Your Kids About Money
Tip #8: Establish a regular schedule for family discussions about finances - if you have a regular Family Meeting, build this in. You can include as topics ways to save more, how credit cards work and more.
Tip #9: With teenagers, discuss what's happening in the local and national economy - they hear about it in school and on the news - make it a part of your family discussion as well.
Tip #10: Involve your children in some of your family's typical financial matters - kids hate to be taken for granted. Get their "buy-in" when it comes to planning a family vacation or comparison shopping for the lowest prices. If your children are better in Hebrew than you, let them fird the prices on some of the very extensive Israeli websites for shopping.
This is just the "tip" of the iceberg. I encourage you to watch this space for more tips in the future. And if you haven't taken one of our classes yet, pick up the phone and call today. 067-888-760.
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IN THE PRESS - JANUARY 2004
If you're buying a new computer and shelling out upwards of NIS 1500 for Microsoft Office seems excessive, listen up. The Israeli Treasury is giving away software. The program is called StarOffice and it does most of what MS Office can do. Watch the newspapers for announcements of where to pick up your copy - it should be available soon at public computer centers and community centers. Or you can download it for free at www.openoffice.co.il. Read more details about the product (in English) at http://staroffice.com. The offer is supposed to be good until the end of 2004.
The big news this month was the start of major new tax reforms. But what's actually going to happen is as confusing as it is contradictory. Yes, taxes are going down. But because the 2004 state budget is larger than expected, they're actually going up. Unless you're a "low earner" (the Treasury hasn't learned the fine art of euphemisms yet, apparently), and then they're going down again. Huh?
Here are several stories that may help to elucidate the matter:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/381863.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/380718.html
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/378533.html
We know times are tough in Jerusalem. Now we have the statistics to prove it. Haaretz has the gloomy story:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/376915.html
On the other hand, it's a great time to buy an apartment. Prices have dropped 23% since 2000 in Israel as a whole. And prices in Jerusalem are 10% lower than the rest of the country. Read the "good" news at:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/366853.html
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