Who in the world would be crazy enough to charge their wedding expenses on credit cards?
Us!
Who in the world thought they could afford anything and everything just because we could still afford to make the monthly payments?
Us!
And who got themselves in $120K in debt AND got themselves out of it?
We did!
This is a personal story I have decided to share because I know there are many families who are currently in debt like we were and if sharing this means it inspires just one family to start taking action, it is well worth it.
I won’t go into all the details on how we accumulated so much debt but I will say that it was pretty much anything and everything we could charge on a credit card.
In our minds, since we made enough to be able to cover the minimal monthly payments, that meant we could afford those things.
Before you know it, we were maxing out credit card after credit card and what was our solution to now having multiple monthly minimum payments?
We applied for new cards and played the whole “transfer all our balances” to this new card game so that we would have less number of payments to deal with.
On top of all that, we purchased a house on an interest only loan that now I keep thinking to myself, “What in the world were we thinking?
We started finding ourselves living paycheck to paycheck.
Barely making the payments.
Barely any money left over to do anything.
Still continuing to charge for basic necessities because the money we got paid that week was already spoken for with last months credit card charges!
The interest we were paying alone was eating up a big chunk of our income.
It was a never ending cycle.
On the outside, you wouldn’t have been able to tell we were struggling. But boy were we struggling.
I was not happy. Always stressed about not having enough money to pay the bills. Daily arguments with my husband.
It was a mess!
The final straw was when I logged into our bank account and saw that we barely had $10 in it.
That was it! I was sick and tired of being sick and tired of living paycheck to paycheck.
We went through a short sale of our home and moved in with family to start getting our life back together.
I’m not going to say it was an easy thing to do. It was the opposite. It was one of the hardest thing we’ve ever had to do.
Maybe even harder than childbirth!
Preston, my second child was about 1 month old when we moved in with my older brother.
It was the longest 3 years ever.
Three years of working extra shifts, my husband getting a second job, not eating out as much, barely going out, saying no to family/friend’s invitations, saying no to temptations of buying new “toys” and tracking our spending like a hawk.
It took lots of hard work, discipline, many frustrating moments, and nights of despair where I wanted to just give up because it felt like we weren’t making a dent in our debt at all.
But we stayed focused.
My husband and I supported and encouraged each other and stayed the course.
If there was any one thing that I can attribute to our success, it was that we were on the same page with our goals and vision for the life we wanted to build with our kids.
This is SO IMPORTANT.
And that vision did not include a life living in debt. We made plenty of bad financial decisions and we wanted to make darn sure that our kids do not follow in our footsteps.
I’m here to say that it can be done.
It starts with a decision to change your family’s lifestyle.
Make a plan to help you take massive action.
Stay focused.
Be disciplined. Practice saying “No”.
Get creative with increasing income. Have a garage sale.
Track your spending.
And throw every single penny towards your debt.
Yes, it’s definitely easier said than done. But complaining about how much debt you are in is not going to take you any closer into living a financially stress free life,
Trust me, the hard work and effort to get there is going to be so worth it.
The life I can now provide for my kids is priceless. The life and financial lessons I can impart to them will be invaluable.
If being in debt has taught me anything, it is that with hard work, determination, discipline and some perseverance, you can make anything happen.
If you’ve read this far, that means you know what you need to do.
There’s so much more life to enjoy than to constantly worry about whether or not next month’s bills will be paid.
It’s time. Get sick and tired of being sick and tired.
Let’s do this!
If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more on the actual step by step actions we took for those 3 years to get out of debt, comment below and I’ll add a Part 2 to the story.
No matter how many stories you hear from your friends, family and coworkers about what to expect with your first child, there’s nothing that will prepare you for the physical, emotional and mental roller coasters that you will need to experience first hand to fully understand what it’s like to be a first time parent.
The story that I’m about to tell you is something I wish I had known but I realized that I wouldn’t have known without having kids of my own.
