How does money work in the world? Lots of kids today see their parents using “magic” plastic cards to help them get everything from a morning coffee, to a tank of gas, cart of groceries or even tickets to a ...
Can Kids Be Mini-Inflation-Fighting Superheroes?
Looking for some good news? Learn how easy it is to get your kids in on the fight against inflation. They feel empowered, you feel understood. It’s a win-win!
Holiday Weekends Are a Great Time to Teach Kids About Money
We are often asked when is the best time to teach kids about money? Our quick answer is: When they want some! Which is why holiday weekends, with all of their open invitations to spend, are a perfect starting place.
Gifting Sense Recognized at the Money Awareness & Inclusion Awards
Gifting Sense was recognized as one of the Best Non-profit School-aged Financial Education Programs at the 2022 MAIAs. Learn all about the Money Awareness & Inclusion Awards and who else won.
Answering Chicago’s “Questions to Pose”
The Financial Education Initiative at the University of Chicago developed a set of questions parents and community members can ask schools to understand if a financial education program is high-quality and unbiased. We answered them all.
Bruce Sellery Knew This Was Coming
Welcome to 2022 where even buskers accept electronic payment. Bruce Sellery knew financial technology was going to result in the continued abstraction of money when he wrote his 2011 book, which is why it is worth reading now more than ever.
We’re An Atomic Habit!
We’ve recently become aware of the fact that calculating the DIMS Score® for a possible purchase is an atomic habit. (Thank You Dylan Ingerman and James Clear!) Learn what an atomic habit is, and why we are so pleased to be one.
Get Her “Rich Girl, Broke Girl” Instead
Kelley Keehn’s eleventh personal finance book offers a series of succinct composite narratives that just might be able to prevent your daughter from experiencing financial heartbreak, on top of the traditional kind.
Should We Use A Different Acronym?
Feel like you are living in the movie Groundhog Day? Back to school is supposed to be the high season for fresh starts. Maybe we can get closer to that ideal if we use a different acronym than RTO?
Gifting Sense Is On Outschool!
There are now four ways you can illustrate to kids the awesome power of thinking before buying without spending a dime: have them calculate the DIMS Score for a possible purchase at home, at school in class, at school via Zoom, or on Outschool!
The Real Cost of Scarcity
“Scarcity” is a book that strikes us a very reasonable explanation for why kids who constantly live with less, fail to “get the memo” on how to build a solid financial future. It also helps explain why DIMS Scores can work for kids from all economic realities.
This Summer, Meet Dr. Moira Somers
Move past the subtitle of “Advice That Sticks”. This isn’t only a book for Financial Advisors. It’s a unique look at some of the reasons why life unfolds so differently, even for people who receive the same “roadmap”.
Put A Cape On Ms. Taub!
Robin Taub is a CPA, best-selling author, and financial literacy thought-leader. But we’re recommending “The Wisest Investment” for an unconventional reason: she is already living in our future dreamy reality!
A Big Free FinLit Lab?
We know, the giant online retailer has become a lightening rod for small business suffering during the pandemic. They are not a perfect corporation. However, they do help us teach kids how to think before they buy – for free. Learn how.
We Love This Woman’s Work
Behavioural scientist Dr. Wendy De La Rosa has a series of short but on-the-money TED Talks that are cause for celebration at the Gifting Sense project! Learn how to reduce financial stress with simple concrete steps that change your spending environment.
Can You See The Future? We Can!
When we think further out into the future, we see all the ways today’s children can almost completely avoid personal financial stress. Learn how your family can help ensure that twenty years from now, our vision is reality.
Who Knew? TBB is Curriculum Compliant!
At the end of an incredibly interesting year at the Gifting Sense project, we’ve learned that our unique approach to Thinking Before Buying is almost universally compliant with financial literacy curriculum requirements throughout North America.
Four Fridays of Fun-damental Financial Literacy
November is Financial Literacy Month in Canada. Learn how in four Friday afternoons you can show kids how thinking before buying doesn’t mean you never get to purchase a want versus a need – it just helps you plan purchases and avoid buyer’s remorse.
What We Have Learned Delivering Workshops
Are you a Teacher in Grades 4 through 8? Read this article and visit our Teacher Page to deliver a Gifting Sense workshop to your own students, in your own classroom (or online) for free. We’ll even send you a Gifting Sense pencil for every one of your kids!
Happy Holidays Raj Chetty
Raj Chetty and his colleagues at Opportunity Insights have a study that we are interpreting as a call to arms for higher income earners to where possible, responsibly spend locally, until public health measures can restore broader consumer confidence and spending.
