FREE Financial Accounting Course

Hello,




The Airman & Family Readiness Center and the Education Office is offering an

opportunity for 12 Osan spouses to receive training in Financial Accounting.

This course will provide introductory information and skills related to the

role of accounting in a business setting.



The tuition is "FREE". The training will be held on 8, 15, and 22

Jan/0900-1700. Please check the attachment for more information.



To register for the course, please contact Mr. David Brett at

david.brett@osan.af.mil or 784-5440.

Registration deadline: Tuesday, 4 Jan 2011


Please help us spread the word!



v/r



Mr. Rashaud R. Smith, GS-12

Chief, Airman & Family Readiness Center

Osan Air Base, Republic of Korea

DSN: 315.784.5440/Comm: 011.82.31.661.5440

FAX: 315.784.4669/Comm: 011.82.31.661.4669

Website: http://www.51fss.com/afrc.htm

Facebook Group: Osan Airman & Family Readiness Center

Kids & Money – International Currency

One of the advantages of living overseas is the educational opportunity for children and adults alike. When you come to Osan (or any other OCONUS), you are dealing not just in U.S. dollars, but the currency of the country in which you now live.

When our son asked if he could have “one hundred cents” from my husband’s bureau, we decided it was time to teach him about money around the world. Like most military families, you may have kept souvenirs of your travels in the form of local currency.

We pulled out our collection of international currency and our globe (if you do not have a globe, a map of the world will work too).

The money was separated by country and then we held up the different types of coins and bills against the countries that minted them. We compared the appearance of the money to that of other countries, noted similarities and differences, and talked about their values versus the U.S. dollar.

If exchange rates confuse you as much as they do me, try these websites for lesson plans and ideas for teaching children:

For younger children -

http://www.crayola.com/lesson-plans/detail/international-currency-exchange-lesson-plan/

For older children –

http://www.eduref.org/Virtual/Lessons/Social_Studies/Economics/ECO0201.html

The Allowance Question

As your child gets to a certain age, you might begin to ponder the question about allowance. When this question came up in our home recently, my husband and I asked ourselves the following:

• What is the purpose of paying an allowance?
• Should it be attached to household chores?
• Who manages the money?

We know that we both felt it was time to teach our child about money management, spending and saving. We felt that our child had gotten to the age where it was time to transition from giving into the “May I have’s” (when we felt it was prudent) to the “Well, do YOU have enough of your own money to buy what you want?” stage.

In my research, I found a variety of answers and wide range of diverse responses on the allowance question. We were able to make the decision that fits best with our views on how a family and household should work (and as this is new territory for us, I cannot know yet whether or not that decision is the one that will work for us in the long term).

I thought I would share my research with other parents, so families can decide what works best for them when they face this question.

Tip Jar – a child is given money based upon age (a young child may receive pocket change; an older child may be given dollar bills). The “tips” are based on work and merit. That is, a standard rate is placed in the jar for the child doing chores as he is told to do them, and a bonus is given if the child does the chores on his own (without being asked).

Here & There – a child is given a quarter here and there for good behavior, having a good day, doing various chores in the home, etc.

Chore or merit-based – a child is given an allowance based upon chores. This ranges widely as follows:

• Allowance for set chores in home
• Allowance for picking up after oneself
• Allowance for doing school work
• Bonuses earned for good behavior, extra work, not whining, etc.
• Allowance cut for misbehavior

No Allowance – this is fairly common; many parents feel that the home is shared and therefore all who live there are expected to clean up their own messes, regardless of any monetary incentive.

Extra Pay for Extra Work – in both the “no allowance” and “allowance” homes, children often earn extra pay for doing work above and beyond their normal chores. For example, they might be expected to keep their room clean and pick their toys up out of the living room in the normal course of things. However, to lend a hand with the laundry or washing dishes (if that is not one of their normal chores) would result in a bonus.

As you can see, there are a variety of ways to deal with allowance and household responsibilities, and some of these methods are often combined with others.

