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Frequently Asked Questions
…register and pay will prevent most 10-14 year old’s from continuing to test-drive what we want to become a new & exciting life skill. 2) How can we be free?…
Teacher Tab
…by incorporating some of the terms into an upcoming vocabulary or math test. Download PDF Press Have a look at what others are saying! Gifting Sense Comes Second Only to…
Spend Wisely in September For a Better December
…new soccer cleats to try out for the school team? Can you sell your old laptop to help pay for a new one? How many times will you wear those…
Stuff Kids Want: Cell Phones
…completes a Gift Survey asking for a new phone, they will be reminded to research warranty offerings in Question 9. Finally, don’t forget that completed Gift Surveys can also be…
Four Words That Teach Financial Literacy
…an item’s total cost. Sales Tax is charged by the government, but collected by stores. The government uses collected sales tax to pay for things like roads, schools, and hospitals….
Four Fridays of Fun-damental Financial Literacy
…terrific news because when educators asked us for more than a one-time workshop, we built the four-session curriculum you see below; it is perfect for delivery on the four Friday…
Bruce Sellery Knew This Was Coming
…For example, we love the comparison of your current financial situation to the “Point A” required for Google maps to give you directions to “Point B”. The app literally needs…
A “LOADED” Case for Early Financial Education
…at once – for free! Pretty powerful, huh? Dr. Newcomb understands where our money personalities come from. Her research explores why certain childhood experiences lead to later-in-life apprehensions about money….
Should We Use A Different Acronym?
…ATH (Advance to Hybrid). And in a hybrid world, as the name suggests, mixed parts of a prior reality come together to form something new. And maybe that something new…
Allowance Best Practices for Teens
…anticipate for the coming year under each category. Decide what percentage you are comfortable funding, and establish a disbursement schedule for equal amounts of allowance at intervals throughout the year….
Who Wears a Coat 300 Times?
…Mom and Dad’s money” by using the soccer cleats she had only worn for 15 practices and games last fall. “Come here moron – I’ll show you” was the last…
Answering Chicago’s “Questions to Pose”
…Take thinking before buying for a test drive and see for yourself. Do the materials only provide partial information? Our focus is on wise-spending but in the following context: Personal…
Home
…forward. HEBREW PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS FOR GLOBAL CITIZENS Gifting Sense presented to a group of freshmen here at Quest Forward Academy. The content was extremely relevant and our students were…
How is a Penny Saved, a Penny Earned?
…full cost of a request they would like to make, including for example the sales tax on a new pair of shoes, or how much safe transportation, snacks and souvenirs…
Who Knew? TBB is Curriculum Compliant!
…free – two things thought to be mutually exclusive. Then physically visiting schools became almost impossible which inadvertently paved the way for increased comfort with digital platforms – and in…
The Only Thing That Teaches Kids About Money
…make the conscious decision to forgo a new vehicle this year in order to pay for a summer rental? Personal finance lessons don’t have to be lengthy or formal. When…
Virtual Café
…your kids calculate the DIMS (Does It Make Sense?) Score for an outing at gsdevibd.wpengine.com Check out A-Rod’s eye-opening CNBC Mini-Series: “Back in the Game” where he helps rehabilitate former…
A Big Free FinLit Lab?
…blah” moment and told you about it – but they knew the power of living through the reaction would be far more engaging and effective. Same thing for learning about…
The Theme Park Pass Dilemma
…hope this demonstrates how having your kids calculate the DIMS SCORE® for an experience prepares the whole family for a relaxed but guided conversation about spending. Check out the various…
Turn Loyalty Points Into Travel Gifts: Holiday Hack #12
…hack describes how you can either ask for or give the gift of travel, for next to nothing: loyalty program reward points to the rescue! Do you travel often for…
Get Her “Rich Girl, Broke Girl” Instead
Personal finance authority and best-selling author Kelley Keehn has a new book coming out in time for winter holiday gift giving. Rich Girl, Broke Girl (Save Better, Invest Smarter, and…
“How About YOU Buy the Groceries This Week!”
