It feels just like yesterday when my daughter Nina turned one year old and was an adorable chubby little girl. She will turn 13 in three months! She loves reading, skiing, tennis, travel, choir and piano. Lately I find her watching Youtube videos on Minecraft for hours and she has created some intricate theme parks with rollercoasters and petting zoos. As a parent, I feel the urgency to teach her important skills before she goes off to college. Financial literacy and money management skills are

1. Create a new budget for the new year by reviewing last year’s actual expenses vs. budget. In my opinion, living below your means is rule #1 in personal financial planning. Regardless how much you make, if you do not save enough for your future, it would be difficult to achieve financial independence down the road. If you use expense tracking tools such as Quicken, www.mint.com or your own Excel worksheet, now it is the time to generate your cash flow statement by category to see how well you