Worried about your college student and credit cards? Not sure how to sit your son or daughter down to explain how the cost of college is affecting the family’s overall financial picture?

Well, you’re certainly not alone, which is why The University of Minnesota Parent Program, University of Minnesota Extension Service (which has lots of good financial resources on its site, btw) and the Department of Family Social Science partnered to create an online seminar for parents about college finance. 

“If parents are well informed, they can help their children make thoughtful and responsible decisions when it comes to managing their finances,” said Jodi Dworkin, associate professor and extension specialist in the department of family social science at the U of M. Dworkin co-authored the seminar with Marjorie Savage, director of the University of Minnesota Parent Program, who wrote the book “You’re On Your Own (But I’m Here If You Need Me) Mentoring Your Child During the College Years.”

It’s definitely worth a look if you’d like to learn more about how to communicate with your child about money, are concerned about whether you’ll be able to identify problem gambling or overspending, or you just want to make you’ve covered your bases when having money talks with Junior.

And if you’re a parent with advice to share, comment below.

In yesterday’s post about credit card reward program changes I mentioned how my Chase Freedom card reward program has changed from triple rewards in the three everyday categories where I spend the most to a less appealing award where Chase picks the category and gives you triple rewards if you sign up for them AND spend more than $750 (at least that’s  what I saw today when I paid my bill).

Some readers responded that their reward program has not changed. So I went to Chase and here’s what I learned from spokeswoman Tanya Madison:

Because of the volume of Chase Freedom customers, we have staggered implementation of the changes that you reference. Most customers will have received notification of the changes and will have had their Chase Freedom credit cards updated with the changes by the end of the year.

 So there you have it!

Any time you learn of changes to your credit card terms, be sure to let me know.

MPR has a story on colleges that hope to ease tight budgets by offering incentives to employees for taking early retirement. Among the perks being offered to older workers: Health benefits and cash payouts.

The hope it that near-retirees with bigger paychecks will leave and schools won’t have to lay off younger, (read: cheaper) employees. Although as a younger employee with decades of work ahead of her, I’m sure my counterparts in the higher education field appreciate it!

Frankly, I’d be surprised if many employees, especially professors protected by tenure, would leap at the opportunity given the economy and the stock market’s performance of late. But if the pot is sweetened enough….

What would it take for you to retire early by choice? What types of benefits would you need? Could you swing it financially? And aside from money, would you even want to leave your job if you think you could live to 90?

I’ve heard that the Best Buy Reward Zone Program MasterCard has one of the best loyalty programs in the business. But maybe not for long, according to a post from Consumerist about the store’s shrinking rewards program.

I’ve contacted Best Buy for a comparison of the new and old terms and did not receive a response.

Best Buy certainly isn’t the first and I bet it won’t be the last credit card company to pare back rewards this year.

So which cards are still the best rewards cards out there?

Read the rest of this entry »

After three months at home with baby #3, a dreamy boy who eats well, puts himself to sleep and rarely cries, I am back in the saddle at the Strib. I’ll tell you about money and my maternity leave in Sunday’s paper.

Thanks to all of you who headed over to www.twitter.com/kablog to follow me. I’m still tweeting everything I spend with the exception of my regular fixed expenses. How many times does someone want to read:Mortgage $977 or Student loan $96.65?But if you want me to continue tweeting those expenses, let me know and I will.

While gone, I missed having the blog, especially when the urge struck to write something complicated, like the  explainer  on student loan changes from today’s paper.  Can’t do that in 140 characters!

In the weeks to come, I’ll write about car-shopping, credit card changes, savings and debt payoff.

But being a little sleep-deprived and new to juggling three, I’m hoping you’ll make my job easier.

What are the personal finance issues your family is facing? Any money matters or financial trends you’re seeing or reading about that drive you nuts? Questions about investing that you don’t want to pay an adviser to answer?  Know any inspiring folks who got out of debt? Live next to the most frugal family known to man?  Hankering to be a guest blogger for Ka-Blog?

I hope so!. Email kara.mcguire@startribune.com or comment on this blog post. Some of my best ideas come from nuggets delivered by readers like you.

It’s good to be back.