Resources

For Parents

We live in a very materialistic world, nation, state and area. When you meet someone, one of the early questions asked is what the person does or did for a living. As soon as the answers are given, labels are attached and those labels include net worth. I am a retired attorney, so automatically I […]

Give the Blessing of Life It’s time to learn and see how you can blend a few words, words that are closely related to each other. Legacy Giving – verb. To convey one’s values through creation of a future gift to charity. A foresighted action to strengthen a favorite cause. Stewardship – noun. The job […]

The property laws for children’s toys highlight an amusing view of a serious problem. The laws of property ownership from a child’s view are: 1. If I like it, it’s mine. 2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine. 3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine. 4. If I had it a […]

John Piper in his book Money, Sex & Power makes an interesting observation. He asks, “Have you ever pondered the possibility that the first and the last Commandments are virtually the same, and function as kind of an enclosure, or bracketing, that makes the other eight commandments in the middle possible?” I had never thought […]

The stock market is hard to figure out. The best advice I have ever heard is “buy low and sell high.” The lack of practical and useful details in the saying makes it hard to apply. My actual personal experience has all too often been closer to “Buy high and sell low.” If you put […]

Nearly two out of every three working Americans expect to delay their retirement.  Many have no choice.  The most commonly stated reason is insufficient savings. When and how can you start preparing for retirement and for the rest of your life?  The answer to that question is easy.  Yesterday, if possible. 

A Retirement Guide for Millennials and More It’s crazy to start thinking about retirement in your twenties and thirties, isn’t it? Actually, it’s crazy not to start thinking and planning for retirement then! Yes, the world will be very different in thirty or forty years. Forget the world; American society will be very different in […]

Ready, get set, stop! That’s the problem if you do not plan your retirement! Retirement as a goal is not as easy as it may seem. You are definitely not just retiring from work but you are retiring into something. That “something” is something you should define and plan for long, long before and not after […]

Ready, get set, stop! That’s the problem if you do not plan to retire! Last month we looked at How to Prepare for Retirement, Part 1, covering some of the many steps you have to take to get ready for your retirement. Retirement as a goal is not as easy as it may seem. You […]

Retirement is a time of many changes and new products, services, opportunities and challenges. Many people will offer help. Always be aware that “help” and advice, especially from private websites are often motivated by opportunities to market services for a fee. These private websites are listed not as recommendations but because at the time of listing the […]

If you ask enough seniors what they regret about their finances before retirement, you will get hundreds of different answers. Wells Fargo Asset Management did just that in 2015. They got a wide variety of answers but there was one answer that stood out. It was the leading regret by an overwhelming margin. There also […]

How to instill the values of giving in your children – create a family legacy of giving As a parent, one of our most important jobs is to instill Biblical values in our children. One of the most important values we share as Christians is the scriptural principle of giving our time, talents, and treasure. However, […]

Planned giving is a phrase many hear but few understand. To a degree, it is like estate planning, a phrase often misunderstood itself because it is thought of as just getting a will or trust. True estate planning is far more than just a will or a trust (see Documents (And Protection) Everyone At Every […]

During the Coronavirus pandemic, that is a question I have heard from a number of people. “I am only one person, what can I do?” But you aren’t just one person, you are one of many asking the same question. There is strength in numbers – a lot of strength! Here are a few ideas […]

A Dangerous Combination While there are many reasons why marriages fail, disagreements over money are either the number one “cause,” or those disagreements make other problems worse. Often disagreements over money make reconciliation much harder. Money is not evil, but the love of money truly is the root of many kinds of evil, 1 Timothy […]

Here’s a great question for you. When you approach the end of the month and you have already reached the end of your money, ask, “where did it go?” Answering that question accurately is the key to making progress against the dilemma of having to decide which creditors get the last of the money and […]

Lessons for engaged couples and newlyweds Marriage, the joining together of two different lives (not to mention blended families where there are many different lives to join together), is difficult. The one area where more marriages are attacked and where they fail most often is in personal finances. Money, disputes over money and the uses […]

The sad truth is that many have saved nothing The numbers are bad, real bad. Northwestern Mutual released a report in 2018 that shows some shocking numbers. 78% of Americans are “extremely” or “somewhat” concerned being able to afford a “comfortable” retirement. Those concerns are justified based upon the following figures from that report: • […]

An Overview Proverbs 22:6 6 Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it. NASB That is a great proverb! But how do you train up that child? What is the best way to go? When should you start? And how do you […]