With our first born, the moment we drove out of the hospital parking lot was the moment we officially were on our own to care for this new human being we brought into this world. I still remember it as if it happened yesterday. Immense feelings of accomplishment, joy, excitement and fear all wrapped up together. Random thoughts would creep into my head like “oh what if I do something that will hurt the baby, what if I don’t know how to stop them from crying, I have no idea what I am doing, how often should I be feeding the baby, or what if I accidentally drop her?”
“One thing you can count on is that you won’t have the answers to everything. That’s what family, friends and even your pediatrician is there for. You’re basically learning as you go. It’s like on the job training at its core”.
As we get home and settle into our routines, life does begin to get quite interesting.
The first week was great. I was still filled with so much joy and excitement that our new bundle of joy was finally here. We gladly woke up every 1-2 hours throughout the night to tend to our little one. But as the weeks continued on, the lack of sleep took its toll on us. The continuous cycle of feeding, pumping milk in between feedings to stimulate more milk production, burping, diaper change, sleep, wake up, wash bottles, rinse and repeat. Oh how I longed to just be able to sleep for a good 3-4 hours straight.
“I think if I could impart any wisdom in this area, it would be to arrange between you and your partner to take shifts during the night. Inevitably, after every feed, there would need to be a diaper change. What we did initially was have Dave wake up with me to help with the diaper change. That only resulted in both of us walking around like zombies during the day. So what we decided to do was from 10pm-2am, I would let him sleep all the way through. Then from 2am-6am, I would just need to wake up to feed. Even though I still had to wake up, that allowed Dave to be less tired during the day so that he could be more functional during the day to handle the baby and I would be able to nap more often”.
The most exciting parts of our days is when she opened her eyes and we could finally interact with her somewhat. She had no idea what was going on of course because at that age, they really can’t see clearly yet, but they do start to learn our voices.
A few months in is when it starts to get even more exciting. She is awake and alert for longer periods of time now. She’s starting to coo and smile. She’s able to interact with the toys we bought for her. People coming to visit loved holding and talking to her. You can’t help but keep telling yourself, “I can’t believe we created this”.
“Once you establish a routine and your baby gets into their own schedule, the sleep deprivation becomes more tolerable. The days become more predictable and you learn to sneak a power nap in when they nap. Or you learn to take advantage of family who come by to visit and let them take over while you get some much needed shut eye”.
We also quickly learn that every decision we make now revolves around our baby. She is already dictating when we can and can’t sleep but now adding to the mix, she dictates when we can shower, eat and drink, and when we can clean the house or even do laundry.
Gone are the days where we can decide on a whim to go out to the movies or go out to eat. Now, things like that has to be planned for and can only be done during certain time periods. And when we do go outside of the house with her, we need to be prepared to pack everything! Just run through your day and think of all the things you use on a regular basis and that’s what you will need to bring.
Before we knew it, she was starting to crawl and we find ourselves rushing out to baby proof everything in our house. We are now having to watch her like a hawk because she will put every single little thing that is on the ground, into her mouth. Then she started walking and now we really can’t take our eyes off of her for even a second!
“There are so many first times during this first year to capture. So many moments like the first time they started crawling and walking. Their first word, their first tooth, their first smile. First bath, first nail clipping. First outing. First baby food. Take pictures, lots of pictures. It is so easy with smartphones these days to do that. Even better would be to take videos”.
As a first time mom, it’s quite normal to want your hands on everything that your baby will possibly need.
When asked of moms who have been there and done that, “what are some of the must have items to survive the first year of your child’s life?” the list of items below came highly recommended. This is of course not a complete list but it’s definitely a good start.
Baby Monitor: So you can keep an eye on them and know when they wake up from anywhere in the house
Co-sleeper: This is like a mini crib that you can put right next to your bed. So during the night, they are within reach and you can easily pick them up without them actually being in bed with you.
Sleeper gowns: to quickly change their diaper and cover them back up without fumbling around with any buttons or snaps.
