Category: General

Dealing With the Transition to College You wake up one morning, and it finally hits you that your kids are no longer living with you; they’re not just gone for a few days, but for the year, maybe longer. Their bedroom is still their bedroom, except it’s clean, the bed is made, some things are…

Have “The Talk.” Let your kids know that you don’t have anything against them enjoying themselves, but that you want them to be smart about it. Be upfront: Tell them what you’re afraid of, whether it’s date-rape drugs in their drinks or, two months from now, seeing a video for sale on late-night TV documenting their “gone…

The decorations are down, your in-laws are gone, the kids are back at college … and the stack of credit card bills is piling up. Even though you meant to watch your spending this year, maybe you got a little charge-happy around the holidays. If you overspent this holiday, the debt you racked up may…

Sure, Santa’s fun and jolly but he’s not the only cultural holiday icon on the block. With so many winter holidays to celebrate, why not make this year’s festivities a time to honor the differences across cultures by learning how to celebrate other seasonal holidays? Kwanzaa First celebrated in 1967, this strictly cultural holiday serves…

Between the ages of about 12 and 20, children are vigilantes, monitoring every little thing you do or say to detect even the slightest potential for embarrassment. Quick to disassociate from or ridicule you for your behavior, dress or speech, kids are on high alert to maintain their “cool” in public, and as their parents,…

During your generation, the idea of moving back home with your parents would have been considered a cardinal sin, but for hundreds of thousands of today’s college graduates, it’s the thing to do. Known as the “Boomerang Generation,” today’s twenty-to thirty somethings see moving back in with you as a responsible way to get out of debt…

Deciding whether or not to attend graduate school can be difficult. Do you go straight through from undergraduate school? Do you enroll concurrently while working? Or do you get a job for a few years and later leave it behind to fully rededicate yourself to school? Even when you think you’ve figured it out, no…

Most people, even financially responsible ones, never quite get around to making a budget. Either they don’t really know where to start, they don’t think they need one, or they just plain don’t want to. Most of us would rather spend on things as they come than be bound by a budget. But now that…

Your college-aged kids figured out long ago how to master the art of being an amateur con artist. But what once began as being sweet-talked into buying low-budget items like $3.00 packs of trading cards and $5.00 Happy Meals has grown into being urged to shell out for $500 flat screens and game consoles. As…

$50. That’s how much tuition was at Yale in 1940. Today, you’d be lucky if $50 paid for even one of your child’s textbooks. For the 2020-2021 school year, Yale’s undergraduate tuition will be $55,500; tuition plus room and board will be $72,100. Chances are, you’re not paying that much. But you probably consider the…