…up to $728 a year – aka the cost of a new TV for the family room. If you have the patience for the antics that are sure to arise,…
Who Are We
…on their own going forward. HEBREW PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLS FOR GLOBAL CITIZENS Gifting Sense presented to a group of freshmen here at Quest Forward Academy. The content was extremely relevant…
Two Gifts for the Price of One
…some fundamental money smarts, for free. As we head into Holiday 2017, we’re looking forward to helping more families than ever teach their kids to think before, they ask to…
Allowance Best Practices For Kids 12 & Under
…a habit than by starting it from the outset. When your not-yet-teenagers desire items that lie completely outside of their spending ability, ask them to complete a Gifting Sense Survey…
Gift Card Management: Holiday Hack #10
…lots of options. Gift cards can be sold (at a discount) for cash or even aggregated at places like cardpool.com. Amazon.com allows you to exchange Visa, MasterCard or Amex gift…
Three Canadian Winners at the 2023 “FinLit Oscars”
…and opportunities moving forward. The winner of this year’s SKBI Prize is the United Kingdom’s “Green My Pension” entity Make My Money Matter. Headed by United Nations Advocate for the…
Why Crowd-Funding For A Child’s Gift Can Make Sense
…their wishes come true? Well for starters you can ask them to complete our Gift Survey(s) when considering a wish-list item or purchase. At Gifting Sense our mission is to…
What Gifting Sense Families Know
…in most households, time is short and commitments are high. By the time you’ve put away your holiday decorations, returned, exchanged or stored for re-gifting items received that didn’t quite…
This Summer, Meet Dr. Moira Somers
…serve for dessert, your mental energy pie doesn’t get bigger just because “more people are coming for dinner”. Which is why stressful times are so stressful – you can’t help…
Don’t Get Burned by Giving Allowance Without Structure
…not live on farms where there is an abundance of work to be regularly completed; even jobs outside the family home for older school-aged children are harder to come by…
We’re An Atomic Habit!
…Mr. Clear, and been completely unaware of his work? For those of you who don’t know about the Gifting Sense project, our work or mission, we are an organization dedicated…
How It Works
…where children are financially literate, environmentally aware, consumers. We believe that by providing a way for kids to more carefully consider what they might like to receive for an upcoming…
What Do Favourite & Disappointing Holiday Gifts Have in Common?
…Them Credit For Believe it or not, kids have a pretty good feel for their family’s financial situation. Every February they use the DIMS SCORE® Calculator for Super Bowl tickets…
Where Does Money Really Come From?
…“Where does money come from?” dinner, is just to make sure that your younger children know for a fact, that spending is paid for by your hard work – not…
Born Before the Smartphone?
…ComicCon – the massive annual convention for admirers of comic books, their production and characters.) We attended the Tech Up For Women conference last year and were duly impressed with…
Surprise – Parents are Using Gift Surveys for Themselves!
…are getting their grandkids gifts they really use and enjoy for the first time. But we have also been approached on several occasions by parents who re-considered a purchase for…
Instructions for Toothpaste?
…different for every age and stage of childhood. Allowance best practices are quite different for kids 12 and under, versus those for Teens. Younger children tend to ask for a…
Why Does Adding Cost Reduce My DIMS SCORE?
…this new electronic device? Will you need new shoes to wear with this outfit? These are examples of questions which can reduce a child’s DIMS (Does It Make Sense) Score….
Plant an Acorn and Grow a Mighty Oak
…a big part of the inspiration behind Gifting Sense – our new little company that turns shopping for holiday and birthday gifts into a tool for parents to teach their…
The Missing (Financial) Link
…and Beyond” is simply a must-read for any young adult who cares about money. It explains pretty much everything you need to know when first earning a living, including the…
What’s the Difference Between Needs and Wants?
The pandemic has thrown families everywhere a real curveball to say the least. But social distancing doesn’t only present challenges. For example, a primary benefit of all the extra together-time,…
The Best Things in Life?
The pandemic has thrown families everywhere a real curveball to say the least. But social distancing doesn’t only present challenges. For example, a primary benefit of all the extra together-time,…
Careful Spending Doesn’t Have to be Bad-Tasting Medicine
…really use and appreciate this coming holiday season – would it matter to them that it had been collectively paid for by a group of family members? Would their happiness…
Summer Reading To The Rescue
…programs, for every age and stage. You can bump up the “fun factor” of participating in a summer reading program for your kids by adding small or even larger financial…
Remember Shopping From Home At Midnight?
…more effort to spend. Things like waiting for payday, waiting for a store to open, or waiting for a store to have stock, gave consumers time to think about what…
The Blessing(s) of an Empty Wallet
…their professional expertise. For example, we have been given untold programming, design and editing hours by fathers who work in digital development. Most recently, we were given some required legal…
Why Doesn’t Total Cost Impact DIMS SCOREs?
