Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Money, Kids & Family”
I’ve written previously about my attempts to teach our children about investing in order to demonstrate the value of letting your money work for you. With the raging bull market, it had been an easy lesson, since every time we checked their investments they could see gains. Now comes the greater challenge. How can I teach my kids to stay …
A few years ago, our daughter befriended a girl who spoke no English. The girl’s father, a Michelin-rated chef from Tuscany, had been recruited to run a high concept Italian restaurant in LA. For the record, at the restaurants I frequent, Michelin means tires, not food. My daughter’s first language is Spanish, which was similar enough to Italian that the …
I was recently listening to the excellent This American Life podcast, and came across a story that struck a chord. A divorced father unexpectedly gained custody of his nine-year-old daughter during weekdays, and was bothered by the intrusiveness of her unending questions when he was trying to accomplish tasks in the evenings. Trying to put an end to the interruptions, …
I had a challenging moment after our flight home from Mexico City last night. It had to do with a burrito we’d lugged home over 1500 miles and across two time zones. On this latest trip, we’d spent a week each in Oaxaca and Mexico City. We deliberately made this a slow travel trip, enjoying late breakfasts in our Airbnb, …
Dr. Jim Dahle, a.k.a. the White Coat Investor, has tempted many a blogger by dropping oblique references to how he pays his children to model for his tremendously successful blog. There is great appeal in the idea that you might hire your children to work for your business; that their earnings, as part of a family business and while in …
A big part of my motivation to cut back on shifts is to spend more time with my kids, currently finishing the second and fourth grades. I’m a hands-on dad. I know their teachers, volunteer in their classrooms, and their classmates know me. Not all the time I spend with them is roses and sunshine. On a recent weekend morning …
[Ed: If you follow physician financial blogs or fora, you’ve undoubtedly come across the prolific comments of Gasem, a retired 60ish anesthesiologist whose unusual life trajectory cannot be done justice by a brief introduction. His writing is brutally honest, his insights are rational yet run counter to accepted dogma, and his prose is engaging and manic. Many of us pursuing …
I made a brief visit to a dear friend who recently became a single mother by choice. We met when we were seventeen at a summer program for high school students on the campus of UC Santa Barbara. Between the beach and falling in love with a new crush every 3 days, it was adolescent heaven. But I digress. …
My eight year old son and I were lounging on the sofa with a few minutes to spare before piano lessons commenced. Sun was streaming through windows overlooking the Pacific, warming the exposed bare skin on our arms. We were at opposite ends of the sofa, playing that game where we plant the soles of our bare feet against one …
This morning I read a book review in the New Yorker exploring the inherent tensions in raising a child prodigy: you want your special snowflake to make the most of their potential without spending so much time in competitive mode that their childhood is defined exclusively as a long and dreadful slog toward adulthood. Every elementary school classroom has at …