A confession: I am one of those parents guilty of not always giving my kids their allowances. Â I know the disturbing lesson this teaches them — that when they grow up and eventually have bills and debts of their own they really don’t have to pay them on time. They can slide. Little will happen. Â Of course, when the mortgage or utility company and not your teens are the creditor, that’s absolutely not the case. Â
For the past two years, I have “promised” that this year will be different. Â It hasn’t been. Instead, there will come a week when one of my kids (or both) will say, Mom, you owe me 4 (or 5 or 7) weeks allowance. Â And not knowing if they are right or — perhaps — giving themselves the benefit of the doubt (that’s parental guilt working in their favor) — I pay up. Â More…
Pets.
Food.
Sex.
Michael Silverstein, co-author of the upcoming book Women Want More, asked thousands of women: What makes you happy? Those are the top answers.
Pets.
Food.
Sex.
Not loving spouses. Fabulous children. Interesting work. Or a bank account full of cash.
Pets.
Food.
Sex.
I got a sneak peek at the book and Silverstein’s thought process when we touched base earlier this week. And so I asked him: What’s the deal? More…
I was on Today this morning with some financial advice for surviving your baby’s first year as part of a segment with Mary Ann Zoellner and Alicia Ybarbo, authors of Today’s Moms, and Joy Bauer, Today’s nutritionist. Check out the video below, as well as the behind-the-scenes picture after the jump!
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As I write this, Teddy, my beloved cockapoo, has snuggled up to my feet (the benefits of working at home). He doesn’t know it, but last weekend he almost got a brother. We were out and about with our next door neighbors in a nearby town. They’ve been talking about getting a puppy. And together we wandered into a local pet store where there were two cockapoo puppies — brothers we were told — from a nearby breeder. “If you take one,” we’ll take the other, Eliot, my fiance, told my neighbors, not wanting to split them up.
In the end they opted to pass. I was disappointed. But then I thought about how much better this would be for my bottom line. Two dogs would mean twice the vet bills, twice the grooming, twice the food, twice the dog-sitter (when I travel for work, she often takes him overnight). In other words, thousands of dollars a year. And that doesn’t include start-up costs. More…
The best piece of parenting advice I ever got came from my mother. I was stressed out because my son wouldn’t eat — what else? — his veggies. He was happy to dine on mac and cheese and more mac and more cheese.  Especially more cheese. (This was in the days before my pal Sneaky Chef Missy Chase Lapine taught me you could bury broccoli in just about anything.) I thought I was failing motherhood. I was new at this.
In swooped my mother who told me to calm down. She said you can’t look at what kids (or adults for that matter) eat at a single meal or even in a single day. More…
This morning, as we were rushing to stuff lunches into already over-loaded backpacks, grab the tennis rackets and coats (because despite the fact that it’s officially spring, it was 20 degrees outside) my 14-year-old hit me with this question: “What’s a hedge fund, mom?”
I backed into an answer.
Me: Do you know what a mutual fund is?
Him: Ummmm….
Me: It’s usually a bunch of investments in stocks or bonds or both bundled together.
Him: Okay. (He turns and walks out the door and then, realizing we are having a conversation shouts,) I’m still listening.
Me: Well the whole point of a mutual fund is that if one of your stocks or bonds is losing money, the rest of them may not be so you won’t end up losing your whole investment.  That’s called “diversification.” Anyway, a hedge fund invests a whole bunch of investments at the same time too, but many of them are riskier than stocks and bonds. So for the most part only wealthy people are allowed to invest in them.
Him: Do you?
Me: Do I what?
Him: Do you invest in them?
Me: No.
Him: Can you put on Z-100?
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I am — as I am sure so many of you are — so sad about Natasha Richardson. Â I didn’t know her (I met her once, at a wake, but that doesn’t count as knowing). Â But I am truly upset for her children, her husband, her mother, her sisters. Â She seemed to be one of those one-in-a-million Hollywood people who actually did have it all. Â Perhaps because she lived no where near Hollywood.Â
For me, freak accidents like this one bring me back to the question: What if it was me? Â My literary agent told me of how he was once on a plane that seemed like it was absolutely going down. Â In that few moments he asked himself: Had he taken care of the people he loved? Â Had he dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s? Â And because he had, he was able to be at peace in the middle of a situation that turned out not to be a disaster after all. More…