…for a new dress, or a new case for a new electronic device. The pdf summaries, which are automatically generated when children complete a Gift Survey, illustrate all the math…
Being the Broccoli of Lifestyle Lessons
…very methodical way for the last five years by helping them calculate the DIMS® (Does It Make Sense?) Score for a potential purchase or request – before they make it…
DIMS – Does It Make Sense?® Scores Help Kids Develop Good Financial Defence
…example, by asking for an experience that will help a child acquire a skill (e.g. Music Camp); by asking for an item that comes from a local store (which reduces…
I’m Returning this Jacket – for Spite!
One of our favorite Seinfeld episodes ever was when Jerry returned a jacket to a clothing store “for spite”! When the saleswoman stated that “spite” wasn’t an acceptable condition for…
The Real Cost of Scarcity
…impact of constantly living with less. Anyone familiar with Operation Hope out of Atlanta could be forgiven for seeing this book as a pretty reasonable explanation for exactly why kids…
Holiday Weekends Are a Great Time to Teach Kids About Money
…weekends are a terrific time to talk to your kids about spending in particular. Because holidays like Canada Day and July 4th come with open invitations for families to spend…
Don’t Be A Sales Tax Fairy (STF)
…that a golden teachable moment had dropped into my lap. At 8, I knew Sam wasn’t ready for a huge talk about how sales tax revenues pay for things like…
Can Kids Be Mini-Inflation-Fighting Superheroes?
…of how much you can afford. Because we see children stop themselves from asking for gifts that might not make sense for their family all the time. Our free and…
What We Have Learned Delivering Workshops
…gift they’ve received that perhaps wasn’t quite what they were hoping for. Who among us hasn’t experienced some form of buyer’s remorse? 4) Once the cost per use of an…
Stuff Kids Want: Sports Equipment
…complete a Gift Survey when the time comes to acquire, or upgrade sports equipment. Teach your family that some requests are just too expensive to be met by one gift-giver….
Why Isn’t Your Wish-List Item a Good Idea?
…You can boost your DIMS SCORE® by knowing what the warranty is for the item in question. This is particularly important for more expensive purchases such as a new phone…
Why You Want “Fresh” Kids
…knew fresh was “not the first word that comes to mind when describing an ideal young adult”. Hence “The Opposite of Spoiled”, which is subtitled Raising Kids Who are Grounded,…
Happy Holidays Raj Chetty
…they calculate for a potential purchase, if it will help sustain a local business. Yes, you are reading correctly, if your daughter or son is asking for a new winter…
A Free Gift Kids Can Give Their Moms: Holiday Hack #2
…gift, for free! As 11-14 year olds are the largest cohort of new smartphone owners, they are likely to be enthusiastic about this project. If you are wondering about best…
For Best Results: Try Baking-In Simple Effective Limits!
…Read the last Chapter of The Behaviour Gap (“Simple. Not Easy.”), to better understand why we often choose complicated over simple solutions. At Gifting Sense we turn shopping for birthday…
Easy Eggs for a Crowd: Holiday Hack #5
…entry is a super easy way for your kids to help feed the unusually large crowds you can have on hand for breakfast over the holidays. Kids aged 6 and…
A Future with Fewer Princesses
…really the best gift you can give them. Safe, free, quick, and available wherever you have your smartphone (on gsdevibd.wpengine.com), our Gift Surveys ask kids all the questions that should…
Could These Kids Become Millionaires?
…wrote one himself. Time is your greatest investment ally according to Hallam, who does a simply terrific job of explaining how the snowballing effect of compound interest means you can…
Learn How the Holidays Can Be D.O.W.N. with Sustainability
…quick but meaningful burst of financial education) every time they ask you for something, by simply suggesting they calculate the DIMS® (Does It Make Sense?) Score for their request. By…
What d’cha Get?
…that lay outside of your budget, were you able to suggest alternative ways they might be able to get what they really wanted? For example, by politely and thoughtfully asking…
Replace “Resting Gift Face” with “Grateful Happy Face”
Most of us yearn for the sublime second stanza of John Lennon’s “So This is Christmas” when we prepare for the holidays, in that we merely hope to come together…
We Love This Woman’s Work
…end of it. She even encourages employers to provide time in the benefits calendar for such a day. Try implementing a “frequency budget” versus a dollar amount budget for expenses…
How Careful Spending Helps Kids “Find Their Whistle”
If you are looking for a fun but authentic read to give as a Father’s Day or Graduation Gift this coming June, we’ve got good news for you: We were…
Develop Money Privilege Empathy With Your Teens
…were given the tickets by the owner of the store where you worked part-time for doing an excellent job – but still had to agree to take your brother to…
Jobs Parents Had in High School
…enough to help figure out how to pay for it. Working during the school year was a much more common occurrence in prior generations. And summer jobs used to be…
No One Has Carte Blanche!
