MyBrilliantKidz

Multiplication tables are one of those things which everyone has to learn. multiplication tables are traditionally things that have been learnt a certain way over the years. People know they can learn their Multiplication Times Tables, but these are taught to us in a rote fashion, and to get them right takes a long time and a lot of effort.

This means learning a multiplication table is slow, unproductive, and involves too much thinking, as we are taught them in a linear fashion, for example–

Schools still learn as
1 x 2 = 2
2 x 2 = 4
3 x 2 = 6

By reading or saying your times tables out loud repeatedly, or using some another form of repetition.

You can learn it that way and most of us do, however, the problem is that as you are learning multiplication tables in an auditory fashion, this means you can only read each multiplication table in a linear way – from 1 x …to 10 x… and therefore they are stored in your brain in the same linear way, and their recall is also linear i.e you end up going through each multiplication table to get to your answer. If you ask a child having learnt it this way what 6 x 6 is they will often go through the Times tables 3 x 6, 4 x 6 to get to the answer – I know that my 7 year old daughter does! If the effort to recall is too much for her, she will simply stop.

If you do that you can get the right answer but as you can imagine, it takes a lot of time and a lot of effort. Now you would think that if you did that 20 times you should know answer to 7 x 9 instantly – but it does not work like that. If it took you more than a fraction of a second to come to the answer of 63, then you have used the linear way learned the multiplication times tables to extract the answer – you had to think about it

A child will usually go through the same process repeatedly to get the right answer. This is not using your memory in the most productive way to use your memory. This will not give you an instant answer.
Your memory far greater potential then this, and there are better techniques to learn your multiplication tines tables which better utilise the way you memory works. As grown ups, we have already learnt them, however, we can make a difference to our children. Stop Rote Learning of Multiplication tables – Stop holding your children back.

Copyright Tony Lazar. Writer, speaker, former teacher/ tutor of 20 years experience and creator of specialised learning products.   www.timestablesmaths.com     www.thelearningwell.com

In this sixth lesson in the Smart Consumer Skills Guide for Brilliant Kids series we ask you to explore debt and how good you really are with debt. In the last lesson, we gave 5 questions to ask yourself when spending. Debt is extremely important to understand and master. It can help in providing you with a great lifestyle, or can end up being a chain around your leg. It can ruin the rest of your life if a healthy respect is not given to it – it is a double edged sword, which unfortunately most of us do not understand.Debt is something that you will come into contact with sooner or later – the truth is that you need debt to live today – it is a fact of life and you need to be able to deal with it. The world economy functions when money is moving around it. Stop or disrupt that flow and people’s lives are affected by changing prices, changing interest rates, changing availability of goods and services. Debt is used to help money flow around more freely and quickly. It is readily available to all.

If you look at money, well, money itself is no more than an “I Owe You” note. Debt is an extension of this. So you can see that money and debt really are very similar.

What is Debt? Debt is where you borrow money from someone else, so you now owe them money and have to pay it back. This could be parents, friends, other relatives, or from a company. Unfortunately there are some critical differences when borrowing from a company compared to your family or friends.

Debt allows you to buy goods and services that you could not afford normally, or gives you convenience to live your life within a budget – smoothing out the bumps. It allows you to buy other goods, services, and most importantly, income generating assets – we will talk about leveraging in the Entrepreneur series of articles.

When you borrow, a company, such as a bank or credit card firm, will want your money back, plus more on top as interest. It’s their ‘fee’ for lending you the money. This is what it will cost you to ‘buy’ that supply of money. Debt is no more than this – a supply of money – a supply of more “I Owe You’s”, which you pay a fee or a cost to get hold of.

This is the product that these companies are selling you – you are buying a supply of money. What is the selling price? It is the interest you pay. So why treat debt any differently to any other product you may buy when you are ‘shopping’? Apply the same rules we discussed in earlier articles – ask the 5 questions; use the strategies to help you get the best deal.

A company will want the debt repaid in a specific way at a specific time that suits them. This is a legal contract for you to deliver. You have a legal obligation to the lender.

Governments have found it necessary to pass laws that determine how the supply of money is ‘sold’ to you, with various credit consumer acts. If Governments find it necessary to do this, you should realise the serious nature of debt. Get debt wrong and it will cost you a fortune – you cannot cancel debt – it is a legal obligation on you.

If you miss this, your costs will mount up. Let’s not forget: companies are not your friends. When people need to borrow money, they usually go to their bank and expect that someone there will know the best thing for them to do. A bank isn’t there to give advice, it’s there to sell you things and make fat profits. Whether or not to go into debt, and who to borrow money from, are two of the most important decisions you’ll ever make.