Shirts or onesies with covered long sleeves: Save the hassle of the standard hand mitts constantly falling off
Strong support system (Mom friends who are going through the same experiences as you. Local mom groups, local meetup groups, facebook support groups): To save your sanity
Night lights for late night feeding/changes
White noise machine: To lessen the chances of your baby being startled by a loud noise and waking up
Change of clothes always for baby and you: Accidents will happen
Housekeeper & food prep services if you can afford it: To decrease your stress and lighten up your workload so you can focus on bonding with your baby
Freezer meals: You won’t have time to cook but you still need to eat
Trumpet socks: They don’t fall off as easily as the regular ones. And they are super cute.
Owler: for peace of mind (SIDS).
Nose Frida: So much better than the bulb syringes
Baby Brezza if formula feeding: Makes prep time and feeding a breeze
Gripe water: Helps with Colic
Lots of Burp Clothes: Keep them accessible in every room so you have it within reach when you need it
Rocker: Nice to have to relax and rock your baby to sleep
Swaddles: Babies are used to being in tight quarters inside your tummy. When swaddled up, this gives them some comfort in familiarity and can soothe them.
Boppy Pillow: Makes positioning baby during breastfeeding much easier.
And last but not least, an item I can’t complete this list without mentioning and it’s our very own baby first aid kit that we put together for moms so that they can have more peace of mind knowing they are equipped to handle those everyday emergencies.
You will have tough days, you will have easy days. Life will be a roller coaster as you adjust to whatever your baby brings your way, the good and the bad. Your baby’s first year of life means a lot of first time experiences for you. So many joys, so many memories to start collecting.
Take it one day at a time and know that they grow up in what feels like a blink of an eye. Treasure those moments.
Ok fess up, how many times have you forgotten that the tooth fairy was supposed to come get your kid’s tooth only to wake up the next morning in a frenzy?
I think for us, between the two kids, it has been at least 2 dozen times if not more. I think the worse case was when I forgot 3 days back to back.
Epic mom FAIL!
I felt so horrible but how can anyone blame us right?
After putting the kids to bed, there are still so many things left to do and by the end of the night, all you can think about is climbing into bed yourself and calling it a night.
So what happens the next morning when the kids realize the tooth fairy never came to get their tooth?
It’s time for mommy and daddy to think fast and come up with a believable explanation to give them.
I’ve collected some tooth fairy “bloopers” for everyone to enjoy, including some of my own. Who knows, some on this list could be added to your arsenal for the next time you forget and need to quickly dodge the bullet.
Enjoy!
“Oh maybe the tooth fairy got really busy last night and couldn’t make it”
or a similar version
“Too many kids lost their tooth last night and the tooth fairy didn’t have time to come get yours. Let’s wait and see if she will come tonight”
“Your room was too messy the tooth fairy couldn’t make her way to your bed”
“You put your tooth on a different pillow from the one you were laying on so the tooth fairy probably got confused and couldn’t find your tooth”
One year, my husband types out a nice letter from the tooth fairy and signed it as Frances. So now my daughter always refers to her tooth fairy as Frances. Most recently, she wrote a letter to Frances with her tooth, so of course I had to leave a letter behind.
The next morning, I asked her if the tooth fairy came and she tells me yes, but that it was Francine that left her a letter.
Oh my gosh, I thought it was Francine this whole time!! Whoops! I had to quickly tell her that maybe she uses a nickname! Phew! So glad she didn’t question that.”
“The tooth fairy couldn’t find you because you weren’t sleeping in your bed”
“Maybe she went on vacation and forgot to tell the other tooth fairy to take over for her when she was gone”
“I’ve casually placed a dollar behind her bed the morning of and told my daughter she must have knocked it off her bed in her sleep”
“She doesn’t work on weekends”
“The tooth fairy was stuck on the east coast because of the hurricane”
“You have to get in line, she can only do so many houses a night. Lots of kids with teeth to pick up”
“Her bag was probably too full and she would have to come back the next night”
One last story about my son where I for sure thought I was caught.
