s Family Financial Expert (R)

http://www.elliekay.com/

I’m currently missing 4000 kisses every year.

Yep, they just upped and moved away, 1000 at a time.

I try to gain back some of those by kissing my friend Natalya’s four little girls. Her baby is only six months old and likes to suck on pickles. Don’t you know you have to grab up a sweetheart like that and give her 10 kisses on her chubby cheeks, just for being so cute?

As a mom who had her youngest five children in seven years, and homeschooled said children for seven years, I figured I got and gave at least 50 kisses a day. Those of you who have had infants and toddlers know that there are times when you just get overwhelmed with their cuteness and have to get some loving on the spot—a dozen kisses at a time!

Even when my children became teens, they knew they had to kiss me when they woke up, give me kiss when they left and came back home, and then again before they went to bed. Let’s say that averaged out to 3 kisses a day (accounting for the fact that I didn’t see them every day if I was out of town). At 365 days per year, that’s still 1000 kisses a year.

Yes, I’m a numbers person and that is both a blessing and a curse, but bear with me a second because I’m trying to get you to feel just a little bit sorry for me for a moment. Every time one of my children “launches” and goes off to college, I lose 1000 annual kisses. When you multiply that by 4 Kay kids who have launched in the last 6 years, I’m down 4000, and those marks of affection are worth far more than dollars—they are priceless.

There are a number of ways to invest in our kids. One of the most important areas is their education.  My husband, Bob and I sacrificed certain things to invest in their education by sending the youngest three to the best school in our part of the world, Desert Christian Schools.  We are not independently wealthy and it cost us something to have as many as 3 kids in private school at a time. But it was worth it to us. We could have driven newer cars, lived in a bigger house or taken fancier vacations, but we knew that one day, when we’re old, we wouldn’t regret cars, houses or vacations. We are going to be thankful we invested in our kids.

For us, this kind of education allowed for smaller classroom sizes, more safety, excellent academic programs and fantastic athletic teams. There are also teachers and administrators have a heart of compassion for our students and  work with us when one of the Kay kids makes a boneheaded choice that requires correction.  Granted, we couldn’t always afford private school, which is why I homeschooled for a while. We also had two kids graduate from public school and do really well in life. Whether you homeschool, choose a private school or send them to public education, being invested in the educational process is essential. For us, that translated into over a million dollars in college scholarships for our progeny.

Another way to invest in our children is in areas where they are having trouble, for example, investing in a tutor. Our son, Jonathan, had trouble in Geometry and we got him a tutor. He got over the learning curve hump, gained mastery and confidence in the material and even became a gainfully employed tutor with Mathemagicians in our community. Math helped our oldest son, Philip, get offers from Cornell and Stanford because he got a 760 out of 800 on his MSATs in Math (he only got a 560 in verbal, but I guess Math geeks don’t have to know how to spell).

Some parents invest in music lessons that can help children gain math skills (something about reading music that makes you more proficient in math), gain confidence, and even earn a partial scholarship in that area. Or you may be a mom that invested in your child by taking them to endless soccer, baseball, basketball, football, or Tae Kwon Do teams. All those hours as chauffer were not in vain because your little one learned self-discipline, the value of exercise, and how to be a part of a team.  Other parents spend time with their kids by taking them out to fun events or out to eat. We like to subscribe to Local Living to find out when there’s a new restaurant or cool event we can take them to for as little as half of the regular price.

I could write 10 more pages on legitimate ways we “invest” in our children, but I’ll end with the one that I started with in this blog.  Invest your affection in your child. Hug them. Spend time with them. Tell them you believe in them. Speak about the bright future they have ahead of them. One day, sooner than you think, that child will launch and you’ll also be down 1000 kisses.  So be sure to kiss ‘em while you can!

Let me know, how do YOU invest in your kids?

 Ellie Kay

America’s Family Financial Expert ®

The good news for Joshua, the youngest Kay Kid – he inherited the ‘Burb!
The bad news for Joshua, he inherited the ‘Burb!

With gas prices rapidly approaching $5/gallon here in sunny southern cali, he may have to park that beast, before he ever gets a chance to drive it.

But there are ways to save at the pump, if you are strategic. Here are my tips:

• Plan – AAA’s Fuel Cost Calculator helps you plot out the most efficient route. You can also put in the year, make and model of your car and it will compute what you’ll spend on gas.
• Prices – Get the app or go to sites such as www.gaspricewatch.com  , www.fuelmeup.com , or www.gasbuddy.com  and find the cheapest price for gas both at home and enroute. Find the app called Gas Buddy or AAA”s Trip’Tik Mobile iPhone.
• Pace Your Driving – Jackrabbit starts and constant speeding up and slowing down cost precious gas mileage miles. Instead, pace yourself.  Jackrabbit stops are as bad as the starts (or so I constantly tell my husband)!
• Pushing It Up! — Will only speed up your fuel consumption. According to the Department of Energy (DOA) it takes a lot of energy for your vehicle to push the air out of the way as you speed down the road. Driving the speed limit of 65 versus 75 can save as much as 15% on fuel consumption because of the energy needed for higher speeds.
• Puhleeze Give Me Some Air — At speeds of 40 mph or greater, it costs more to leave the windows open (due to drag) than it does to run the air. In a place like Palmdale, CA where the summer temps reach 110 degrees that’s good news!
• Pitch the Junk! – Take your golf clubs, soccer chairs, Salvation Army book donations and all the other JUNK out of your TRUNK. Otherwise, you’re paying more to haul it.
• Pressure and Maintain – The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that one-in-four cars have under inflated tires by 8 pounds per square inch. By getting the right amount of air in your tires and taking a few minutes to change the air filter, you can increase your gas mileage by 3.3%! A tuned engine can save an average of 4% more and detected problems, like a bad oxygen sensor can help your mileage by 40%!
• Pool it – Car pool whenever possible, and let everyone pitch in with their dough!
• Premium, Schmium – According to AAA, only 5% of vehicles in the US require the premium gas–it does not help your vehicle for you to pay more for it. Buy the regular stuff and have no worries.
• Peak no More! – Plan trips, if possible, during off peak times to avoid traffic jams.
• Pay up! — Make teens pay for gas when they aren’t driving for sanctioned raod time (such as school, work, running your errands, etc). It’s amazing how much less miles they will put on the car!

