We took some ribbing from family and friends about how much stuff we had, but the fact is that I never had time to completely go through things over the years because I was too busy homeschooling my kids, and I certainly can’t regret that. Also, we kept things that would be needed for our long-held dream of living on acreage, a dream that was apparently not in God’s will, and it wasn’t until we bought this tiny house in town that we knew we could give those things up.

We took countless boxes to Goodwill. We’ve given a lot of toys and homeschooling items to friends with young children. We’ve sold a lot of things on Craig’s List. And there are a few more things that need to go, but we’re working on that.

The hardest items to give up were the books. We love books. And though we do have a Kindle with plenty of books on it, the fact is that there’s nothing like holding a much-loved book in your hands. But there just wasn’t room for all the books we loved.

I’ve sold and given away many books in the past, but there were some I could never let go of, including those I used for my kids when I first designed Life Prep for them. I’m going to be giving those away on this blog soon, because I can’t use them with my youngest.

There is an upside to all of this. As much as I miss the things we gave up, it’s very freeing to live small. The housework doesn’t take nearly as long as it did when we had five bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms. The utility bills for this house are lower than the last house (90 years old with 38 windows!) and the small closets here forced us to get rid of a lot of our clothes (which weren’t getting much use anyways because we don’t have jobs and nobody dresses up at church these days.)

So I’m not complaining. And the fact that they’re predicting snow tonight and we won’t have to clean off the car tomorrow because it now fits in the garage makes me extra glad we worked so hard to get rid of all our stuff after the move 

Sadly, I’ve also been asked why I chose to include girls in my target audience for the book.

Now, I realize that many homeschoolers are even more conservative than I am, enough so that they plan to keep their daughters at home until and unless they marry. But to keep them in the dark about financial matters seems so misguided to me.

In the past, many women were uninformed about their finances. Men kept track of the money, and their wives kept track of the cooking and cleaning. But if their husbands died before they did (which is statistically more likely to happen), they often found themselves wondering if they were rich widows or poor widows, because they didn’t know. They had to rely on other male family members to help them find the paperwork needed for probate and figure out where they stood financially.

Unfortunately, marriages also break up, and women who are unaware of financial matters can find themselves left with children to support and no idea of how to prudently handle the income they now need to bring in. The pain of an unwanted divorce is thus compounded by the need to learn about money. It’s hard to learn something new when you’re emotionally distraught.

My grandmother raised four children as a single mom during the Great Depression, and the stories my dad told me about what she went through taught me that girls need to know about finances every bit as much as boys do.

Recently, I was reminded of that again when I read yet another article about people losing their homes because they weren’t knowledgeable about the mortgages they applied for when they bought them. The combination of ignorant consumers and greedy mortgage companies has resulted in some single moms losing thousands of dollars that they really can’t afford to lose.

In the stories quoted in the article, the women now losing their homes didn’t understand that buying a home without putting any money down is a warning sign that you’re going into a loan with some danger zones. They saw it as a lucky break, when it was anything but that. It usually means that you have an adjustable loan, and in the current climate, your house payment may continue to rise, even if the value of your house drops. You’re responsible for the amount of money borrowed to buy the house no matter what the house is now worth.

Even if her loan did not have an adjustable rate, one woman mentioned in the article seemed like a great candidate for a house because of her high income level. She also thought she was making a good purchase because she didn’t borrow as much as she was approved to borrow. Big mistake! Pneumonia and then a broken wrist made her miss work, and she was forced to spend what cash she had paying bills. But she ran out of money, and could no longer make her mortgage payments. She not only lost her house but ended up owing the bank $32,000.

These women were also apparently unaware of how stressful it can be to have a huge house payment when you’re the head of a single-income family. Had they been taught about financial freedom and the joy of being debt-free, they might have never become homeowners, but they wouldn’t have lost their homes, either. When you look at everything through the mindset of minimizing debt, you have more control over your financial situation, especially as the years go by and the good habits you’ve developed bear fruit.

Reading these women’s sad stories has reminded me yet again how important it is that we educate our girls as well as our boys about how to handle money and how to aim for financial freedom. Judging by what’s going on in our economy right now, this kind of education is more important than ever. We homeschooling parents have the time and the opportunity to do it right.

I want to thank everyone who entered the drawing. Your responses to the question, “What do you think is the biggest blessing of homeschooling a teen?” just blew me away. Anybody who’s intimidated by the thought of homeschooling through high school should read all of those wonderful comments!

The deadline for this week’s drawing is this Friday, April 16, at midnight. Don’t miss out on your chance to win a free copy of The Imperfect Homeschooler’s Guide to Homeschooling….enter now!