The Basics This is the second in a series of ten articles on this challenging topic. For Part 1, an overview of this topic, see Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 1. One of the funniest and most honest videos I have ever seen on YouTube was a video of two babies learning to […]

The Cost of Money In earlier articles, Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 1, and Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 2 we confronted the difficult task of teaching a lesson that is almost entirely counter-cultural and involves a fight against TV, peer pressure, and all of Satan’s army to help your children […]

Money is a Tool In our prior articles, Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 1, Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 2, and Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Part 3, The Cost of Money, we have written about teaching wise money management to children and youth. One of several lessons that hasn’t […]

The Power of Patience In our previous lessons, Teaching Money to Children and Youth, Parts 1, 2, 3, and 4, we have looked at overviews loaded with ideas for teaching money and stewardship, and then we looked at teaching about the cost of money and especially teaching a healthy fear of the power and use […]

Making Investment Lessons Fun Years ago, I read a cute question by someone whose name I can no longer recall. That story ended with a question that went like this, “How many millionaires do you know who made their wealth with bank savings accounts? Enough said.” The author was making a good point, you are […]

The Hardest Lesson – The Power of “No” Teach your children that “No” means No” God uses the word “no” a lot with me. I still don’t like it, but I am a lot more accepting of His sovereignty now after many years of life and many, many observations that “no” was really the best […]

The Power of an Allowance An allowance for children is a surprisingly controversial topic. There are almost as many opinions as there are blog pages and articles on this topic. I hesitated to add one more, but a broad consideration of this incredibly important concept is needed. Is an allowance a good, bad, or neutral […]

The Power of Plastic (and beyond) America went fairly quickly from hating debt when I was young, to embracing debt for the last 30 years. Even more quickly we have moved from the first form of plastic, a credit card, to having many credit cards, then to debit cards, and now to using a phone […]

Conclusion – My Top 10 I am going to conclude this series about teaching children and youth about money with a few final tips, a bit of a top 10 list. Some will be new but a few of the topics of this series were so foundational that they have to come up again in […]

Louis E. Boone is quoted as saying: “Don’t fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have.” Let’s apply those wise words to teaching Godly stewardship and money handling to your children. Could have Every parent falls […]

There are likely very few Christian articles that will start with a quote from, of all people, Hunter Thompson. For those not familiar with him, Hunter S. Thompson (1937 – 2005), was an author and journalist who hated authority and made many outrageous statements like, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to […]

“I dare you!” Those are challenging words coming from almost anyone. Now imagine those words came from God Himself. Really! Would God do that? Would God dare anyone to do something? He did! The book of Malachi is a series of questions and challenges by God directed at His people. One of those questions and […]

Reading tea leaves has an official name! I was surprised to find that the idea of fortune-telling, or telling a person’s future, from patterns in tea leaves, coffee grounds or even wine sediments has an official, scientific-sounding name, tesseography (or tasseomancy or tasseology). Somehow, I am skeptical that the alignment of tea leaves in the […]

There is something very unpleasant about the thought of retiring poorly. The idea of retiring and then having to go back to work because there is no money as you near the end of the month and you can’t find the money to do the things you want is bad, really bad. No one should […]

As the cost of tuition continues to rise, many students struggle to pay for their education. Oftentimes, parents get involved in helping their kids pay for college in one of several ways, including by consigning their student loans. Federal aid is a great option for students but, unfortunately, it often isn’t enough to cover the […]

“Don’t worry. Be happy! That is easier said than done by far, especially looking at our economy. 2018 was not a kind year for those watching the U.S. economy and the stock market. In 2019, 2020 and even 2021 the market has been down due to the pandemic but then came roaring back, and was […]

Getting out of debt is an honorable goal. The easy part is setting the goal, the hard part is figuring out how to get to that goal. It’s those in-between steps that are so tough. How can you do that in the shortest time possible? Here are a few ideas that may help shorten the […]

Physical and mental incapacity is not a fun topic and it is one most people love to avoid. But consider this: A family member develops a serious cancer and surgery is scheduled for debilitating radiation and chemotherapy. During that time and perhaps forever, everyone’s life is changed. A family member has an automobile accident or […]

We all get them, those emails telling us that we have an inheritance from an unknown relative – a really rich one – who left millions to us! Usually, that surprise relative is a prince in a foreign country we never knew was related to us. All we have to do is respond! Oh, I […]