Happy Driving, Joshua!

Love Mama,
aka America’s Family Financial Expert (R)

“My kids will never come back to live with us after they are launched.” 

“I don’t have worry about boomerang children, mine have great jobs.”

“Junior would never get into trouble and need me to bail him out, he’s a good boy.”

Have you ever made a declarative statement that you had to take back and eat, along with a big, fat slice of humble pie?  I have. In fact, I’ve eaten so much humble pie that I’ve put on five pounds just this week!  Let me clarify that I haven’t had to eat any pie about boomerang babies as of date, and I don’t intend to start now. That’s why I’m approaching today’s blog very circumspectly.

“Failure to Launch” is not only a popular Matthew McConaughey movie (would someone puleeze give that man a shirt!). It’s also a syndrome in America among Boomer parents and their babies. There are many reasons for this boomerang barrage. One primary factor has to do with the unemployment rate among 20 to 24 year olds, which was 15.4% last year according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Furthermore, statistics from the Pew Research Center indicated that 13% of American parents with an adult child had a child move back into the family home. While 40% of recent college graduates still live at home.

Money matters are the number one reason why these kiddies come back home to mommy and daddy as well as the struggling economy, student loan debt, consumer debt and in some cases legal troubles. 

There is good news and bad news for families in this situation. A boomerang incidence is bad when the children have an entitlement mentality, don’t carry their own weight in the home, are not looking for work, and cause their parents to delay retirement in order to get them financially settled. In short, when they are mooching.

The good news of the situation exists when this living arrangement is only temporary and involves a solid exit plan. In fact, it can be a great bonding time between generations, especially if there are grandchildren involved.

But one thing is certain:  boomerang babies introduce more stress into the household for everyone involved. But what to do? What to do?

Here is a suggested motto for a situation like this, just tell those babies:  “My love for you is unconditional, but my money is not.”  Your “money” in this case includes your home, furnishings, food, car, cash, retirement fund, home equity, phones, insurance, and anything else in your monthly budget that is impacted by new peeps living with you! If your resources are going out, then there needs to be requirements attached.

Here are some guidelines to follow if you find yourself in this situation:

• DTR – “Define The Relationship” by discussing the living arrangement and defining the expectations on both sides. Come to an agreement as to what is expected of one another and delineate the boundaries.
• Develop An Exit Strategy First – A solid exit strategy will have them back on their own between 3 and 6 months. If they know when they will be expected say “sayonara,” then that gives them a deadline to work toward in becoming financially independent again. It also helps to eliminate resentment when the time doth draw nigh.
• Do What – Do What? – This is your new song, in that you are going to ask that son or daughter to do their portion for the household. This could mean doing chores and paying rent, or contributing by buying groceries and paying the light bill. The more uncomfortable it becomes in the parent’s home, the more motivation that child has to re-launch.  
• Define the Rules – Unlike the DTR step, this is the part of the exit strategy that includes the establishment of a budget for the adult child. If they are living in your home, then you have the right to oversee a budget that will help them live on their own again. The idea of this may seem to restrict their freedom but it’s all part of the diabolical plan to give them the gift of financial freedom.
• Demand the Rent – Once they are employed, then begin to increase the rent over the course of the next months until they are ultimately paying the same rent to you that they would be paying for a place of their own. YES, it’s probably more than what your lovely room and board is worth—BUT THAT’S THE POINT! You want them to see how it’s not worth it to live with mumsey, it’s a better value elsewhere.
• Do Unto Others -- If you want to be kind (and sneaky), then you can take half the rent they give you (in the previous point) and put it in an account that you can relinquish to them forthe first and last month’s rent on a place of their own. But you don’t “owe” them this act of kindness, your money, after all, is conditional while your love is unconditional and don’t let them trap you into defining your love with how much you pay their way.
• Do Give Them Wisdom – In some cases, the best assistance you can give them (besides the establishment of a budget) is to get them to a financial counselor such as www.nfcc.org that will help them for free. The National Foundation for Credit Counseling can renegotiate loans, restructure debt and provide accountability outside of your direct influence. There’s nothing like a third party to be the bad guy when it comes to letting them know the real deal in the real world and the accountability that the NFCC requires is nothing short of beautiful.   
• Don’t Bail them Out! – Just remember the idea of precedence:  what you do once, you will have to do again for the same child (or for another one of your children). Keep in mind your needs such as retirement, getting under water in your home, paying your bills, your credit scores and your financial future. We owe our children food, shelter and clothing for 18 years and the training to launch on their own. We owe them unconditional love for a lifetime. But we don’t owe them a bailout when they overextend themselves or fail to plan responsibly.  

Ellie Kay

America’s Family Financial Expert ®