…first-glance large grown-up pay-check is leftover for actual discretionary spending, once you start paying for all the things that your parents used to: rent, food, utilities. And let’s not forget…
Your Family’s Pandemic Survival Plan
…time-sensitive. No one would have hoped for the current crisis, but older kids can learn from it by being allowed to actively participate in their family’s survival. They won’t die…
Give Your Kids MAGiC for the Holidays this Year
…the peace of mind that comes from having “Money And Gift Competence”. Gift giving is such a big part of life in so many countries around the world that learning…
A “Wow” Answer To Why We Need Early Financial Education
…cards not as accessible. My early adulthood personal finance mistakes included: Running up a big long-distance phone bill before Telecom was deregulated. Not shopping around for the very best car…
Gifting Sense Is On Outschool!
…work with your schedule.) As Outschool has to be compensated for use of their safe and secure Zoom platform, and demand for workshops keeps growing, there is a fee for…
Prevent This: Not Benefiting From 100 Years’ Experience
…crowd-funding tool, for wish-list items too expensive for one person to pay for. They can be printed off, e-mailed, or shared via social media.) By doing so, you’ll be ensuring…
The Nest…Egg
…a nest egg is a sum of money, typically saved over a long period of time, destined for a future meaningful purchase, for example a home. As the jury is…
Prevent This: Not Seeing Yourself in the Mirror
…for so many kids, this time of year is just all about gearing up for school…and experienced parents know the items that will get worn and used the most are…
Where’s the Off Button?
…can be just as enjoyable in the comfort of your own family room. Give your kids a movie budget for the week and the freedom to spend it as they…
Prevent This: Back-to-School Buyer’s Remorse
…expensive time of year for families. How can you make sure you only spend what is necessary? By asking and answering the same two questions you did before the pandemic,…
Stuff Kids Want: Summer Camp
…Summer Camp can be a burden for families, despite the compelling benefits, as outlined in this Psychology Today article. Sheepish about forwarding completed Gift Surveys to your extended family members…
The Only Problem With Summer Jobs
…the true value of a purchase more than denominating it in “hours worked to pay for those new sandals or basketball shoes”. As our new favourite personal financial management teacher…
Leading By Financial Example
…successfully lead by example and model some sound financial habits in today’s largely virtual financial world, why not ask your kids to complete Gift Surveys the next time they are…
Should Grad Traditions Be Honoured At Any Cost?
…But you can at least ask them to complete a Gift Survey for the outfit or night they are dreaming of and use the automatically generated pdf summary to have…
Stuff Kids Want: Clothes
…buy. Our free safe service helps make sure that children understand the true value of their requests. As such, it is a perfect tool for families to use when considering…
Stuff Kids Want: Parents and Platitudes
…state beliefs and rules. The simplest definition of a platitude is a statement that expresses an idea that is not new. Platitudes also frequently contain some sort of moral component….
More Ways Than Ever to Get It Wrong?
…than we ever anticipated. We missed the excitement of adding new original things for our followers to read, but were comforted by how universal and lasting all of prior posts…
So You Can Do What You Want To Do
…person in your life is mooning for? A new bike? A new phone? To attend an upcoming concert? Ask them to complete a Gift Survey if you don’t know the…
Put A Cape On Ms. Taub!
…by completing the Values Validator Quiz. These are just two examples of the type of grounded and practical tools Robin gives her readers. Check out the Role Model Self Assessment…
Can Any 17-Year-Old Canadian Become A Millionaire?
…become a millionaire in their lifetime if they consistently commit to a series of small but important decisions from the end of high school forward. When you read his book,…
Choose Your Parents Wisely
…dreams come true for their kids. So Gift Surveys not only ensure that the dreams being asked for make some kind of sense, they also make sure families are actually…
It Had to be Green
…give their children is the habit of thinking before buying. You see, our free safe mobile surveys turn shopping for holiday and birthday gifts into a tool – to help…
Just-In-Time Financial Education
…of the Center for Research on Consumer Financial Decision Making at the University of Colorado, Boulder believes these findings support the case for just-in-time financial education. You can read more…
Want Money-Smart Kids? “You Must Remember This”
…for it. If your kids complain that “no one else has to ask for their gifts using Gift Surveys” – just tell them that you recently re-read a 20 year…
