This post is in honor of my partner’s 5th Annual Blogging for LGBT Families.

In many ways my family is as traditional as Ward and June Cleaver’s.

I go to work early in the morning.  My spouse gets our six-year old son up for the day.  She walks him to school in morning and home again, in the afternoon.  I usually arrive back by dinnertime when we all catch up on the events of the day.

The difference, of course, is that our little “Beaver” Theodore has two Moms.

“Breadwinner” perhaps, but less dough

I’m the only woman in my office, and likely in my company, who has the “breadwinner” role.  To start with, my employer has very few women employees.  (“Too hard to find female physicists,” they say.  I say, “try here.”)  My female colleagues who are married with children, also typically carry the primary childcare responsibilities, too.  Even among my male colleagues who are married with children, most have working spouses, and the men have at least some nominal amount of childcare responsibilities.  Therefore when there is a long business trip needed in my office it often falls to myself or one of my childless (childfree?) colleagues.

You might think that these extra opportunities might add up to additional visibility in the grand scheme of one’s career, but I’m not yet living that dream.  Maybe there’s some payoff way down the road, but in the meantime, I end up being the person in the office who spends the most time away from his/her child — not a title I aspire to.

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Tags: blogging for LGBT families day

What do you wish for your child?  To grow up healthy, certainly.  Smart, hopefully.  Funny, kind, thoughtful, strong, brave, clean, and reverant — fantastic.  But we also want our children to be smart with their money.  To not be the next victim of a Madoff.  Or a mortgage scam.  Or a get-rich-quick scheme from a Nigerian email.

We want them to be independent and strong.  Professionally.  Emotionally.  Financially.

Where do they learn how to handle money?  Schools teach arithmetic.  Some teach accounting.  But where do you learn the importance of delayed gratification?  The value of saving today so that you have some tomorrow?  That money is a means but not an end?

In his latest book, Piggybanking — Preparing Your Financial Life for Kids and Your Kids for a Financial Life, Jeff Opdyke guides parents — and prospective parents — through the financial decisions you’ll make at each stage of raising children.

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Tags: financial literacy, Piggybanking, teaching children charity, teaching children financial responsibility

Recently I was at our town library with my six-year old son. I saw a copy of “Saving Money,” a slim easy-to-read book that I thought might make for an interesting review on the blog. Assuring my son that it wouldn’t count against his book limit of five, we checked it out and brought it home.

It’s never too early to teach the principles of financial literacy to children.  However, this book doesn’t cut it, and here are four reasons why:

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Tags: book review, financial literacy, Mary Firestone, saving money, teaching children financial responsibility

If you’re like me, you do most of your charitable donations at the end of the year.  That’s when I review my financial results for the year and decide how much to donate and which causes to support.

One of my favorite charities is Pennies for Peace.

It was founded by Greg Mortenson who was nursed back to health by Pakistani villagers after a mountain climbing accident.  He promised to return to properly thank them.  He returned a year later and built a school.  He then went on to build dozens of schools for boys and girls in rural Afghanistan and Pakistan.  His fascinating story is detailed in his book, Three Cups of Tea.  I hope this man one day receives the Nobel Peace Prize.

My six-year old son learned about Pennies for Peace through his Montessori kindergarten.  After the official school program ended, he wanted to continue collecting his coins for the cause.  He liked the idea that every penny collected would buy a pencil for a child.  For his birthday party this year, instead of presents, we asked that the children bring their pennies.  We received buckets of pennies.  We added to the pile throughout the year.  At the end of year, we counted and wrapped them. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Greg Mortenson, Pennies for Peace, teaching children charity

Financial education is a buzzword tossed around a lot today.  This whole subprime thing wouldn’t have happened if bankers hadn’t been so greedy and prospective mortagors so gullible (or greedy, too, in some cases).

We all need to do a better job of teaching our kids about money management.  The best we can hope for is that they learn from our mistakes.  Let us not repeat this misadventure — though I imagine that someday we’ll create a new one that will inadvertently run afoul.  (Think “Jurrasic Park” meets collateralized debt obligation.)

On this auspicious day, the Fourth Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day (huzzah! huzzah!), I thought I would write about what it is that LGBT families teach their offspring differently about money than Ward and June Cleaver might have done.  As is usually the case with an us-vs.-them comparison, more is similar than is different.  It doesn’t matter where you’re from, what you look like, or how you define your “family,” we all want our kids to grow up to be happy, successful, and financially responsible adults.  While most things we teach our kids are the same as the Cleaver’s (delayed gratification, how to handle an allowance, how to save up for a big purchase…), my family is a bit different than average. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: blogging for LGBT families day, financial education, kids

My best investment is not the traditional sort of realized gain, but rather, the investment of time, love, and attention.

The investment was the decision that my spouse and I made before we started a family that one of us would stay home with the child until he was old enough for school.  Dana and I were each raised in families with stay-at-home moms, and that was what we both wanted for our child.  The problem, of course, was we both had careers, and since we started our family rather late in life, each of us had climbed halfway up the proverbial ladder.  Who would jump off?

And how would we live on just one income?  We had always had two, roughly equal, incomes.  Having one of us stay at home would mean a significant change in our lifestyle.  From “2 incomes for 2 people” to “1 income for 3 people.”  Hmmm… Not favorable math.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: childcare, Mother's day

For 2008, the maximum that a child can make in investment income and not have it taxed at the parents’ rate is raised from $1700 to $1800.  Another change for 2008 is that it now also applies to 18-year-olds who do not have earned income to provide at least half the child’s support.  Likewise it applies to 24-year-olds (and under) who are full-time students and do not earn enough to provide half the child’s support.  As in 2007, it applies to all children under 18.

IRS Form 8615

Tags: child's investment income