So as usual, I forgot to take his tooth and didn’t realize this until he climbed into my bed in the morning. He didn’t say anything about the tooth fairy not coming so I thought maybe he forgot to check. I kept him distracted with his iPad and snuck off to take his tooth.
Later on, he excitedly runs to me and tells me the tooth fairy left him a dollar! Then he follows it up with, “The tooth fairy just came”.
I say to him, “What do you mean he just came”. He answered, “Because I checked when I woke up and the tooth was still there and now it’s gone”.
Yikes!
“Oh, ok maybe they do come in the mornings too”, I say. I really had no reasonable explanation to give him. Thank goodness he didn’t question it any further.
Tooth fairies are fun. I personally never grew up with it but always encourage my kids to use their imagination to entertain themselves.
It’s all for fun and gives them something to look forward to. One day they will no longer believe it in but until, then, we’ll all enjoy it.
One thing for sure.
The day they stop believing is the day they no longer get any money! So I’m sure there are kids out there that still pretends to believe in the tooth fairy.
What are some of your near miss stories or cover ups that you have used? Please share with the rest of us as I’m pretty certain we all will have more bullets to dodge in the future.
Fall just started so what is right around the corner?
No, I’m not talking about Christmas. Although doesn’t it seem like the stores are putting out xmas decorations earlier and earlier every year! Oh vey…
Anyways, if you have kids, that means it’s time to brace yourself for the flu season that is coming up. Especially if you have them in day care or a school setting.
When I used to work in the hospital setting, this meant we were getting ready for this ourselves right about this time because “flu season” is usually between Oct-Mar time frame.
Now I know there is an ongoing debate on whether or not getting the flu vaccine actually causes you to get the flu. Some people claim they get sick right after they get it, or they claim they still get the flu anyways, therefore, they stopped getting the shot altogether.
I’m not here to push you in any one direction but merely to share with you some of my thoughts on things to think about if you’re wondering to yourself whether or not to have you and your kids get the flu shot.
The most common reason I hear on why people don’t get the vaccine is, “I get sick anyways, so why even bother?”
But…if it is true that the flu vaccine causes you to get the flu, then wouldn’t every single person who receives the vaccine also get the flu?
What if you would have gotten sick anyways…
AND it was a mere coincidence that it happened RIGHT after getting the shot?
Here are some possible reasons why you could still get sick after getting the flu shot:
1) You were exposed to a different flu virus strain than the one in the vaccine.
2) You were exposed to the flu virus before or 2 weeks after the shot. It takes about two weeks for your body to build up protection for it.
3) You could be experiencing some mild reactions to the vaccine. According to the CDC, the most common side effects are soreness, redness, tenderness or swelling and in some cases, low-grade fever, headache and muscle aches also may occur that lasts 1-2 days.
4) Or yes, you got sick anyways but without the vaccine, the severity of the illness could have been extremely worse.
What some people do not realize is that the flu vaccine is meant to only protect you from the top virus strains that the experts have identified is the most common ones for the current year.
And this changes every year.
So it is impossible to know 100% which virus strain to include in the vaccine.
But some protection based on highly educated guesses are better than no protection right?
On the flip side, I have heard people who say they never get flu shots and never get sick.
They can count their lucky stars.
But I have been around the block long enough to know what the other side of having the flu looks like and I’ll take my chances with the shot.
If you’re a young, healthy adult, then getting the vaccine is not as critical for you (still recommended) but if you’re a young child, the elderly or someone with chronic illnesses, getting sick with the flu is more serious for these groups.
It can be quite severe and even down right life threatening.
If you do choose to opt yourself and your kids out of getting the flu vaccine though…
Do yourself and everyone else around you a favor.
Take extra precautions when it comes to being around others and be vigilant about washing hands.
If you are near someone who has the flu, the virus can spread to you even if that person just coughs, sneezes or talks to you.
Or if you just touch a surface that has the flu virus left from someone else, and you unconsciously use your hand to touch your mouth, nose or eyes, you will contract the virus.
