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Giveaway: “Not Your Parents’ Money Book”

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Want to give your kids a shot at financial freedom? Jean Chatzky can help.

Aimed at the middle-school set, “Not Your Parents’ Money Book” arose from Chatzky’s talks with students across the United States. What they wanted to know was fairly pragmatic: How much does it cost to live independently? What kind of job would I need to do that? What’s wrong with the economy? What’s a recession? Why can’t the government just print more dollars?

“Kids haven’t learned that money is a limited resource,” Chatzky told me.

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Live from Cornwall: Blog carnivals and the Amazon winner.

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Pam F. is the winner of the $20 Amazon.com gift card. She’ll use it to birthday gifts for her little sister. (Cue the girl noise: Awwww!) Thanks to all who entered.

I entered two blog carnivals this week and was happy to get into both:

On the train ride to Cornwall today I met a delightful woman who has traveled extensively and once shot photos of a tiger while riding on an elephant. She suggested accompanying me to Paris on a day trip (boy, does that sound weird) this weekend or, if the Chunnel train tickets are too costly, to tour me around Windsor (the region, not the castle).

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The Underground tried to eat me! And other shocking travel tales.

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When the Megabus from Cardiff dropped me off last week, I headed toward Victoria Station and found myself trudging along in lockstep with thousands of Underground commuters. I followed the crowd into the subway car, carrying my suitcase in front of me. Then people stopped moving. I could see there was room elsewhere in the car, but apparently these folks liked being close to the doors.

“Excuse me, could I get by?” I said.

No one moved.

“I’m not quite in, please let me get by,” I said, louder.

This was met with a peculiarly British inertia. People looked at advertising placards, or their shoes. A few looked at their cell phones, as though scanning texts. Nobody looked at the tired American tourist who was carrying way too much baggage. (Physical, not emotional.)

Then the doors shut on me.

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My chance encounter with a Scotsman.

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I’m writing this from the Westminster Reference Library in London, because I needed a quiet place to work. I have another MSN Money deadline and the hostel’s “common room” is too noisy even when I’m wearing earplugs.

Because I didn’t trust the very vague directions given by the hostel staff, I asked a man on the street for help. After a couple of false starts he realized he could go there but he couldn’t tell me how to go there – so he walked me over.

We chatted while we walked. He turned out to be an actor from Perth, Scotland, in town to audition for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s upcoming production of both Henry plays.

 

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My day job, blog carnivals and funny potato-chip flavors.

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Now up at MSN Money is my latest column, “Useless Groupon? Cash it in.” It’s all about the secondary market for social commerce vouchers from places like Tippr, Buy With Me, Living Social and, of course, Groupon.

The advantage is twofold: You can unload deals you no longer want and, more to the point, you can look for deals you missed on the first go-round or that you didn’t know existed.

As one secondary-market host says, it’s “a catalog experience vs. an impulse buy.”

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The world’s second-worst wakeup call.

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If just before bed you get one of those odd, fleeting thoughts along the lines of “The fire alarm is going to ring,” pay attention.

Yep: At around 6:30 a.m. I was awakened by a shrieking siren. I’m glad I’ve learned to listen to those weird little flashes I get from time to time. When the shrieking started, I was ready to roll.

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Drivers: Watch where you’re going.

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Somebody pulling out of a parking lot hit my daughter and son-in-law’s car. The driver was too busy looking off to the side to notice that she was aimed straight at the Chevy Cavalier in the left-turn lane.

Even though she wasn’t going fast, the T-boning she gave the car damaged both doors on the passenger side. Neither one will open now and there’s probably unseen damage because it felt wonky during the drive home.

As Abby notes in this post, it looks as though the other driver’s insurance company will declare it totaled, as in “It costs more to fix than it’s worth.”

Here’s the thing: Their car was old. But it was still reliable transportation. With luck it would have lasted them several more years, years during which they would have been saving for a replacement vehicle.

 

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Potty animals.

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“FEMALE TOILET SHOWERS” is painted on the door of the bathroom near my room at the hostel. If you had the same reaction to “toilet shower” that I did, please write and let me know that I am not alone.

Two toilets are available, each in its own little room. The showers are off to the left. Important safety note if you plan to stay at a hostel: When a sign notes that there may be hot water shortages between 8 and 10 a.m., believe that sign.

This morning when I walked in, the first thing I saw was someone standing in front of a toilet. Facing the wrong way. And offloading.

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