Posts by Mary Beth Storjohann

Private school isn’t code for “out of reach.” Here, things to know about financing private preschool or private elementary school.

Is a 529 Plan the best option for saving toward your child’s education? CFP Mary Beth Storjohann weighs your options.

When raising a child with special needs, you may face unique financial challenges and decisions when planning your future. Here’s what to know.

Often, when children ask blunt questions about wanting toys, seeing bigger homes, or being rich or poor, they’re dismissed as being “impolite” or told it’s “none of their business” instead of getting a truthful answer. This sets a lesson that money is a topic to be avoided or that it’s rude to seek out financial information that they’re curious about. One of the biggest financial lessons we can teach our children is how to budget responsibly and realistically. By the time a child is in their early teens, they should be more than capable of doing the basic math involved with household budgeting.

As parents, it’s our job to protect, provide for, and educate our children. Whether it’s teaching them how to hold a pencil correctly, to respect their elders, to parallel park a car, or the ins and out of financial management, the onus is on us to send our children into the world well-rounded and prepared for what they’re about to encounter.

As someone who is experiencing the joys of sharing a living space with a toddler (and sharing my physical body with another tiny, growing human), I know first hand the exhaustion that we experience as parents. Of course, there’s the adventures, fun, cute memories and things they say, but at this stage in life, being routinely tired is a part of every day.

This exhaustion can make it easy to think that there are lessons we can skip over, push to a later date, or trust that our children will simply “pick up” on their own without our guidance. The topic this most often occurs with? Money.

If you’ve made the commitment to start or grow your family, chances are you know the excitement, stress, joy, and fear that come along with the decision. These feelings are closely followed by an array of questions regarding your finances and how to raise a child in general, that never seem to disappear.