Verse of the Week

“God has made EVERYTHING in my life beautiful in its appropriate TIME ”

Ecclesiastes 3:11 (MEV)

Are store credit cards worth it?

Living with children

Taylor Kovar

Hey Taylor - I’m constantly turning down store clerks when they ask if I want to sign up for a credit card to get $100 back or ongoing discounts or whatever Am I passing up on free money? Should I start considering some of those options?

- Carson

Hey Carson - I’ve been working in finance for a long time and I’ve yet to see such a thing as free money These promotional cards and deals offer one-time savings, but they almost always get more money out of you in the long run I definitely think you should stay away, and I’ll throw out a few specific reasons why

Interest lies in wait Any company offering a store credit card that comes with either 0% financing or some other introductory rate is planning to suck you into a spending cycle that will eventually bring interest charges In this sense, you do get something for free when you sign up initially It’s your second, third and fourth purchases that cost enough to make up for the freebie you got on round one Company cards rarely offer the best interest rates and they are some of the biggest offenders when it comes to fine print that leaves you paying more than you’d expect

Purchasing frequency When you step into a department store to get a pair of shoes and leave with those shoes and a new credit card, you’ve bought into the company’s plan to bring you in for additional business They’ll lure you with something like 20% off purchases for the next year, which is a good deal, but it means you’re likely going to buy far more merchandise than you actually need If you shop at Target every day f essentials, maybe yo good use of a Target Otherwise, you’ll fal of buying stuff solely it’s on sale, which is right choice

Credit score issues W probably won’t do ir harm, every credit ac open has the potential to affect your credit score Too many accounts often raise red flags for scoring companies, not to mention increasing the odds of you missing a payment on one of your many running balances Unless you need a credit card and have a really solid plan for earning rewards without driving up debt, you should stay away If the credit card is being offered to you at checkout, my guess is you don’t really need it

This is the long way of confirming your suspicions. Those tantalizing offers are usually more shine than substance, so keep shopping sensibly and don’t get tricked Stick with your instincts, Carson!

Taylor Kovar, CEO of Kovar Capital

Read more about Taylor at GoFarWithKovar com

Disclaimer: Information presented is for educational purposes only and is not an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies Investments involve risk and, unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed Be sure to first consult with a qualified financial adviser and/or tax professional before implementing any strategy discussed herein To submit a question to be answered in this column, please send it via email to Question@GoFarWithKovar com, or via USPS to Taylor Kovar, 415 S 1st St, Suite 300, Lufkin, TX 75901

Setting aside that it’s never the case that “everything” has been tried in conscientious fashion, the complaint reflects the wrongheaded notion – common to American parenting since the early 1970s – that proper/effective discipline is a matter of correctly manipulating consequences vis a’ vis some method, technique, or strategy

I must confess to having contributed, perhaps greatly, to this mistaken idea Early on in my now forty-plus-year career as a syndicated columnist, my editors repeatedly emphasized the need for me to tell people what to do So that’s what I did I was deft at coming up with creative approaches to behavior problems; furthermore, at that point in my ongoing development as a “parenting expert,” I believed that for any given problem, there was a method that would solve it

I believed in behavior modification, in short I believed that the proper use of positive consequences would strengthen right behavior and, likewise, the proper use of negative consequences would shut down wrong behavior It took me a while to discover what I was not told in graduate school: no one has ever proven that behavior modification works on human beings It works on dogs, rats, monkeys, even amoeba, but when you throw free will into the equation, behavior modification falls flat In fact, children who are the targets of behavior modification are likely to learn to be manipulative

Having said that, it’s important to note that consequences are necessary Children need to learn that in the real world, right behavior is usually rewarded in some way and bad behavior is usually punished – the operative word in both cases being “usually” But whereas consequences work reliably and predictably with, say, dogs, they do not work reliably or predictably on humans For example, a child who is punished for a certain misbehavior may become that much more determined to get away with it And researchers have found that a child who is rewarded for a certain something may stop doing it Humans are paradoxical Dogs, not so much

The key to effective discipline is a right attitude Without the right attitude in question, no consequence-based approach to discipline is going to work for long (any new approach, because of the novelty effect, may work for a few days or weeks) With the right attitude, just about any approach is going to work and keep on working. Furthermore, the right attitude will eventually render consequences all-but unnecessary

The right attitude involves letting a child know that there is absolutely nothing he can do that is going to knock you, the parent, off balance; nothing he can do that will ruffle your feathers He can disappoint you, but he cannot upset you. He has no power over your emotions

The right attitude involves projecting complete confidence in the legitimacy of your authority concerning the child in question You are clear on the fact that as a general is superior to a lieutenant, you are your child’s superior Children need superior beings in their lives They need adults who act like they know what they’re doing That is essential to their sense of well-being

The right attitude “says” to the child, “I really don’t care one whit whether you like me at any given moment in time I know that I love you enough to give you my seat in the lifeboat, and that – which you can’t fathom so I’m not going to try to get you to fathom it – is what really counts ”

The right attitude is very old fashioned But where children are concerned, there is nothing new under the sun

Family psychologist John Rosemond: johnrosemond com, parentguru com

John Rosemond has worked with families, children, and parents since 1971 in the field of family psychology In 1971, John earned his masters in psychology from Western Illinois University and was elected to the Phi Kappa Phi National Honor Society

Kindergarten: HelenMoo Thang and Bennie Westdyke

First Grade: Kinsley Loftice and Elijah Wiloughby

Second Grade: Livy Drewek and Hunter Thornhill

Third Grade: Leyla Burris and Carson Allen

Fourth Grade: Tatum Gandillon and Effren Galicia