I’m a carpenter that can’t find a helper with a good work ethic and on the job there are hardly any people younger than 30.
Many kids have their college paid for by their parents, and many do miserable their 1st year only to spend the next 3-4 years trying to get their GPA up.

You need to know sacrifice to understand value.

We are teaching our kids the value of money. The little ones have the Dave Ramsey “Junior Banks” with give, save and spend sections. We talk deliberately about money and why we don’t go on expensive vacations. We encourage them give some of their earned money to church. My oldest son recently brought his cash to Walmart to get a video game controller, and decided he’d rather not spend ALL his money on 1 thing.

I don’t expect that they grasp it all, but I believe that this foundation will help them understand the value of money.

I like the chapter title “laughing at the jones” because it sounds like in this book you’ll be reminding people they do have a choice about how they spend their money (just as how in 168 hours you said we have a choice about how we spend time and that saying we don’t have time isn’t accurate).

@Jason – I hope it will be a breath of fresh air. I like J.D. Roth’s stuff. Dave Ramsey is fascinating, and has certainly found a market. I intend to stay far away from the concept of getting out of debt and budgeting. It’s not something I have any expertise in, so I more want people to think broadly about money.

@Twin Mom – tackling the problems of the American health insurance system is going to be outside the scope of the book, otherwise it would just be a book on that. Though probably worth a mention at some point. I’d agree with you that having a safety net is a good reason for remaining a 2-income family. And lots of families do have one person have the “stable” job while the other tries something entrepreneurial, precisely for the health insurance. Back when I was paying for an individual policy, I just had to build it in to the cost of living. And yes, it pretty much sucked. As for the retirement issue, employer discrimination is definitely an issue, though there are some interesting policy ideas out there on combating that (I wrote about one recently in USA Today). And since senior citizens qualify for Medicare, that removes one of the obstacles to trying something entrepreneurial that younger people face. I like the work that Civic Ventures is doing in encouraging “encore careers” — just because you can’t stand all day and do procedures doesn’t mean you can’t do something economically viable. In the case of a dentist, there are options like teaching, consulting to an oral care company or an insurance company doing dental coverage, etc.

@CM – the Motherlode people did point out that many people found it difficult to continue as 2-income families at 3 kids, but the funny part to me is that people differed on whether this was an expense or savings. I’d side with the people who think that a person leaving the workforce is an expense. Yes, you save on childcare but you lose out on earnings plus raises for those years and probably on a few additional years given the complications in re-entering the workforce. Of course, if the first kid is already in school by the time the 3rd arrives, the additional costs would not be the equivalent of a third daycare bill. Also, at least in my neck of the woods, many professionals switch over to a nanny at 2 kids, so that’s the big bump, not the third. The third would be a smaller added expense (albeit for more years).