A practical approach to affording your kids from cradle to college. Bringing home your bouncing baby boy or girl should be an exciting time of celebration–not cause for worry about how you’re going to pay for feeding, clothing, and caring for your new bundle of expenses. The average family will spend between $11,000 and $16,000 during a new baby’s first year, and more than $200,000 before a kid’s eighteenth birthday. Unfortunately, a second child only doubles your costs, with little economy of scale for each additional baby. Before you start using these statistics as birth control, take a deep breath and know that you can have a family and make a comfortable future for your children while saving for your own important goals. The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents shows you the way, with information on how to: • Safeguard your child’s well-being with wills, trusts, and life insurance • Best weigh your child-care options and decide whether to go back to work • Save on taxes with child-friendly tax credits and deductions plus tax-advantaged benefits at work • Manage your family’s health-care costs • Save for long-term costs by setting up a college fund • Spend smart and save money at every stage of your child’s development • Continue to contribute to your own retirement savings From maternity (and paternity) leave to flexible spending accounts to 529 college plans, The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents provides all the information you need to meet your child’s expenses while also protecting your family’s financial security.

Doepke and Zilibotti investigate how economic forces shape how parents raise their children. They show that in countries with increasing economic inequality, such as the United States, parents push harder to ensure their children have a path to security and success. Economics has transformed the hands-off parenting of the 1960s and '70s into a frantic, overscheduled activity. Growing inequality has also resulted in an increasing 'parenting gap' between richer and poorer families, raising the disturbing prospect of diminished social mobility and fewer opportunities for children from disadvantaged backgrounds. The authors discuss how investments in early childhood development and the design of education systems factor into the parenting equation, and how economics can help shape policies that will contribute to the ideal of equal opportunity for all. --From publisher description.

This combination parenting and personal finance book helps parents teach their children key money skills--such as saving, spending, budgeting, investing, building credit, and donating--that they'll need to become financially secure adults. In this updated edition of Raising Financially Fit Kids, Joline Godfrey shares knowledge gleaned from two decades of preparing children and families for financial independence and stewardship, philanthropic effectiveness, and meaningful economic lives. At the heart of the book are three big ideas: • Financial education is not just about the money; it’s about building great families and raising self-confident kids who have the tools to realize their dreams. • Financial sustainability means living within one’s means and acquiring skills to create and manage human and financial capital. • Giving wisely is a global citizen’s responsibility. Designed for parents, grandparents, mentors, advisors, and educators, Raising Financially Fit Kids uses ten core money skills applied across five developmental life stages: children, tweens, middle schoolers, high schoolers, and twenty-somethings. Each stage includes age-appropriate activities that make financial fitness fun, from mall scavenger hunts to financial film festivals. In this global economic landscape, we all need financial fluency. Whether your child is five, fifteen, or twenty-five years old, it’s never too late to teach financial literacy. Raising Financially Fit Kids prepares your children for the complexities of living in a global economy and helps your family up your game from good to great.

The system will show you how to teach your children to manage money and have a good attitude while they're learning to earn, budget, and spend wisely.

Financial Peace Junior is designed to help you teach your kids about money. It's packed with tools, resources and step-by-step instructions for parents. What can be intimidating is made ultra-easy. There are ideas for activities and age-appropriate chores, and you'll have all the tools you need to make learning about money a part of your daily life. Your kids will love the exciting games and toys. The lessons of working, giving, saving and spending are brought to life through fun stories in the activity book, and kids will love tracking their progress on the dry-erase boards Financial Peace Junior doesn't just give you the tools to teach your kids to win with money--it shows you how.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

Teach your children to make sound financial decisions. Prepare them to use their money wisely and with a purpose Money issues challenge every family, no matter their background. That’s why Money Minded Families: How to Raise Financially Well Children offers advice on how every adult and child can be "financially well." The book explores how we can align our individual values with finances, while planning for a more secure financial future. It looks at how we can save, spend, share, and invest with a purpose. The author supplies financial basics for families and direction on creating a family mission statement, in order to help drive mindful financial choices. With the help of this book’s holistic financial guidance, families can take steps to live their best financial lives, rather than simply getting by. Readers will find advice on: Practicing financial mindfulness Understanding the current financial landscape Spending with a focus on personal values Understanding key financial concepts Engaging in healthy financial socialization Becoming financially independent Today’s financial environment sets up unique challenges, including concerns over Social Security, sky-high college costs, and debt. Kids are more likely to make their buying decisions online rather than in stores. It’s important that children’s knowledge about money begins in the home. When parents actively teach their kids about money, it can contribute to their chances of future financial success. Within Money Minded Families, parents will find tools for evaluating and improving their own financial wellness. They can also teach their children about positive financial health using the book’s activities, which are organized by age.