Then the virus will pass on from you to another person and from that person to another and so on and so forth.
With all that being said, everyone does react to things differently so you really do need to do what is best for you and your family.
Like with any other decisions you have to make for your kids when they are young, you need to weigh all the risks and benefits and ask yourself what path you would rather deal with.
If you found any of this information helpful or know someone who it could help, please share…because, “sharing is caring!”
Ever get a random text from a friend out of nowhere?
About 2 months ago, I received a group text from a good friend of mine who lives in Kansas. It was sent around 10pm at night, which meant it was midnight for her. It went something like this:
“Hey are you guys available…?”
“I have something very important to tell you?”
Now of course when someone says something like this, you start immediately speculating on what all the different possible things it could be.
In my mind, I had these thoughts pop up…
”Oh maybe she’s moving back to California” or “I wonder if she’s having marital problems” or “maybe it’s something with her kids?” or better yet,”Maybe she’s pregnant!”
So we anxiously hopped on a 3 way call and…
Never in a million years did we expect to hear these words come out of her mouth…
“My husband passed away last week and his funeral is in a few days.”
My friend instantly became a 39 year old widower overnight.
How do you even respond to something like? There’s nothing anyone can say or do. All we could do was sympathize with her and console her the best we could.
Two very important lessons came to me after we hung up. 1) Spend more quality time with your loved ones WHILE you still can and 2) make sure you have plans in place on how your loved ones will be taken care of, especially if you have little ones.
For some of us, the thought of planning ahead for our loved ones after we pass has probably never even occurred and for others, we know it’s important but have yet to put the time and effort into making it happen.
But Why is this so important?
As parents to two little ones, my husband and I asked ourselves, “If we were to both pass away today, what would happen to our kids?” We realized that if we didn’t start discussing how our kids will be taken care of if when we were no longer here, then our kids that we leave behind would only suffer.
And So it was time….time to outline our wishes into a will & trust.
Now there are lawyers who specialize in estate planning and it really is a huge deal, especially if you have lots of assets.
But if you’re like our everyday family, it doesn’t have to be that complicated. There are online services like Legal Zoom that you can use to start this process if you don’t want to go the route of hiring a lawyer.
For some of you, planning something like this is overwhelming. You’re probably asking yourself, “How am I going to know what my kids will need or even what events will happen after I pass?” “What if things change?”
The simplest way to approach and plan this is to keep in mind one thing.
The present moment.
Image by Lonely Planet via Unsplash
Plan for what your kids need now. Plan for what you have in this current moment. Plan with the current people you have in your lives right now. This is something that is not set in stone because as your life changes, your wishes will change.
And every year or every few years, you just update it to what is currently going on in your life.
To give you some context, these were the 3 main areas that my husband and I had a conversation around when we were planning this:
Healthcare Directive
Who do we want to make medical decisions for us in the event that we can no longer do it for ourselves. Typically this would be our spouse but whoever that is, they need to know what our wishes are. Especially around end of life care.
I know for myself, if it ever came down to the point where I was no longer able to take care of myself and would end up being bedridden, I would not want my life to be prolonged. Having this very difficult decision made ahead of time saves my family from having to decide because inevitably, you will have family members who will disagree.
Our Kids
The second topic is going to be around our kids. Who will become their legal guardian? Who will love them and take care of them? Who will make sure to raise them with the same, if not similar values to what we have? How can we make sure their lives continue with as little disruptions as possible? How are we going to make sure our assets are distributed to them in a responsible manner?
Even though they are our kids, there is no way I would want them to inherit any funds unless they are mature and responsible enough to handle it. So we have specific milestones and instructions in place that dictates how and when we want them to receive any financial inheritances.
Our Assets
The third thing is how do we want to handle our assets? Who can we trust that is financially responsible? How do we want our kids to receive their inheritances? We knew we did not want them to receive everything all at once. Especially since they are still in elementary school right now.