As this a hugely important area and no one will sit down with you to independently advise or help with these questions. We thought that it would be more useful for our readers if we spent little more time on Debt with more articles in this area.

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In the last lesson we asked how good you really are with your money, and looked at the 5 components you need to understand to be good you’re your money. In this fifth lesson in the Smart Consumer Skills Guide for Brilliant Kids series we look at what you need to be doing to helping curb that impulse buying resulting from good and clever marketing.

Remember only you are responsible for making the decisions to buy or not. No-one else is responsible for this. So take this responsibility seriously and let’s have a little fun. Before you spend, you need to do some thinking and analysis, by asking a series of questions to help you take the emotion out of the decision and decide on a more objective basis.

Like anything else, do not expect to become an expert at this overnight, or to get it right the first time – this will take a little time. The more you practice, the better you will become. It is more important to understand that these questions will develop a more logical thought process and this is the key in developing a smart consumer mindset – one you have this, the rest is easy.

These questions have been put together from my own experiences and reinforcing this with what the experts had to say.

• Do I need it? If you don’t need it – don’t buy it. If you buy something you don’t need, it’s obviously a waste of money.
• Will I use it? What will you use it for, and how often. If you will only use it infrequently, then this is really a luxury buy and unnecessary. How much and how often will it inconvenience you if you don’t have it? Am I giving up anything else by buying this?
• Can I afford it? If you can’t afford it – don’t buy it. If you buy something you can’t afford, you begin a cycle of living beyond your means. Eventually, you’ll end up borrowing money either as loans, overdraft or on your credit card – the easiest of all debit, and this could take you into ever increasing debts. We will talk about debt in future articles.
• Can I get it cheaper somewhere else? Check and make sure that the same thing isn’t available at a better price somewhere else. Look in other shops, the local papers, and the internet to search for the best deal – try to make sure you know what the market rate is for this product. If you are not sure, then don’t buy until you have checked, even if the deal sounds too good to be true (if it does, then it usually is).
• Can I return it? It is important to know the returns and refund policy of the item. This is really about ensuring that who you buy from is credible, in that they have signed up to a code of practice. Also if something happens to the product – e.g. it fails. You know you can either exchange it, or get a refund – you will not be left with a dud product. It worth knowing the key terms of the returns policy – will they only exchange for other goods or offer refunds. If they offer a refund, what is the time scale? Is there a warranty of guarantee that comes with the product?

What you are really doing by asking these questions is assessing what is known as the “opportunity cost”. This is where you have one thing but, as a result, miss out on having another. This assessment is made by businesses all the time in finding the best ways to persuade you to buy – so why can’t you use this technique too for your benefit?

As you can see, it is easy to assess the opportunity cost. However, you need to ask yourself these questions honestly – remind yourself of your past history with products – how often have you used them? Did you really need them? This is the hardest part.

After reading these 5 articles, you now have the tools and understanding to become a smart consumer. Now you need to teach you kids the same way of thinking. As you do, talk to them about it and the thought process. Get them to ask the same questions as you – they may well be better at reminding you of your history. This will make it fun for them, and if they ask for something, you can more easily ask these questions of them.

A final word – with your children, you should try to maintain a distinction and a balance between this and reward for motivating them – if a child wants something – it is worth tying that to some actions that your child needs to complete. On completion he or she gets will get that item.

In the next article, we will talk about debt and what you need to know about debt.

www.MyBrilliantKidz.com

In this fourth lesson in the Smart Consumer Skills Guide for Brilliant Kids series we ask you to explore this question and make an honest judgement. In the last lesson, you learnt about how companies persuade you to buy, here will look at you and your habits.

Are you Good With Money?

When you ask people this question, many will say yes. Their reason will invariably be something like “I try and save, not spend, when I get cash”.

However, this doesn’t necessarily make you good with money. Being good with cash is just as much about how you spend, whether you spend it or not, or whether you save. It is about recognising the value of money, and what it can be used for and do for you. Remember that ‘saving’ is another product that companies will ‘sell’ you – just look around at the savings plans and accounts that offer seemingly attractive interest rates.

Can you effectively see through the thousands of companies telling you different things about where to stash it; where to spend it; and what to splurge it on?

Money is a tool, and as a tool, it is only as good as the person using it. Think about this – we are all born with the same opportunities – some people go on to make fortunes, and others struggle – why? The ones that make fortunes think differently about money and see it as a tool that they can wield. They have understood how money works and instead they have made money work for them.

Here is a little test – who do you think is better with their money?

Sally: She has $400 for a holiday. She spends $250 on a budget flight to Rome, and stays in a youth hostel managing to save $60 of it.

