How Can I Afford It?
When I graduated from law school, first year starting salaries at the big law firms were 135k/year.
I thought I was rolling in the dough. I had started working at 14 when minimum wage was $3.35. I worked my way through college waitressing and through law school working for Westlaw. Even with all that, I graduated with nearly 100k in student loans.
I thought 135k was big money! And it would have been if I had been a single woman. But, I wasn’t.
I was the breadwinner in my family, supporting my husband and our two kids. We bought a house, paid taxes and suddenly that big paycheck was stretched mighty thin. I was constantly pinching pennies, feeling the squeeze.
I wanted to leave the big law firm and start my own firm, but thought I couldn’t afford it. I started to resent my job, my husband, and our house.
I felt stuck.
Until the day my mindset shifted from “I can’t afford it” to “How can I afford it?” Suddenly, a whole new world of possibilities opened up.
I found the resources to launch my law firm in the most unexpected places. And although I felt scared as I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone, not only financially, but emotionally and spiritually as well, I learned that I would never run out.
Today, that lesson continues to serve me.
As I prepare to send two kids to private school, I no longer say “I can’t afford it” even though if you asked a traditional financial advisor she’d say no way can I afford it.
Instead, I ask “how can I?” and know that because it’s important to me, I will find the resources I need.
Here are some ways I’m doing it:
I’m downsizing my housing costs significantly; I’ve traded in my fancy leased car for a less expensive used car; and I found a roommate on CoAbode, a website for single mom’s looking to share housing.
The best part about these money-savers is they’ve actually enhanced my life.
The house I’m moving into is my dream house! It’s on a walkstreet in Hermosa and while it needs a lot of work right now, it could be my forever house.
My car is great to drive and Jodi isn’t just a roommate, she’s a blessing. She does all the grocery shopping and cooking and brings a sunny energy into my life, not to mention the cutest baby you can imagine. She’s the housewife I’ve always dreamed of having and is the ideal addition to my harem.
None of this happened by accident. If I had kept up the “I can’t afford it” mantra in my mind, I’d never have let in all of the goodness that is flowing into my life.
So next time you think you can’t afford it, think again.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
Why Private School?
If you’ve ever agonized over the decision about where to send your kids to school or you are doing it now or contemplating it in the future, I can relate.
We had moved to Hermosa Beach, anticipating we’d send our kids to their fantastic schools.
And, I’m a big supporter - don’t miss the annual Hearts of Hermosa event at Sangria on March 7, 2008.
But, the year before Kaia was ready to start Kindergarten, one of my good friends suggested I at least look at the private schools in Palos Verdes, just to keep my options open.
So, I did. And, I fell in love with Chadwick.
In the past three years that Kaia has been there, I’ve become certain that without a doubt it was the best choice we could have possibly made, even though we have to drive 30 minutes to get there, come up with the hefty tuition, and all of her friends are scattered throughout the South Bay and surrounding areas (which means FAR).
Here’s why:
As a more than full-time employed mom, the most important thing when it came to my kids’ education was that I would be able to rely on Kaia’s teachers to know her, teach her what she needed to know and keep me informed all along the way.
I knew I wouldn’t be the kind of parent who could be working in my child’s classroom very often or who would spend a lot of time comparing notes with the other mom’s to see how my kid was doing compared to everyone else and be able to quickly diagnose any issues.
I needed a school where they’d know Kaia as well, or perhaps better, than me and keep me informed every step of the way.
Chadwick has been everything I could hope for in this regard.
It turns out that Kaia had some reading problems that I don’t think would have been noticed in a half day kindergarten class at our local public school. I certainly wouldn’t have noticed.
Chadwick noticed - fast. At our very first parent teacher conference in Kindergarten, in fact.
And while I was initially resistant to the idea that anyone could know that early that there were reading problems, they were right on.
Because we caught it and intervened early, Kaia is getting all the tools and support she needs, is turning into a great reader and has not a shred of self-confidence issues around her reading today.
I thank Chadwick for that.