We had to decide how we wanted to distribute things to them using different milestones. We also wanted to to be clear that if the kids weren’t in the position to be financially responsible, they wouldn’t see any of it. We also have instructions on using a certain percentage to donate to a charities.
What I ended up doing was I listed out every single asset that we owned onto a single document and included all the information like account info, contact numbers, and login information so that our family would not have to scramble around searching for these things.
An optional thing to do:
Now on top of those 3 areas, I even took it a step further and wrote out a letter to my kids.
It was a very difficult letter to write. Be warned that you may have tears as you write this. It definitely isn’t necessary to do but I wanted to leave my kids with some last words of encouragement and a reminder that we loved them very much.
At the end of the day…
I completely understand why this is a topic that gets put into the back burner. Who wants to take time out of their busy lives to plan and prepare for something that may not happen for quite some time? Who wants to discuss death and dying, especially our own.
We would much rather plan the next vacation or what fun things to do this upcoming weekend. Some of you may even feel like you barely have time to plan for what to eat for dinner the next day, let alone what should happen after you pass away.
But listen, we’re not invincible. Anything can happen to any of us, at any given moment.
If you could care less about what happens to you, your kids, your loved ones, or your assets after you pass, then for sure, no need to spend any brain power thinking about this.
But if you’re a little like me and want to make sure your loved ones are taken care of no matter what, then i would urge you to schedule into your calendar to sit down with your spouse to discuss this.
Remember, it doesn’t need to be complicated. Recall the 3 areas I mentioned earlier. 1) Making sure your healthcare wishes are known ahead of time 2) Decide who you want to be your kid’s legal guardian and 3) Plan out how you want your wishes and assets to be distributed.
I’ll leave you with these final thoughts to consider.
If all your hard earned assets that you have worked your whole life ended up just sitting in their accounts till the end of day, or even worse, the government got their hands on it instead, wouldn’t that be such a waste?
Or if you got into an accident and no longer are capable of making your own decisions, would your family know what your wishes are if they were faced with a life or death scenario?
And if the last person on this earth that you would ever want to take care of your kids, ended up being the one that did, how would that make you feel?
Picture this…your daughter has made it to her senior year in high school, she’s confident in herself, is a straight A student, top of her class, successfully juggles work, sports and school, everyone loves her, she has a good attitude, is ambitious, well rounded, and responsible. It’s basically everything you could ever hope for your daughter to become.
So why do we cringe then when people ask us, “so are you ready for the teenage years?” Why do most of us dread these years? Well we can’t help to feel that way when we hear stories like “my daughter committed suicide, my son is getting into fights at school, they are being bullied, my daughter is pregnant, my kids rebel at us every chance they get, getting into trouble with the law, and of course, my kids have major attitude.
BUT…..What if there was a magic pill that we could give to our kids that will guarantee they turn out like the perfect angel we envision them to grow up to be? Hah! Fat chance right?
The truth is that we can’t guarantee our kid’s teen years will be smooth sailing. Obviously we all know that much. As parents, we have the best of intentions for our kids. So if there is no magic pill, what would be the next best thing? A friend recommended, “Taking off to Hawaii for a few years to meditate and find enlightenment while the husband stays back and holds up the fort”. Sigh…if only that was reality.
In all seriousness, I do believe we as parents, can make or break these teenage years.
As a parent who has yet to go through this phase myself, there is tremendous value in learning from parents who have survived the much dreaded teenage years.
So I hope to share some advice that I have collected and some “things I would have done differently” from other parents that you and I may be able glean from to help us to best prepare ourselves and our kids through their adolescent life as best as possible. The more we know, the better we can prepare.
Always listen listen listen. Have a lot of discussions and talk with them about everything. Praise them when they share with you “So glad you were able to tell me that” So the communication ways stay open. You want them to come to you when they face a tough choice. Also have many talks about sex. Made huge difference in late teen sand early 20’s.