Being the Broccoli of Lifestyle Lessons
Teaching kids about money is finally going to become a formal part of going to school in the province of Ontario. This is definitely good news, save for the fact that unfortunately, Financial Literacy is the broccoli of lifestyle lessons.
Prevent This: Back-to-School Buyer’s Remorse
While many things look and feel very different this fall, kids have still grown and moved onto the next grade, and smart back-to-school shopping still requires parents and children to ask and answer the same three questions it did before the pandemic.
Your Family’s Pandemic Survival Plan
Older kids can get a meaningful head-start on developing their own personal finance habits by participating in current household financial decisions. Ask them what expenses can be curtailed right now – their answers might surprise you.
No One Has Carte Blanche!
Social Distancing is giving families with older kids a little more time to just talk, face to face. Tonight at dinner, consider discussing your first full-time job. How much did you make? Did all the payroll deductions surprise you?
Jobs Parents Had in High School
We know it’s not always easy to talk to teens – particularly when it comes to things like jobs and money. But the pandemic allows you to do it with mercifully low expectations – it’s going to be next to impossible to get a job this summer.
Develop Money Privilege Empathy With Your Teens
Help your older kids understand why you use and think about money the way you do by sharing details about your adolescence. Not everything has changed since when you were a kid. For example, families still have to balance earning and spending.
“How About YOU Buy the Groceries This Week!”
Children typically only get to practice spending money they have been given for a holiday or birthday gift – which is not the same as being responsible for even small household financial decisions, like choosing apples over raspberries.
The Best Things in Life?
Sharing your favourite childhood memories around the supper table lets your kids see what having enough distance to take a backward glance almost always does – that the best things in life, tend not to be things at all!
How is a Penny Saved, a Penny Earned?
Show your kids how not being wasteful actually has real-life purchasing power. And how frugality isn’t only good for our wallets, but also the planet. There are just way too many “gently-used” contributions to landfills.
What’s the Difference Between Needs and Wants?
It is ever going to be easier to discuss wants versus needs than during Social Distancing? Only essential goods and services are readily available! Exit the pandemic with money-smarter kids by having this conversation at dinner tonight.
Where Does Money Really Come From?
You know that the magic plastic cards your kids see you using have to be funded, but do your kids know? As the old saying goes, “Credit Cards buy time, not things.” Make sure your kids understand that your hard work is paying for purchases, not a card or App.
DIMS – Does It Make Sense?® Scores Help Kids Develop Good Financial Defence
To use a sports analogy, let’s describe financial offense as making money, which is what a lot of people focus on. Certainly many children dream of growing up to become a celebrity or professional athlete …
Born Before the Smartphone?
Next month, Gifting Sense will have a new technology booth at Tech Up For Women’s annual conference in New York City. A collaborative technology hub specifically designed to take the fear factor out of all things “tech” for all women ...
The Only Problem With Summer Jobs
If you have a child who has their first job this summer, pat yourself on the back. Paid summer employment, although a memorable and forming part of most contemporary adult childhoods, seems to be a dying thing. However, summer jobs ...
The Missing (Financial) Link
We have a new “Author Crush” at Gifting Sense. You’ve read about most of the personal financial management authors we respect in our blog series on that topic. But this past year, we were introduced to a Finance Professional who elected ...
Learn How the Holidays Can Be D.O.W.N. with Sustainability
Gifting Sense was just at the 2018 TED Women’s Summit. As many people know, TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading great ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks that cover almost any topic, from history to science, ...
More Ways Than Ever to Get It Wrong?
It’s been almost a year since we posted a blog! During that time we conducted workshops, answered content requests from periodicals and managed a period of transition that took longer than we ever anticipated. We missed the excitement of adding ...
Two Gifts for the Price of One
It's our birthday this week! Two years ago we pushed the send button on an email invitation to a new website that was specifically designed to help children quickly acquire some fundamental money smarts, for free. As we head into Holiday ...
Spend Wisely in September For a Better December
As Labour Day and “back-to-school” approach, so too do battle cries for school supplies, new clothes and sports equipment. The average family reportedly spends over $600 getting ready for school. What is the best way to spend that money? There ...
Summer Reading To The Rescue
Summer break is right around the corner. For some families, the 10 or so weeks off school are filled with cherished traditions such as going to the cottage or attending summer camp. But for more families, summer break represents a ...
Should Grad Traditions Be Honoured At Any Cost?
This time of year, between Grade 8 Graduations, High School Proms, benchmark birthdays and everything in between, families are under big pressure to spend – often on items that tend not to get used nearly as much as we might ...
