Dave Says - December 20, 2010 (Dave Ramsey)

Dave Ramsey Home Page ^ | December 20, 2010 | Dave Ramsey

[CSM]

An allowance is like welfare

Dear Dave,

How do you feel about giving an allowance to kids who are younger than 10 years old?

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

I don’t do allowances for anyone. The word “allowance” sounds way too much like welfare to me.

We put our kids on commission at an early age. If they worked, they got paid. If they didn’t work, they didn’t get paid. We put a little dry-erase board on the refrigerator and listed all the jobs they had to do during the week, with a dollar amount next to each one. When you did a certain job, you were paid that amount.

Keep in mind, though, kids shouldn’t get paid for every little thing they do around the house. There are some jobs they should have to do just because they’re part of the family, or because mom or dad tells them to do that job. Some of these jobs should have a higher purpose, too. As a parent, you want to find as many teachable moments for your kids as possible.

Once they’ve earned their money, sit down with them and divide it into three separate envelopes: one for saving, one for spending, and one for giving. This way, they get to learn about these three important things while they’re learning how to work.

Teaching kids that there’s an emotional connection between work and money is one of the best things you’ll ever do as a parent. If they learn this when they’re five, chances are they won’t be clueless and financially irresponsible when they’re 55!

—Dave

What does "charged off" mean?

Dear Dave,

We recently saw a copy of our credit report, and one debt we had was listed as “charged off as bad debt.” What does this mean?

Sheila

Dear Sheila,

Simply put, it means you didn’t pay them. You had a debt you never paid, so the creditor never got their money, and they wrote you off as a deadbeat. I’m being facetious, of course, but in credit terms that’s pretty much what it means.

If you want to get that cleaned up, you’ll have to go to the creditor and make arrangements to settle the debt with them. Once you do that, it will read “bad debt settled.” It’s still not an ideal situation, but it’s much better than having “charged off as bad debt” stuck on your credit report.

Remember, you always settle a bad debt in writing. Never give a creditor or collections company electronic access to your checking account, because lots of them will steal from you. I’ve seen plenty of cases where there was no written agreement, and a collector took out more than they said they would. Then, somebody’s house payment bounced!

—Dave

[CSM]

Merry Christmas and happy new year to all. I will be out of commission for the remainder of the year, so I hope all is well with everyone that is on the best ping list on FR!

;-)

Dave Ramsey Fan Ping List.

If you would like to be added to the “Live like no one else, so that you can LIVE like no one else” list, feel free to Freepmail me.

[GnuHere]

Working for money - what a concept. One of my friends said the director of a local Christmas charity program tried to clamp down on handing out rent money to people who didn’t deserve it. One “couple” got irate because their receipts were examined and they had spent hundreds of dollars at the mall. The charity lady pointed out, “Sorry, that was your rent money.” Both the pikers got all agitated and one of them actually said, “I have the right to shop!”

Great, find some Obama money!

[OCCASparky]

I had an allowance as a kid, but chores to go with them. Don’t do the chores, don’t get an allowance—pretty simple.

[winodog]

Marking people with a score is from the devil. No wonder the fedgov.con allows people to be branded as useless eaters

[Diana in Wisconsin]

“We put our kids on commission at an early age. If they worked, they got paid. If they didn’t work, they didn’t get paid.”

I did that, too.

And yet, somehow, as adults they’ve learned to milk the system. Grrrrrrrrr! (Never-ending Unemployment benefits and free schooling at taxpayer expense.)

Note: These are boys that I RAISED, but they have no DNA link to me whatsoever. (Obviously, LOL!)

I tried, Freepers. I really did! :)