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Thursday, Dec. 25, 2014
Boomerang kids? Set What will be the biggest financial ground rules marketing trends of 2015?
SUN MEDIA NEWS SERVICES – For many boomerang kids, moving back home after having been out on their own is a welcome opportunity to launch their career, save money for a down payment on their own house or perhaps pay down student debt. Parents are often happy to help their child build a solid financial foundation, but setting some financial ground rules before your son or daughter unpacks their boxes will help reduce the likelihood of conflict down the road. “There’s a fine line between helping and helping too much, at which point it becomes very easy for your adult child to become dependent on you and not develop the skills they need to become independent,” Christina Newberry of Vancouver says. She’s the founder of AdultChildrenLivingatHome.com and author of The Hands-On Guide to Surviving Adult Children Living at Home. She offers these tips: • Hold A Family Meeting Talk about how long the adult child plans to stay at home and why he/she wants to return home. “If there’s a purpose for the stay — like paying off debt or being able to take on a job that doesn’t pay as well but is great experience — then everybody knows what the child is working towards,” Newberry says. Address the additional expenses the household will incur because of their return — such as increases in grocery and utility bills — and how much they’ll contribute. • Set Measurable Goals Saving money for a down payment on a house or paying down student debt are admirable but vague goals. Rather, set measurable goals: the adult child will save x-number of dollars per month. If the adult child has an expressed financial goal, it’s “perfectly acceptable” to check in each month to see how well they’re meeting that goal. “If they’re achieving that goal, it doesn’t matter how they’re spending the rest of their money. That’s their business,” Newberry says.
• Discuss Expectations Regarding Behaviour Is the adult child going be there for dinner every night? Is he/she allowed to have their girlfriend/boyfriend spend the night? Is he/she responsible for their own laundry? “Parents should establish rules so they feel comfortable and other children living in the house also feel comfortable, but they have to recognize that by definition an adult child is an adult,” Newberry says. “People often ask me about a curfew. I think it’s perfectly reasonable for a parent to say they don’t want the adult child to come home after 11 p.m. if they’re going to be noisy and wake others in the house up.” • Put It In Writing Putting established expectations regarding behaviour and measurable goals in writing will help prevent both you and your child from overstepping boundaries. Be sure to include milestones so everybody can see progress is being made. “Even if things become challenging, it will help keep everyone motivated to making things work,” Newberry says. • Enforce Financial Responsibilities You may be tempted to allow your adult child to live at home au gratis but that might not be in his/her best interest. It’s good for the adult child to get into the routine of being responsible for monthly expenses, Newberry says. “It can be beneficial for the adult child’s self-esteem because it makes it clear they’re being viewed as an adult and a contributing member of the household,” she says. “They’re not just mooching off their parents and having an extended adolescence where they’re not expected to be responsible for anything.” If your adult child has no income, it’s still important to acknowledge their financial impact on the household. “They can make some sort of financial contribution by basically earning their keep and doing things that would cost the parents money — things like babysitting or painting.”
BRITTANY KUSTRA Special to the Leader
Marketing has always been part of business—from hand-painted signs and classified ads to mobile apps and digital billboards. We have a few predictions about where marketing will be going this upcoming year:
• Social media will get more diverse. We’re not suggesting that everyone abandon Facebook for Ello just yet. But new stats show that Instagram has more active users than Twitter, for the first time ever! Stay on top of trends, find out where your audience is, and find out where your audience is growing. • Everyone will be going mobile. You don’t need to design an app for your company, but you will need to make sure that your company website looks great on mobile. Stay on top of your analytics to find out if your website traffic is coming from desktop or mobile. • SEO will be more important than ever. With so many Internet sessions starting with a basic Google search, your website needs to be top ranked to keep up with the competition. • You’ll need to start with great content—then share it everywhere. Not only does new, valuable content improve your search rankings, distributing your content widely will increase your digital reach. • You’ll see more “clickbait,” but it will be more subtle. We’re all sick of seeing headlines like this: “This dog went on a walk that seemed normal, but you’ll never believe what happened next. You’ll never look at walks the same way again after seeing this.” Those blatant grabs for extra clicks are getting tiresome, so marketers are getting smarter. Expect more headlines that encourage you to click, but expect them to be less obvious.
What do you think will be the top marketing trends in 2015? Tweet us @NABIbiz with your ideas. Brittany Kustra is the communications and marketing coordinator for the Northern Alberta Business Incubator. Visit www.nabi.ca for business tips, events and news.
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