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 recently made aware of a charming book, and seeing as ...
Where’s the Off Button?
You know how the “Help Desk” sometimes suggests you turn your computer or smartphone off and then on when it won’t work exactly as you’d like? A running joke made by Jacqueline’s mother-in-law is to ask the question of highly ...
Instructions for Toothpaste?
Somewhere after their second birthday, it is time to teach your kids how to brush their teeth. Teeth-brushing is a simple but important habit to develop. You know where we are going with this right? Thinking before buying is another ...
Be Prepared to Be Amazed
Celeste Headlee is an American Broadcaster with a very popular TED Talk: 10 ways to have a better conversation. Her description of the ingredients of a great conversation caught our attention because parenting experts have told us that Gifting Sense Gift Surveys ...
Four Words That Teach Financial Literacy
We’ve officially been helping parents teach their kids to think before they buy for three years now. During that time, we’ve had the privilege of witnessing many an “aha moment”, such as: When a child begins to understand that they ...
Family Day in December: Bonus Holiday Hack
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our thirteenth hack (let's make it a Baker's Dozen) comes to us ...
Turn Loyalty Points Into Travel Gifts: Holiday Hack #12
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our twelfth hack describes how you can either ask for or give ...
Give Volunteer Hours to a Loved One’s Favourite Cause: Holiday Hack #11
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our eleventh hack is another version of Get A Gift, Give a ...
Gift Card Management: Holiday Hack #10
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our tenth hack is designed to help you manage gift cards. Stored ...
Boxing Day Date: Holiday Hack #9
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our ninth hack embraces a uniquely Canadian (read British) tradition, Boxing Day ...
Consignment Store Couture: Holiday Hack #8
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series, where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for, yes, less. Our eighth hack might be one you have heard before, but this ...
Get A Gift, Give A Gift: Holiday Hack #7
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our seventh entry is a “head-fake”; an indirect learning opportunity for your ...
Their Very Own Tin of Cookies: Holiday Hack #6
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our sixth entry is a time-tested tradition in one Calgary family: every ...
Easy Eggs for a Crowd: Holiday Hack #5
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our fifth entry is a super easy way for your kids to ...
Serve Socks to the Homeless: Holiday Hack #4
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our fourth entry is a take on our first: intentional re-gifting. Out ...
Become a Holiday Angel to a Family in Need: Holiday Hack #3
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our third entry is a little more work, but packs a big ...
A Free Gift Kids Can Give Their Moms: Holiday Hack #2
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our second entry is a great free gift idea that young teens ...
Hostess Gifts Meant to be Re-Gifted: Holiday Hack #1
Welcome to the Holiday Hacks blog series where we quickly describe ways to get kids more involved in the spirit of Christmas and Hanukkah – for yes, less. Our first entry is a stroke of brilliance on the part of ...
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 and have fun, with “…the near and the dear ones, ...
Careful Spending Doesn’t Have to be Bad-Tasting Medicine
What do Henry David Thoreau and Marie Kondo have in common? Thoreau is perhaps most well known for authoring Walden (A Life in the Woods). You could describe his 1854 book about living simply as the 19th century forerunner to Marie ...
Prevent This: Not Benefiting From 100 Years’ Experience
We’re back in the blogging saddle after a month’s hiatus working on a submission to a competition for non-profits. Wish us luck. During that time, Tonya’s grandmother turned 100 years old. When asked what the most important thing today’s parents ...
Prevent This: Not Seeing Yourself in the Mirror
You may not know who Iris Apfel is, but if you saw her photo, you might say to yourself, “Oh yes, her”. In the September edition of REAL SIMPLE magazine, she is quoted as saying that the “…worst fashion faux pas ...
Prevent This: Not Slowing Down in the Summer
Welcome to our new “Prevent This” blog series where we will be discussing ways to prevent some of the traditional frustrations parents experience as they raise their families. The inaugural post is taking place in the dog days of summer ...
The Only Thing That Teaches Kids About Money
We know a parent who maintains that the only thing that teaches kids about money, is not having enough. For the most part, kids don’t have very much money, so if scarcity is indeed the mother of personal finance motivation, ...
So You Can Do What You Want To Do
One of our favorite sayings around the Gifting Sense office is “Do what you have to do, so you can do what you want to do”. For our purposes, this translates into save where you can, so when you see ...
Leading By Financial Example
We have a friend who’s son complains that she only ever looks when she is shopping, and never buys. Now, Sheila lives in a pretty nice condominium and is usually neatly and fashionably dressed, so we know she must sometimes ...