Our country’s financial situation makes it clear that there are an awful lot of people running around with NO idea of how to handle money. Unfortunately, many of them hold public office. And not only is their lack of financial sense hurting us, but it’s going to hurt our kids and grandchildren, because they’re going to be left holding an enormous amount of national debt.

What can we do? We can start teaching our own kids to handle money from the time they’re little. It’s not something you do in an afternoon. It takes many years. As I write in my upcoming book, Thriving in the 21^st Century,

Those who are truly prepared for this new economy will be mostly unencumbered by debt, and therefore free to make changes in their careers without being forced to find another job immediately because of all the payments they have to make each month. They’ll have bank accounts to live off of when they need to go back to school for additional training in order to become more marketable. They’ll be able to take time off to start a new business, or to keep a current business afloat by not taking a paycheck for a while. Financial flexibility is of prime importance in the global economy.

Even now, having money in the bank and minimal expenses is what separates those with choices from those tied to a job and living in constant fear of layoffs. By raising money-smart kids, we give them the tools to handle both prosperity and financial difficulty; in the rapidly changing global economy, there are plenty of both.

How do you raise financially literate kids? You start when they’re young, so that by the time they’re teens, they can understand what you’re talking about when you teach them about budgeting, mortgages and other topics they’ll need to know as adults. You can find projects that teach these subjects and more in Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, the parent-friendly curriculum for teaching your teens how to become morally and financially responsible adults.

This week I’m giving away a copy of Life Prep. To enter, go here; the deadline for this giveway is Friday at midnight. Good luck!

All week long, I’ve enjoyed the scent of this hyacinth as I worked. (It’s also a welcome distraction from the messy desk, don’t you think?) Spring is finally here, and not a moment too soon.

Congratulations to reader Jacqueline H., whose name was drawn in this past week’s Giveaway. If you haven’t won yet, keep trying. There are three more giveaways; this coming week’s winner will receive a copy of my first book, Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. You can enter that drawing here.

Have a blessed Easter, everyone!

For the past month, I’ve been giving away materials recommended in my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers. Now let’s give away a copy of the book itself, which is a curriculum for teaching teens values and skills for the adult world they’re about to enter.

But first, a question: what do you think is the biggest blessing that comes from homeschooling a teen? Leave your answer as a comment on this post by Friday, April 9 Sunday, April 11 at midnight, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for a free copy of Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers.

If you’ve ever heard Dr. James Dobson speak to a group, you know how engaging and informative he can be. In this video, part 1 of the “Life on the Edge” series, Dobson talks with teens about how to make decisions within God’s will once they become adults.

What are the toughest decisions we have to make as adults? Leave your answer as a comment on this post by Friday, April 2, and you’ll be automatically entered into a drawing for this video, “Preparing for the Challenges of Adulthood,” part of a video series I recommended in my book Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers, where I wrote:

I highly recommend this video series for its common sense and Christian attitude about the issues and decisions our teenagers will face as adults.

Stay tuned for more giveaways!

It’s the true story of a young newlywed couple who has been married for less than two years, has no debt and has $50,000 in savings, all due to their joint effort to manage their money responsibly.

He has a college degree, and she has a one-year technical degree. Both worked their way through college and graduated without debt. Their goals for the future include a large family, a paid-off house and ample donations to missions. What a great example for all young people!

Money Matters is published by Crown Financial Ministries, the organization that Larry Burkett helped start. Listening to Larry Burkett’s Christian financial radio show helped encourage my husband and me as we worked toward becoming completely debt-free, a goal we achieved (not on our own, only with God’s help!) in 2002.  Do check out Crown’s site while you’re there.

I’ve been using Life Prep for Homeschooled Teenagers with dd17 for the past 18 months or so, and we’re almost finished. We’ve been having a lot of fun with the projects.

Funny how using Life Prep has been a different experience with each of my children.

Our eldest was very eager to get out on her own, so we emphasized the rent, food and utilities projects over the others. Our son was completely college-minded, so we stuck to more reading and less projects. Dd17 is not in a big hurry to be out on her own, but she’s not sure about college either (she’s already racked up a few credit hours and isn’t sure if she wants to keep going), but she really gets into all of the projects.

She has run a couple of small businesses, so she understands the need to watch your expenses and make prudent choices. She seems to really get into studying how loans work, and how you can save a lot of money by prepaying them.

While working on the projects from the book, she enjoyed playing with some online financial calculators at Bankrate.com. They’re wonderful! I plan on adding mention of them to the next edition of the book when we update it again in a few years.