In our earlier article on this topic, A Few Estate Planning Pitfalls, we considered five of the most common estate planning pitfalls, including, 1. Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish – get it done right. 2. Consider life insurance. 3. Watch out for changes in your family. 4. Have your assets increased? 5. How […]

“Hey, estate planning is a waste of my money. I don’t need a will, I don’t have much.” “My spouse is going to get everything so why would I need to spend a couple thousand dollars on estate planning?” “I’m too young to spend my money on that.” “I’ve got more important things to do […]

One of the most common problems with digging out from under debt is procrastination. There are a number of ways we try to mentally justify our procrastination, no matter how wrong they are. They include: My Debt Is Too Big To Manage, So Why Try? One basic rule for life is that when you find […]

That is an outrageous title! Save more than 10% of your income? Most Americans don’t save at all, much less save 10% or save more than that. Why would anyone say save more than 10%? That’s a fair question. The Bible, math and the realities of life answer that question and all agree. The Bible […]

Ironically, many parents who are themselves a model of generosity, stewardship, and long-term thinking take a decidedly short-sighted approach in how they teach that same habit of giving to their children. Why is this? Well, it’s easy to settle for behavior modification in our children rather than the true heart change that God desires. After […]

It is amazing! The advertisements come through like a gift from somewhere. It sounds too good to be true. And that may be the problem, it may not work and it may not be true, or at least not entirely true. I am writing about debt consolidation, a debt release “product” that is highly touted […]

One critically important part of a close walk with God is giving back to Him.  It is a command and a calling to give to God who has given so much for us.  John 3:16.  But it is hard to give when the past due notices arrive and the phone rings with the friendly call […]

Americans are drowning in debt! And here in the Sunshine State, Floridians have gone down as fast if not faster than most. The recession starting in 2008 drove Americans and Floridians farther in debt than ever before and the result was a flood of bankruptcies and foreclosures that ruined lives, destroyed a housing boom and […]

Charles was a successful business owner. Out of the blue, he received an offer from someone who wanted to buy it for $25 million–three times what it was worth a year earlier. “This is it, the time is right,” he announced to his wife Margaret. “We’re going to sell the company.” Charles and Margaret talked […]

The Idlewild Foundation makes no recommendation of any particular health insurance coverage or plan, and does not endorse any of these plans. Health insurance coverage is very personal and needs are unique to each individual and family and their particular circumstances. The market is impossible to address in a single article and it is unwise to rely upon one website […]

The importance of developing your Family Stewardship Philosophy now Over the course of history, fire has been a vital tool for empowering great achievements, but it has also burned many who brought it into their homes. Ironically, what begins as a desire to bless the family too often becomes a crippling curse. In this respect, wealth is […]

How to set up a Giving Circle One of the recent trends in giving is the rise of “Giving Circles” – individuals who come together to pool their assets to make a difference with their giving. Setting up a Giving Circle is easy, and you may be surprised how meaningful it is to give among […]

Many grandparents today ask themselves, “How much wealth should I pass on to my grandchildren? Will it be used for good, or for destruction?” Andrew Carnegie wisely said, “I not only ask, ‘Will my fortune be safe with my children?’ but, ‘Will my children be safe with my fortune?’”

Your mom drove you to the doctor and dentist for appointments.  Your dad made sure you got your homework done.  Your parents made you eat your vegetables.  That was their “job.” Now, the world is upside down and it is the other way around.  Now, you are the chauffeur for shopping and doctor’s appointment and […]

One of the great blessings of my life was when I received an inheritance from a great uncle that happened to be the amount of the down payment my wife and I needed to buy our home, the one we now have lived in and loved for almost forty years.  However, receiving an inheritance at […]

One in ten Americans rent a storage unit. One estimate from the industry says that Americans spend about $32 billion a year on storage units. That may make sense for some as they are temporarily storing family treasures during or after a move. But many are throwing their hard-earned money into storing what should be […]

Your future actually just started. Are you on board? Even if the answer is “yes,” there could be a problem. If you don’t know where you need to go or where you should aim, how can you possibly know what you need to do to get there? It makes some sense to give yourself some […]

Parents face many challenges, and one for Christian parents is overcoming the materialism and greed that are so completely a part of the society our children are raised in and live in every day. Download this a guide prepared by the National Christian Foundation on nurturing generosity in the home, a guide filled with Biblical, […]