Vanity vs Virtue, FinLit As Parental Love, Frugal College Tips: Family Finance Picks #70

This week, my favorite family finance picks are:

What is Your Twist — Kim Kardashian or Ozzie Nelson?

by Sam Renick on Sammy’s Save & Song Club

Sam highlights three recent vanity stories that are great fodder for meaningful money and values conversations with kids. One interesting discussion angle might be alternative uses for the same amount of money. For example, in the Kanye West and Kim Kardashian case: $750,000 buys four gold plated toilets, and it also buys 75,000 malaria preventing mosquito nets. Hmmm. The Cervantes quote comes to mind: “The gratification of wealth is not found in mere possession or in lavish expenditure, but in its wise application.”

That said, many folks who purchase high end luxury items are also extremely generous and hard working, so Sam’s point about taking care not to pre-judge is a great topic too.

Discuss on FaceBook.

Treating Your Kids Without Spoiling Them

Like most parents, I like to treat my kids: occasional movies, ice cream, the candy shop, that kind of stuff. I also like to emphasize the value of a dollar and encourage moderation. So how do you do both at the same time?

Here’s a technique I like to use:

• Set a quick budget for the outing. No tedious haggling, or the deal is off!
• Parent covers the budgeted amount.
• Spend more? Kid picks up the difference.
• Spend less? Kid pockets the remainder.

Simple. Effective. Even educational. The experience invariably leads to interesting discussions about things like comparison shopping, impulse buys, buyer’s remorse, pricing, relative value, marketing, etc.

How to Load Your Prepaid Card from Wells Fargo

Do you bank at Wells Fargo but also use prepaid cards for your kids or for envelope budgeting purposes? If your prepaid cards have account and routing numbers, it’s easy to load them directly from your Wells Fargo checking account using a browser or your mobile phone. (Don’t bank at Wells Fargo? No worries. The steps are very similar at most banks and credit unions, so read on anyway.)

Here’s an outline of the steps:

1. Find the account and routing numbers for your prepaid card.
2. Add your prepaid card as a Non-Wells Fargo checking account in Wells Fargo Online.
3. Initiate the account verification process which involves Wells Fargo making two small trial deposits to your prepaid card and then reversing the deposits with one withdrawal.
4. Check your prepaid card for the trial deposit amounts in a few business days.
5. Enter the trial deposit amounts back in Wells Fargo Online to complete the verification process.
6. Make transfers from your checking account to your prepaid card using Wells Fargo Online or from the Wells Fargo mobile banking app. Each transfer typically takes about 3 business days and is free. An expedited transfer incurs a fee of a few dollars.

Note: If you have FamZoo prepaid cards and you’d like to investigate other card loading options including instant and free options, see here.

Here’s a detailed look at each step with screen shots so you’ll know what to expect along the way: