Rebecca Surran's Blog

Class Act

People always ask me, "Who is on your list of people you'd really like to interview?"  I always say, "Paul Newman."  And after watching the tributes to him this weekend after he lost his battle with cancer, I remembered why I wanted to talk with him.  Paul Newman was a class act.  Now, granted I never met him, but I have come in contact with so many people who had.  And just about every one of them had something positive to say.  He wasn't one of the glitzy, papparazzi-chased, self-absorbed types you see in Hollywood today.  Yes, he was a stunningly handsome and successful star of the silver screen but without the disfunction that seems to weave itself into the lives of the Hollywood elite.  Newman cared deeply for his wife, his children, his community, the environment and those less fortunate.  He took his celebrity status and used it for the betterment of others, not just himself.  He had a distain for the media, especially the celebrity media, and an impatience with the frivolous. He objected to films packed with gratuituos sex and violence.   Yes, Newman was a man of an earlier day, but perhaps the actors and actresses of today should embrace his class and style.

How Disappointing

I spent the morning watching the morning news shows looking for word from the two presidential and vice presidential candidates on what's happening in the economy.  How disappointing!  Both Republican and Democrat alike showed no signs of understanding the basics of what's happening.  To throw around words like greed, regulation, transparency, excesses, bail-outs, etc. without any context, no explanation in simple terms of what went wrong and where we go from here, is a disservice to the American people.  Maybe they can all drop the "lipstick" comments and snarky ads and take some time to sit down and get a grasp of the dangerous financial precipous we are teetering on.  Do your homework people!

Finance 101

We teach our kids reading, writing and arithmetic, but financial responsibility?  Nope.  And boy have we paid the price.  The current mortgage and credit crises are due in part to the general lack of financial education amoung consumers.  We've swapped the old rule of "Don't spend what you don't have" with "Put it on my card and I'll paid it off later."  Financial author Stacey Tisdale says a recent survey of high school seniors by the Federal Reserve showed that fewer than 48% of those surveyed could answer questions correctly about financial matters.  Stacey says three things are key in developing healthy attitudes about money in kids.  They are: example, experience and communication.  Stacey says when it comes to example, walk the walk.  One of the biggest influences on how we handle money as adults is how we saw it handled as children.  As far as experience goes, Stacey says kids need to learn money lessons early.  Start a penny jar for you child at age 4.  Start giving them an allowance at 7.  Give tweens a job and savings account.  Stacey also says show kids your household bills.  Yes, leaving all the lights on in the house actually costs money, kids!  That leads me to communication.  Stacey says explain to your kids everything about money from your money values to your goals.  And most importantly, make sure they understand what the consequences of failing can be.  Learning these lessons early sure beat sitting in a lawyer's office filling out the paperwork to declare bankruptcy.