• Financial Blog
• Podcast
• Financial Tips
• Buying a Home
• Refinancing a Home
• Saving for College
• Saving for Retirement
• Preparing for Taxes
• Starting a Family
• Building Good Credit
• Investing
• Auto - Buying and Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Safeguarding Your Financials
• Financial Organization, Planning, Budgeting
• Internet and Mobile Banking

Home > Personal Finance Center  > Financial Article

Financial Article

America's trusted voice on money and business, Dave Ramsey is a personal money management expert and extremely popular national radio personality. His three New York Times best-selling books - Financial Peace, More Than Enough and The Total Money Makeover - have sold more than 6 million copies combined. His latest book, EntreLeadership: 20 Years of Practical Business Wisdom from the Trenches, will be released in September 2011.

Should She Have Skin in the Game? Dear Dave, My daughter has the opportunity to take a trip with her eighth-grade class. The cost is $650. Do you think she should have to contribute to the cost of the trip, or should I cover it all? Colleen Dear Colleen, This is a really good question. When it came to making these kinds of decisions at our house, we’d take a look at whether the kid was behaving, getting good grades and stuff like that. It can be a challenge at that age, I know. But if they were living like responsible young people, we would pay for this sort of thing as a reward. Still, at that age a kid should definitely have some skin in game. If you can pay for this without breaking the bank, and she’s fulfilling her responsibilities as a good kid, it would be a good idea to make her come up with her own spending money for the trip. You don’t want her to grow a sense of entitlement, and doing this would force her to work and save a little bit to make this thing happen! - Dave Read other financial blogs