Get Your Kids to Buy Into Comparison Shopping
Comparison shopping can make a big difference to a family’s bottom line. But sometimes kids think their parents are being cheap when they insist on researching a purchase in advance of making it. Offering to give, allocate or match the ...
The Blessing(s) of an Empty Wallet
This post is our Thank You to fathers everywhere, who repeatedly open their wallets to serve the greater good, and in particular those who have been behind Gifting Sense from the outset: Mark, Jeff, Niilo, Geoff, George, Robert, Howard, Peter and ...
The Theme Park Pass Dilemma
It's been six years since Canada Day was on a Friday and July 4th was on a Monday. In celebration of a long holiday weekend that makes it easier than ever for cross-border family and friends to get together, we're ...
Twin Ambitions: Good Eating Habits & Money-Smarts
Last week, we were lucky enough to be invited to the first ever Nutrition Ambition Symposium at George Brown College here in Toronto. The symposium’s goal was to contribute to public awareness around the expanding field of nutrition science, which is ...
The Nest…Egg
If you are in a Book Club, chances are you have read The Nest or are thinking about doing so. It is the story of four adult children and the impact an impending inheritance has on all of their lives. It ...
Happy Half Birthday Gifting Sense!
Exactly six months ago, on Friday November 13th, 2015 we pressed the send button on an email announcing that Gifting Sense was live. Since then, we’ve been in newspaper(s), on TV and in a Podcast. We’ve won a #ProductBrag Competition and the ...
Stuff Kids Want: Summer Camp
This is the final installment in our Stuff Kids Want series. So far we’ve discussed kids wanting cell phones, clothes, sports equipment, and platitude-dispensing-parents. This week we are going to talk about one of the most sought-after experiences of childhood: Summer ...
Stuff Kids Want: Parents and Platitudes
This is the fourth installment in our Stuff Kids Want series. When researching for these posts, we asked parents "What do you think your kids really want from you?" One mother's answer, "Oh I don't know, platitudes?", struck us as both ...
Stuff Kids Want: Sports Equipment
This is the third installment in our Stuff Kids Want series. Kids want lots of stuff, but almost two-thirds of children, before they leave home, play some sort of sport; to do that they often need equipment. The array of sports ...
Stuff Kids Want: Clothes
This is the second installment in our Stuff Kids Want series. Kids want lots of stuff, but almost every kid, from the sportiest Jock to the nerdiest Gamer, at some point in their childhood, asks for clothes and/or footwear. Not sturdy ...
Stuff Kids Want: Cell Phones
This is the first installment in our latest blog series entitled Stuff Kids Want. Kids want lots of stuff , but there are some universal standouts and certainly cell phones are one of them. Getting a cell phone is a modern-day rite ...
Surprise – Parents are Using Gift Surveys for Themselves!
The funny thing about a project can often be the difference between how you anticipate it will turn out - and how it actually turns out. If you have ever attempted a recipe, or some home improvements, you know exactly ...
Allowance Best Practices for Teens
This is the third of three posts about Allowance Best Practices (ABPs). The first, "Don't Get Burned by Giving Allowance Without Structure" , covers the topic broadly. The second, "Allowance Best Practices for Kids 12 & Under" , began our ...
Allowance Best Practices For Kids 12 & Under
This is the second of three posts about Allowance Best Practices (ABPs). The first, "Don't Get Burned by Giving Allowance Without Structure" was published on March 4th. The third will be published on April 1st. Once you've made the three broad ...
Don’t Get Burned by Giving Allowance Without Structure
The argument for allowance goes something like this: You get better at spelling, multiplication, basketball and cooking by practicing, and so it goes with handling money. Most of us do not live on farms where there is an abundance of ...
Why You Want “Fresh” Kids
Last week was supposed to be the final “Financial Writers Who Inspire Us” blog post. We had every intention of moving onto the next topic: allowance best-practices. But Ron Lieber threw a spanner into the works. Ron wrote a book ...
Want Money-Smart Kids? “You Must Remember This”
Guess what? Truly wealthy people cut coupons, plan purchases and budget, regularly. Americans first read about these revelations in Thomas Stanley and Richard Danko’s The Millionaire Next Door (“The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy”) way back in 1996. This team ...
For Best Results: Try Baking-In Simple Effective Limits!
Our fourth “Financial Writers Who Inspire Us” honoree is Carl Richards. Better known as the "Sketch Guy", Carl is widely respected for his ability to make financial concepts easy to understand with simple sketch drawings “on the back of a ...
