Foster Homes: Will they Survive the Economy?

By Lara Turner

With the economy in the state it is in, providing foster care for children has become a lot harder to do. Families who would normally take in two to four children, on top of the two or three children they already have on their own, have to decline because of money shortages. When agencies set a child up with a family the agency gives the family a certain amount of money per month for most of the child's needs, but because of the way the market is right now agencies have had to cut costs 10%. Another issue is that foster families are being forced out of their homes that have five bedrooms into homes that only have three. These families cannot foster children even if they wanted to because they have no room. Foster agencies are worried because now more than ever children are being put into foster care because their own families cannot take care of them, but they have no where for the children to go. Some of the agencies have considered cutting down on salaries in order to try and put these children into a home. 

Even though this seems to be the trend for most agencies, one agency in Kansas, says that with government backing to help them advertise the need for foster homes, they have had more volunteers than ever before. Many of these families can afford to have an extra child or two in the home or they are "empty nesters" and want the company of children again. People from this agency have said that the families volunteering  say that it is about the experience and not about the money. They are willing to tighten up their budgets a little in order to help a child in need.

http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_foster12.29e159c.html

http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=20257657&BRD=1160&PAG=461&dept_id=190958&rfi=6

http://www2.ljworld.com/news/2009/feb/08/more-families-mull-fostering-children/?city_local

Foster Care

Posted By Lara Turner

Keeping wealth in the family

By Walecia Konrad
Copied and Pasted by Asim Mohammed
New York (Money) -- Lisa and Bruce Brown are fortunate enough to have plenty of assets to protect. Foremost of these is their children: The Browns are the proud parents of four-year-old Emma, and they have another baby on the way.




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Helping Your Teen Manage Their Money

How to help your teen manage their money
These five tips can help your son or daughter understand budgeting

By: Asim Mohammed

Parents can help teens learn about handling money by going over some simple ideas. These five tips come from the National Endowment for Financial Education, an Englewood, Colo.-based group with a program geared toward teenagers.

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Being Married vs Being Single

By: Asim Mohammed

Everyone knows there are many financial advantages of being married. However, not many people realize that there are financial advantages of being single too. Married couples have the benefit of sharing responsibilities and financial duties. Having a double or pooled income can help a couple reduce stress when bills and expenses need to be paid. The ease of having shared health-insurance coverage saves money for a couple. The big plus of being married is having the ability to claim additional deductions and credits. Increased earnings or shared income can result in some considerably and generous tax breaks that are not available to people who file their taxes separately or if they were to file as single.
Even though there are more advantages of being married, there are some advantages of being on the other side of the fence, being single. Liability is a topic where being single is advantageous. For example if a couple are both doctor's, which is a high-liability profession, if one gets sued that means the other persons assets are just as liable whereas if it was one doctor only one set of assets would be at risk. Another example is if two people were trying to get married and one was in good financial standing and the other was buried in debt, it might be a bad idea for the financially stable person to get married to someone who is buried in debt. It would bring them down as well. In a situation like this it would be better to stay single. Being single usually comes without the responsibility of providing for children, whereas for a married couple being responsible for children is common. In this case, single people save more money for themselves because their expenses would be a lot less compared to a married couple with kids.
The tax breaks of being single are great too. For instance, if you had an unmarried couple who both owned property they could have a larger write off compared to a couple who owns property, even though the couple’s property might be worth more.
The advantages of being single vs. married vary, though the positives of being married may be greater, it is just a matter of which life style fits you better.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/CollegeAndFamily/SuddenlySingle/WhenItPaysToStaySingle.aspx?page=1

http://www.lifamilies.com/article/take-a-break-financial-and-tax-benefits-of-being-married-1088.html

http://www.sciaga.pl/tekst/57309-58-advantages_and_disadvantages_of_being_married

Teaching Children Good Money Habits

By Lara Turner

The life-long benefits of teaching children good money habits make it well worth the effort. children who are not taught these lessons pay the consequences for a lifetime. It provides an overview of the topic as well as teaching suggestions for addressing earning, spending, borrowing, sharing, and saving. It also includes a quick self-evaluation and developmental charts that discuss specific teaching activities parents can do for kids at different age levels. This resource would be an invaluable tool for parents and would make a great "give away" for schools, parents educators, and other service providers...

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Public vs Private Education

By Lara Turner

Public and private schools are both great ways for children to get an education, but for different families different aspects of each type of schooling are important. One of the biggest differences between public and private schools is that the government pays for public school and private school has a tuition that families must pay. This can be a huge factor for parents when deciding which type of school their children should attend. This has always been a big issue, but now with the economy in the state that it is in, more and more families cannot afford private schools so they are either directly sending their children to public schools or pulling their children out of private and switching them over. Another big difference is that public schools admit anyone who wants to enroll and private schools are selective with who they let in. These different types of administration lead to different programs that are offered at each school. Public schools tend to offer more of a broad range of subjects and sports because they have a wide variety of students with different interests and goals and they want to be able to make sure that everyone is able to excel and learn to their full potential. Private schools on the other hand, tend to accept students who have something in common with what the school offers and because of this, even though the students may be from different backgrounds, they all still have a common goal with their peers. A third difference is that teachers at public schools must be certified and teachers at private schools do not need to be certified. Both public and private schools have the same purpose, which is to teach children and get them ready for the time when they become adults and lead their own lives, so going to a public or private school depends on parents and how they think their children should be taught.

http://www.greatschools.net/cgi-bin/showarticle/197

http://www.browardschools.com/info/education.htm

http://educationwonk.blogspot.com/2006/01/private-vs-public-schools-some.html