Silvia: She also has $400 for a holiday. She manages to find a bargain business class flight to Rome, stays in a nice hotel with a pool, sauna, fantastic breakfast bar and gets discount theatre tickets but spends the whole $400.

The answer depends on your circumstances and what you can use the money for. If Silvia’s in debt, and splashing out on a holiday, she’s not good with money even though she got the better bargain. For $60 more, Silvia probably had a better time, and made the most of the money. Being cash smart is both about understanding what money you have, and how to use it i.e. in reference to your circumstances.

The truth is that no-one is going to teach you about your money. There are 5 components of being good with money in this day – you need to learn these and practice them in order to be good with money:

1. The best ways to spend – let’s face it you cannot live without spending so learn how to make the most of it.
2. The best ways to save – you need to save for a rainy day, for a holiday, a car etc
3. The best ways to borrow money – in this day, you need to borrow to buy large items – your home, car, new kitchen, paying school fees…
4. How to budget and then stick to your plan – this is your control plan, where you can determine and adjust the level of spending for regular outgoings, one off’s, how much to save, and how much to borrow.
5. How to analyse – how to get the best deal – what are the financial and other effects of the deal, the ‘transaction’ you are about to carry out.

If you think about about it – all the companies that are selling to you, are good at these methods, and know how to use them all effectively. So why not take a leaf out of their books and apply them to yourself.

In the coming lessons, we will look at some tools and strategies to get you started on these components. Once you understand these and can apply them, the next components to add will take you towards entrepreneurship, as you will have the basic financial skills to run a business with these 5 basic skills.

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This is the third lesson in the Smart Consumer Skills Guide for Brilliant Kids series. In the last lesson we talked about how to turn the tables on companies who like to make money from you. In this lesson we will talk about how companies persuade you to buy.

If you can understand this, you will able to recognise this and know how to stop it from controlling your thoughts, impulses and emotions – this is what they appeal to in order to make you buy. Companies do not really sell anymore; instead what they do is “pre-sell” i.e. to put you in the comfortable state of mind to make the buying decision easier by making it look like your own decision.

How do they do this? The large companies always show a perceived problem or issue, or a desire that is not being fulfilled, then show you how good the solution to this will make you feel – the solution being their product. Once they have got this message across to you by advertising in the papers, magazines, on television and radio, the rest is about strategically placing the products to get the maximum number of eyeballs on their products.

This just reinforces the pre-sell message – the feel good and must have factor, and you buy. Just think about your journey to the supermarket and what you see when you are there. Companies have spent millions on researching and finding the most optimal placing of products on the shelves.

Here are some pointers for you to look out for on your next visit:

• The store layout and lighting – is laid out in a particular way that you need to follow a pathway around the store. This ensures maximum eyeballing time. The lighting is bright and fresh.
• The store usually starts with the groceries to match a consumer expectation of what the store should be doing. The smell of fresh fruits and the variety of colours is usually has a very positive effect on you.
• The staple products such as bread, milk, butter, cheese, eggs etc, tend to be found either sprinkled around the store or more commonly, at the furthest end of the store, so that you need to pass many other tempting goodies to complete your shopping. Again, this ensures maximum eyeballing time for products.
• If the store has a food area or bakery – delicious mouth watering food smells regularly waft through the store, tempting you to buy more food!
• Eye-level isn’t the best level. The most profitable stock is placed at eye level (or at children’s eye level if it’s targeted at them). Profitable goods for stores tend not to be the best deals for shoppers, so the adage ‘look high and low for something’ really does apply here.
• Not all sales are ‘super!’ While grapes and other attractive products may be placed near the front of a store to entice you in with a genuine bargain – the same signage and displays will be used elsewhere to promote deals, yet these mightn’t be competitive. Bright colours and the word ‘discount or sale’ make us feel good, yet the reduction may be pennies, and other equivalent products which are hidden on the shelf are a better bargain. Here is where term “spend to save” comes from! How can you be saving if you are spending?
• Notice that the sweets and magazines are always by the till. These are impulse buys, so putting them near the till gives the store one last attempt to grab our cash: by appealing to kids so they can nag their parents to buy.

On your next visit to a supermarket or any other store – look at the store from these eyes – from what you can smell, see and hear – everything is geared towards making you spend. Even in an electrical store – the glamorous items are at the back – the TVs and DVDs, the computer games at the front.

You need to keep asking yourself “Do I really need this? Or am I just being tempted to buy something”.

Look at the world in these eyes and you will start to recognise the clever and subtle marketing strategies that companies use. These strategies have been honed to perfection over many years of practice and research.

In our next lesson we will talk about how to overcome these temptations, and in doing so, being a smart consumer.

www.MyBrilliantKidz.com