Set clear expectations and boundaries so that you can give them their independence and room to make mistakes and learn and grow from it
Teach money and responsibilities at an earlier age
Be more open minded
Encourage them to make their own decisions so they would become independent & self determined individuals
Don’t lecture, preach, or nag, but rather listen and guide them. Respect their thoughts
Earning money to get what they wanted. Saving more for it makes the appreciate and value life more. Teach then they can do and become who or whatever they dream, when they get out in the world, but for now do what I say when you’re under my roof
So I can pass on my bullet proof vest, cape, safety goggles and box of tissues and tell all of you to hold on, be consistent, set boundaries, learn to deflect the eye roll, monitor social media and communicate with your child as their parent
Too many outlets these days ie via social media so it allows them to avoid the issue instead of facing it. Social media makes heightens peer pressure, low self image and self esteem because it’s so easy to see your friends and compare yourself, even though it is all a facade.
Don’t fight with them to get your way. Work on compromise and problem solving with them. Let them take the lead on coming up with a game plan because that’s the only one that will work
Don’t give them everything they want, make them earn it themselves
Let them fall down a few more times in life. I look back and think I didn’t prepare them well enough for disappointment in the real world.
Set expectations but let them create their path (earn money, behavior, respect, set goals etc)
Provide structure and keep them busy in their younger years with activities so they have less opportunity to get themselves into trouble or associate with the wrong friends
Be 100% open and honest
Instruct them that they always have choices, but consider the consequence of each decision
would be more hands on with their goings and not so much freedom. Talk more
Never be so busy that you don’t have the time
Teach them to be a leader and not a follower.
All of these pointers are so important! Boy do we have a lot of work to do ahead of us to prepare. The one thing I have been hearing being repeated multiple times is to do whatever you can to make sure the line of communication is open. The last thing we want is for our kids to shut down and feel like they can’t come to us to discuss their problems.
If you have read this far, you’re probably thinking, “sure…easier said than done!” No doubt about it. All we can do is our best and hope for the best. What I do know for sure is that the earlier we can incorporate some of these skills and values into our kids, the easier it will be when our kids become teenagers themselves.
Among all the dreaded stories are the ones that give us new parents the hope that our kids will turn out ok. That we can trust them to make good and safe choices. Stories that inspires us to strive to experience the same kind of relationships with our kids and stories that we can look forward to for ourselves as well. So there is light at the end of the tunnel when you hear comments like these:
“I have 3 teenage girls 14, 16, 18 and 22 year old son. I am loving this stage of life more than any other stages so far”
“I’m loving the teen years so far!!!…I have 2 teenage boys, they’re like little men, with their own opinions and jokes! Fun time for sports”
“It has its definite stresses but I love it! The conversations are awesome”
“It is so fun to watch them grow into the adults they will be, and the conversations we have now I wouldn’t trade for anything”
So let’s get out there and raise our kids to grow up into strong, independent, and successful men and women of the future. Let’s not dread the teen years but instead, look forward to them and make them be the best years we possibly can.
Struggle with staying on top of your bills and budgeting?
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Tired of living paycheck to paycheck?
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Have no clue on how to even get in control of your financial life?
Download this FREE Monthly Budgeting Action Plan, which includes Worksheets with step by step instructions on guiding you exactly on what you need to do to set up your own family budgeting plan that works for you and your family.
Struggle with staying on top of your bills and budgeting?
Do you stress out and dread when the 1st of the month rolls around?
Tired of living paycheck to paycheck?
Have constant arguments with your spouse around the family finances?
Have no clue on how to even get in control of your financial life?
Download this FREE Monthly Budgeting Action Plan, which includes Worksheets with step by step instructions on guiding you exactly on what you need to do to set up your own family budgeting plan that works for you and your family.
Do you struggle with getting your kids to clean up their room?
Are you ready for your kids to be more responsible?
Would you like your kids to be able to manage their time better?
Ready for a simple way to teach your kids good money management habits?
Download this FREE Family Chore and Money System Action Guide. It includes worksheets with step by step instructions on guiding you exactly what you need to do to set up your own chore, schedule and money management plans.
