Departments: Money
Should Kids Work? Timing the Stock Market

Q: I think teenagers should work. My husband says he worked too hard as a kid and he doesn't want our two girls working. What do you think?

A: I'm with you. The first time I really thought about this question was 10 years ago when I was writing a story for Money magazine about how to teach your kids about money. I was pregnant at the time and so I was paying special attention.

We interviewed lots of people and one guy said: I don't see that my kids are going to learn anything from flipping hamburgers at McDonald's. I'd rather see them out having a good time.

It made me think about some of the jobs I'd done, planting and picking beans for 10 cents a pound, waitressing, washing dishes. What I learned was how to work hard and that employers are not always fair. I was hired to work in a bakery and the owner paid me less per hour each week for three or four weeks until I screamed about it.

Kids can't learn these kinds of lessons by sailing and water skiing, although having fun is certainly important, too. But all jobs have their drudgery. Mine does. I'm sure yours does too. How will our kids learn how to deal with that if they never do menial work?

I've worked with kids just out of college who felt they were ready to run the place. I don't want my kids to have that attitude when they start working. Being a parent isn't easy. But we do have to try to teach our kids the most important lessons we learned ourselves.

Q: I'm the executor of my mother's estate. What does that mean?

A: It means your mother chose you to carry out the provisions of her will. The person who makes the will is called the "testator." It's common to name a spouse or a child as executor. But sometimes the testator names a neutral expert like a bank trust department, an attorney, or a financial consultant.

Your first job as executor is to get the will probated. This means presenting it to probate court, which declares it valid.

Once you've done that, you are to administer the estate, which includes paying debts, taxes, and other expenses and, ultimately, settling the estate according to the terms of the will.

This is a big job. You must find all the assets, including pension benefits and other business termination agreements, and value those that don't have a ready value. You must collect appraisals for homes or other real estate and for valuables like art and jewelry. You must also file the final tax return for the decedent.

Most people don't even make wills. I'm guessing that because your mother made a will, she also probably talked to you about some of the details such as where she kept her life insurance policies and lists of other assets.

The best time to get started on these responsibilities is while the estate owner is still alive. It's wise to ask him or her to make a list of assets with their location and to ask about disposal of personal property that's not itemized in the will.

Q: What's the best day to buy stocks?

A: I've been getting this question a lot lately, and it delights me because it shows how sophisticated investors have become. What you are doing when you put a specific amount of money into the market at regular intervals is called dollar cost averaging. That is the very best way for most investors to get started.

Studies show that investors who make regular investments, preferably once a month like you do, buy more shares of a stock when the market is down, fewer when it is up.

If the stock mutual fund you invest in is selling at $25 a share, you buy four shares that month; at $20 you buy five shares. Over time, this strategy works extremely well.

But your question is specifically about timing. It seems to you--and to many people who start using this strategy--that they end up buying at the high for the month.

It may seem that you're unlucky in the purchase price because you are watching the fund so closely and you notice that there are other times during the month when it trades lower.

But give it time. Studies show that getting the absolute low of a month isn't that important over time. It's the regular, disciplined investing that makes the difference.

--Mary Rowland

Rowland is an author and
contributor to several financial
planning magazines.

Thrifty Educator

This month's tips come from Amy Graff, a first, second, and third grade special educator at the Stapleton School in Framingham, Massachusetts, and from Verlee Owens, a special education and English teacher at West High School in Sioux City, Iowa.

Graff: "I incorporate many academic areas into my lessons by studying plants. We grow them from cuttings, seeds, and bulbs. We start at the beginning of the year and hold a Mother's Day plant sale in May. Students compare the plants' growth rates and record observations in their writing journals. They sell the plants, so collecting money and making change become part of the project. They calculate how much was spent on supplies and how much profit was made. We buy books for the school library with the proceeds."

Owens: "Your chamber of commerce and state tourism office may offer wonderful, free teaching resources. They usually have books, maps, and brochures available in classroom sets. Use them across the curriculum and grade levels, to encourage creative writing, im-prove map skills, and practice skimming/scanning for information."

If you have a favorite money-saving tip that you apply in your workplace, please send your idea along to neatoday@nea.org.

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