An interesting book on the topic is First National Bank of Dad by David Owen, which actually suggests setting up a “bank account” for your child to help teach money management. The premise of the book is that the parents run a “bank” for their child(ren), with simple terms and strong incentives to save (a generous “interest rate”). It also suggests giving the children the freedom to manage their own money and learn from their mistakes. This is also something to consider even if you handle the allowance very simply – as parents we must decide if it is it better to bite our tongues and watch children blow a few weeks’ of hard-earned money on something cheap, breakable, or that will provide momentary pleasure (such as candy), and to let them see that earning more money takes a while, or if we should manage their money with a strong hand until we think they are mature enough to understand the system of earning, saving, and spending.

There is also the FDIC Money Smart program, which is a free financial education program on CD aimed at youth ages 12 to 20. I tried to order it, however the order form does not accommodate APO addresses. I used the “Contact Us” link at the bottom of the FDIC website, which led me to a Customer Assistance Form, to express my disappointment and ask them to accommodate overseas military family orders. I received a response that they will be making this change to their website. However, if this is a program you think you would like to order, please do not hesitate to contact FDIC and remind them that there are more military families serving overseas who would like to be able to order it!

Hopefully each and every family will find the balance that works best for them!

Wendy, guest blogger

Money Matters for Military Spouses

Many of us are military spouses and moms and lots of us stay at home, especially here at Osan where there are fewer options for paid employment. And that's a great choice for lots of reasons, but unemployed spouses can be at a financial disadvantage, particularly when the employed spouse is military.

Often the spouse of an active duty service member knows little about pay, entitlements, life insurance and other benefits or obligations, and these things can be challenging to figure out. We all know that decoding an LES or information provided by the military can be difficult, and sometimes it's not even accurate. Click here for military.com's guide to military pay. https://mypay.dfas.mil/mypay.aspx is the military's myPay site. The site can be accessed with the active duty member's login ID and a six-digit PIN. The semi-monthly LES can be found here, as can the W-2 and other tax forms. Pay changes can be made through the site also: TSP contributions, exemptions, payroll deductions, direct deposit, savings bonds and etc.

Another potential disadvantage to the military spouse is the lack of a personal retirement plan. If you move from base to base, sometimes working, sometimes not, it can be difficult to amass significant retirement benefits. A Roth IRA can be an excellent choice for a retirement vehicle for a spouse. T Rowe Price and Fidelity both offer low cost Roth IRAs with a variety of investment choices. You can invest up to $5,000 per year (this year; limits will likely change over time) and many investment companies let you contribute automatically every month. Just sign up, pick a fund or fund(s) and forget about it. Or check into some other options, but do something for your future- Osan is a great place to sock away some money!

If you're interested in going back to school, the active duty spouse can now transfer his or her post 9/11 GI Bill benefits to a spouse or (child)ren, or any combination. The total benefit is 36 months (4 9-month school years) of tuition, housing at the E-5 rate for the locality, plus $1,000 per year for books. The benefit can be split up however you choose, and active duty members can do it from work with their CAC- it just takes a few minutes. You can read more the details and rules here.

And that brings us to three D's we don't want to talk or think about: Divorce, Deployment and Death.

As military spouses, we are possibly more knowledgeable than our counterparts married to civilians, because almost everyone has been through at least one deployment, probably requiring us to handle the family finances whether we usually do it or not. Both spouses should be up to date on bank accounts, debts, investments and other financial information and have access to important documents and data. If you or your spouse is a little behind the curve, sit down together and make up a cheat sheet, just in case.

And what about divorce? It may not surprise you to hear that if you and your active duty spouse separate, the military will be of no assistance to you until a divorce settlement is finalized. If you are separated and your spouse won't give you any money, guess what? The military doesn't care. If you think you might be in this position in the future, make your financial preparations now: get a credit card in your own name, and start stashing away some cash. You may or may not be entitled to a portion of the military member's retirement, so if you are facing this possibility, get a good lawyer with experience in military finances.

You probably know that the active duty service member has life insurance coverage through SGLI. If your active duty spouse elects a beneficiary other than you, your permission is required and a notification is sent to you. Is the SGLI enough? Check out your other benefits and entitlements in this situation and look at your family's finances to decide if you would need more. What about the stay at home spouse? If something happened to you, would your spouse be able to afford to pay someone to do all the work you do every day? Chances are, if you have kids, coverage for you makes a lot of sense.

The bottom line is that a little bit of time and effort now will pay big dividends in the future- keep up on your family and personal finances!