Choose Your Parents Wisely
Canadian icon Dave Chilton is our third “Financial Writers Who Inspire Us” honoree. Chilton wrote his famous narrative for responsible personal finances, The Wealthy Barber, in 1989. Twenty-two years later, he takes us on a broader and deeper tour through common financial myths ...
A Future with Fewer Princesses
Plain talking, take-no-prisoners, Gail Vaz-Oxlade is our second “Financial Writers Who Inspire Us” honoree. She just released her latest book, Money Talks. Subtitled When to Say Yes and How to Say No, it tackles all sorts of financial situations that ...
Could These Kids Become Millionaires?
This week we are beginning a new blog series on Personal Finance Writers who inspire us. Andrew Hallam is our first honoree. His book Millionaire Teacher (The Nine Rules of Wealth You Should Have Learned in School), has been a recommended read ever ...
What Gifting Sense Families Know
This New Year, aside from financial market doom and gloom, social media and periodicals are filled with more ways than ever to improve your life. January is the month to de-clutter, cleanse, and budget your way to a simpler more ...
What d’cha Get?
About 100 years ago, when we were kids, the first week back to school after the holidays definitely contained “What d’cha get?” conversations. Back then, holiday gifts seemed a little more special because aside from your birthday, it was really ...
Who Wears a Coat 300 Times?
My neighbor recently introduced Gifting Sense and the concept of cost per use or cost per wear to his daughter. It came about as a result of his 13 year old wanting a Canada Goose jacket this winter. “How can ...
Just-In-Time Financial Education
One time financial instruction – the kind children might receive in a classroom – has been shown to wear off relatively quickly. It tends to cover concepts too far in advance of when a child will actually be able to ...
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 a refund, Jerry was indignant – he wanted his money ...
Plant an Acorn and Grow a Mighty Oak
My girlfriend Jemma tried something new last year. She asked each one of her kids what they really wanted for Christmas and why – instructing them to disregard cost for the moment. She asked them to find out where their ...
Why Crowd-Funding For A Child’s Gift Can Make Sense
Every year as the holidays approach parents spend increasing amounts of time and energy thinking about what they can get their children for Christmas or Hannukah gifts…
Don’t Be A Sales Tax Fairy (STF)
Do you remember when you first realized that items cost more than their price tag? I can remember when my son first had that realization. He was 8, and wanted to buy a skateboard with some birthday money. We searched ...
All Sorts of Families Face Gifting Challenges
If Gifting Sense does one thing, let it be to assure you that pretty much every family faces challenges when it comes to modelling sound financial literacy and gracious gift-giving and receiving. If you are in a Book Club, or ...
Why We Love the Work of Dr. Randy Pausch
Who cares how your kids learn about financial literacy? The important thing is that they do. One of the people who inspires us at Gifting Sense is the Carnegie Mellon Computer Science Professor whose “last lecture” went viral in 2007. ...
The Style Question…
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site, and service, which we love. Thank You so much! Oftentimes people ask why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way it ...
The “Learn More” Buttons
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site and service, which we love. Thank You so much. Oftentimes people ask us why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way ...
Why Does Adding Cost Reduce My DIMS Score?
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site, and service, which we love. Thank You so much! Oftentimes people ask why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way it ...
Why are the possible answers “Yes” or “Not Applicable”?
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site, and service, which we love. Thank You so much! Oftentimes people ask why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way it ...
Why Doesn’t Total Cost Impact DIMS Scores?
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site, and service, which we love. Thank You so much! Oftentimes people ask why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way it ...
It Had to be Green
Of course our logo had to be green! Like any other new organization, one of the things Gifting Sense worked hard at was developing a great logo. We wanted something simple but engaging. We wanted it to have personality and ...
Join Our Mailing List
"*" indicates required fields
Trending
All Sorts of Families Face Gifting Challenges
If Gifting Sense does one thing, let it be to assure you that pretty much every family faces challenges when it comes to modelling sound financial literacy and gracious gift-giving and receiving. If you are in a Book Club, or ...
Why are the possible answers “Yes” or “Not Applicable”?
We have already received quite a bit of feedback about our organization, site, and service, which we love. Thank You so much! Oftentimes people ask why a DIMS - Does It Make Sense?® Score question is worded the way it ...
Instructions for Toothpaste?
Somewhere after their second birthday, it is time to teach your kids how to brush their teeth. Teeth-brushing is a simple but important habit to develop. You know where we are going with this right? Thinking before buying is another ...
Got an idea for an article? Let us know!
"*" indicates required fields
