With the future economy situation staring us in the face, I can tell you one thing, figuring out how to educate my kids on a couple of different things:

1. Teach them how to not make the same mistakes that I have as a child, teenager, college student and now an adult.
2. Teach them how to be flexible and understand how to adjust what they know and learn to the current financial situation.

I came across this article from GreatSchools entitled "Smart Money: Seven Ways to Raise a Financially Literate Child".

Some of these items may be obvious, others may share a nugget of additional thought or detail that maybe you haven’t thought about until this point.

1. Encourage a work ethic
2. Get your money stories straight
3. Facilitate financial reflection
4. Become a charitable family
5. Teach financial literacy
6. Be aware of the values you model
7. Moderate your extreme money tendencies

Be sure and read the entire article for all the details and strategies on how to raise your child to be financially smart.

Have you heard of Photrade? I uncovered the Photrade website awhile back through another website I’d visited and an email newsletter I received about the upcoming blogINDIANA conference coming up in Indianapolis. I then realized they were also advertising on this blog here so decided to check them out.

I was quickly impressed with what you could do with sharing your photos and even making money from them as well.

Photrade is where photographers reclaim ownership of their photos. Photraders decide how, when, where and at what cost their photos are used online. We provide unprecedented protection for photos and offer a free photo marketplace where photographers can sell stock, prints and merchandise or use our Adcosystem (TM) where photographers get paid for every view of their photo, anywhere on the internet. Through Photrade, publications and blogs can access a fast-growing library of legally licensed, ad-supported photos. Reclaim your photos, start photrading.

Now they’ve expanded their offerings some more an can now provide an even broader range of border options available for your photos.

The Photrade site is currently in beta and you need an invite code to sign-up and join, but don’t worry, we’ve taken care of that for you as well. Just enter B5UTI as your invite code to let them know you heard about it here and check them out.

When you sign-up for an account look me up, I’m “bnpositive” on the site. I’d love to hear what you think.

Uncover your own photos and some money at

www.photrade.com

Did you remember to pay your electric bill? Probably since you’re reading this. What about your refilling your kids online lunch money account? Homeowner’s dues? Cable bill? School loans? That loan from you brother’s wife’s sister who dated your best friends second cousin during in high school when you live in Nebraska?

NO!?

Maybe billQ is just for you. billQ let’s you setup a bill or groups of bills and remind yourself and/or others that the payment is due. A great way for roommates to make sure everybody remembers how to split the rent 3-ways and all the utilities.

billQ is a new web-based application that gives you an easy way to keep track of your bills. With billQ, you can make sure you always know exactly what you have to pay, and when you have to pay it.You can also set up groups. This is useful if you have related bills or if you have multiple people paying a bill. A good example would be setting up a group so all of your roommates can split rent.

So stop taking those late fees to the cheeks and sign-up for billQ today.

I just received an e-mail from Upromise talking about a new $25,000 Upromise Scholarship Prize.

If you’re not familiar with Upromise, it’s something like a frequent shopper or “Points” program, but you don’t have to do anything special to earn money to put towards your kid’s education. All you do is register your credit/debit cards and when you buy stuff at your local grocery stores and restaurants, you earn money back that can be put into a variety of investments, 529’s and other savings plans to use towards college.

You can also make purchases through their online store links and earn more money. You can save money on items like:

• Save 4% at Target.com
• 5% at LandsEnd.com
• 3% at JCPenny.com
• 2% at HomeDepot.com
• 5% at Overstock.com

And many, many more opportunities.

I’ve been signed up for awhile and haven’t even thought about what I’m doing. Just from the various groceries that I buy, I’ve already started a nice little “college egg” for my two kids. The other nice thing is that your family members or friends can register their credit/debit cards with your account and you can get credit for their purchases as well.

Visit the Upromise site for all the details.