Category Archives: Family

A Rare Special Frugal Activity With My Son

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Meteor

Meteor Showers

Last night, my son semi-excitedly asked me if I want to watch a meteor shower.  That day, I was pretty ragged, not sleeping much because of computer problems I’ve been having for the last few days.  I could have said, no thanks son, I’m too tired… but I didn’t, and here’s why!

  • It’s rare that my son ask me to do things with him, so when he does, I try very hard to make it happen with him.
  • There are only so many meteor showers during the year, and if it’s overcast or the moon is too bright, then there are even less opportunities.
  • It’s a great frugal activity, we just sit in a couple of chairs each of us wrapped in our own blankets (if it’s cold like last night) and just look up in the sky and joke around.
  • Letting my son come up with a plan and following it through, helps him build his confidence and makes him feel more like a leader and decision maker!
  • It’s actually kind of fun to see the meteors zip across the sky!  In the half an hour that we were out there, I saw about 10, and my son saw about 30.  At one point, he saw three at once!  His eyes are faster than mine so he’s able to see and react more quickly.

After having such a great positive experience, the next time, I think I’ll make popcorn and prepare some warn beverage if it’s cold like last night, perhaps hot chocolate and hot tea.  If time permits, perhaps we’ll even build a campfire in the backyard.  Starting a campfire is one of his favorite things to do.

-MR

Trophies in Life, Which Holds The Most Value?

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When I was younger, I studied Tae Kwon Do.  I was pretty good at it because at my first tournament, I won first place for my division.  What especially made the victory “oh so sweet” was that everybody in my dojo said it would be a great experience for me, but said I wouldn’t win.  They based this believe on the fact that the tournament was a state-wide one with people coming up for it that lived hours away.  It was a very big tournament!

The 2 1/2 foot trophy is great, and I when I look at it, I still live some of the tournament challenges in my mind…  I remember the special kick that I invented and how I got nailed in the head with a spinning back kick from an opponent and how I overcame that opponent; and then how I won the last match after being down by 2 point.  But that was then and this is now!

As much as that trophy hold value for me, the picture of my family at Disney and the memories that it invokes is worth much more to me than my old karate trophy!  You see, my karate trophy is a memory that only I have…  My family isn’t part of it so it has little meaning to them, but the family picture of when we went to Disney, everybody remembers.  The karate trophy was one day in my life, whereas the Disney family picture was for a shared week for my family!

So while I like and value my karate trophy, I still value the photo of my family and I in Disney with Cinderella’s Castle in the background more so.

What common items have more value than your past trophies?  If there was a fire in my house and I had to choose between our Disney Family picture book or a my karate trophy, I wouldn’t even hesitate to grab the Disney family pictures…

-MR

My Son Turns 10, Thoughts and Regrets

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My son has recently turned double digits!  He’s now 10, and the time just flew by…

I think he’s had a good childhood to this point, but there are things that I didn’t get to do with him that I wanted to do. 

So I thought I’d list some of my regrets:

  • Playing scientist:  I envisioned my son and I doing experiments down in the basement, inventing things and learning the properties of various materials.  While I still might have a little time left, some of the magic is gone.
  • Building a FireHouse:  I always wanted to build my son a firehouse for his fire engines.  I procrastinated and he got a pre-assembled wooden firestation for a present from a grandparent.  I did build an additional extension that attaches to the initial structure.
  • Motorcycle or Go Kart Riding:  I always wanted to get my son a minibike, small motorcycle, or a go kart…  But since I don’t have the land to run these, I never did this.  So my son had to settle for his grandpa’s riding lawnmower  and occassioinally driving my car in the junior high parking lot.  We also raced gocarts at a paid place.
  • Reading the Harry Potter book:  I wanted to read this with my son, but life got busy and complicated so we only got to start it and it fell by the wayside.  We did read a few encylopedia brown books thought!

After thinking about it, I haven’t done as bad as I thought!  But the time has gone quickly!  For the next project, we are going to build a fort roof for his swing (for shade).

Would you like to join a contest for a free book called “Enjoy your Money” if so click here to learn more!

-MR

Birthday Dividend Funds For My Kids

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For my son and daughter’s birthdays, they each get $10 for every year that they are old.  Actually, that’s not entirely true.  I’ve given them $50 for every birthday until their 6th.  On their 6th, I then give $10 for every year that they are old…  Once they hit 10 years old, I’m increasing the amount above age 10 by $20 instead of $10 per age.  So when they are 11, they will get $120 instead of $110 as before.

My Birthday Money Gift Schedule is below:

           
  Age Money      
  1 $50      
  2 $50      
  3 $50      
  4 $50      
  5 $50      
  6 $60      
  7 $70      
  8 $80      
  9 $90      
  10 $100      
  11 $120      
  12 $140      
  13 $160      
  14 $180      
  15 $200      
  16 $220      
  17 $240      
  18 $260      

this is simple enough, I’d like to make it more interesting.  So what I decided to do is start to invest my money into a stock that pays a dividend.  Then once the dividend provided by the stock is high enough, I’ll use that money to pay for my son and daughter’s birthday money gift.

I don’t expect to have enough money initially in the first few years, so that’s where the challenge will come from.  I need to find a source of money to put into the Stock Dividend Fund 🙂

Perhaps I will try to sell stuff on eBay again (I did this in the past).  That would be a fun challenge!  Or perhaps I’ll try to get a side job working at something.  What I don’t want to do is channel my earned income into the fund.  Between my kid’s 529s and brokerage accounts…  I’m pretty tapped!

Do you think this is a good idea?  And do you think that what I contribute for birthday money is enough?

-MR