And I know this awareness will carry through to the upper class years as well.
I was mercilessly bullied throughout junior high and some of high school; it was extremely painful. Not one administrator or teacher ever did anything about it. The school was just too big and no one was paying attention.
When Chadwick sees that sort of thing happening, they nip it in the bud right away, by helping the kids and parents become aware of the issue and not pretending it doesn’t exist.
Because the school is small compared to a public school, you just can’t get away with as much and that’s really important to me.
I have a great sense of peace in knowing that Kaia will not be teased and even more importantly, she will not be allowed to tease.
What it all comes down to is that I know with 100% certainty that the teachers and administrators know Kaia, they know what she needs, and they can give it to her. She’s never going to get lost in a crowd there, be able to hide or feel unheard or unseen. And to me, that’s the greatest gift I can give her.
Now, with a little luck, we’ll have two kids there next year. And, don’t think for a minute that I don’t swallow hard when writing those big tuition checks. It doesn’t come easily, but I find the resources because it’s knowing she’s there getting her needs met that allows me to spend my time and energy doing what I love to do and so I write the check with gratitude.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
All My Women ….
When I was married, my husband and I bickered incessantly about whose turn it was to take care of the kids. We were in constant battle for “alone time.” Or so it seemed.
My husband was certain that if I wasn’t working, it was my time to be with the kids because he had been with them all day.
My position was, “hey, you’re the stay at home dad, that means you get them ready for bed while I respond to email.”
I imagine this battle goes on in many households with little children who have lots of needs and parents who either don’t want to spend the money for childcare, feel too guilty to have extra help, or think they should be able to do it all by themselves.
We were in all three of these categories.
I was making the money and thought (wrongly, I might add) that if hubby was staying home with the kids that meant we didn’t need childcare. It felt like I’d be paying twice and I was so unhappy at my job that I didn’t want to do anything that would increase our expenses and at the same time the pressure of the golden handcuffs.
And, I felt so much guilt being away from my kids everyday while I went to work that I couldn’t imagine putting them in a sitter’s care in the evenings or on the weekends too! Dear husband didn’t do much to alleviate that guilt at all and I regularly accused him of perpetuating it so that he could get some more “alone time” – our currency of trade in the house. Of course, his apparent disapproval was mostly a reflection of my own internal harping, but that didn’t make it any less meaningful at the time.
I felt as if I was getting constant messages that said “Alexis, you SHOULD be able to do this without anymore help. What’s wrong with you?”
Should or shouldn’t, guilt or no guilt, the truth of the matter was, I needed help! For the first several years though, I refused to get it and chose bitterness and resentment instead.
Ultimately, that festered into a divorce on one hand and a reunion on the other.
I divorced my dear husband, but I found my Truth in the doing.
That’s a big statement, I know. Yet, it’s true.
I won’t bore you now with the details of my spiritual journey; that we’ll save for another time. Suffice it to say that I found the humility to realize I couldn’t do it all alone. I needed a whole heckuva lot of help if I was going to be the kind of mommy I wanted to be and run successful businesses.
Over the past three years, I have learned to know myself, accept myself and love myself. Most of the time.
The Truth of the matter is that I am an entrepreneur and I love it; it’s my art. If I wasn’t doing it, I’d again become that bitter, dry, overweight woman I became when I tried to deny who and what I was.
I was in a constant battle with who I was and who I thought I should be.
When I was with my kids, I felt guilty that I wasn’t getting my work done. When I was working, I felt guilty I wasn’t with my kids. A never ending cycle, I’m sure you’re familiar with and if you aren’t ask any Stay at Work Mom. (I first heard the term “Stay at Work Mom” from my comrade in overcoming guilt, Denise Berger, a mom of 2 kids with a high powered job as the the Global Chair of the Aon Corporation’s Women’s International Network – fancy name for their work/life balance expert.)
It was a vicious, never-ending cycle and I was never good enough.
But then one day I woke up and realized I was good enough and I deserved all good in my life and that I had to accept myself to get that all good coming into my life.
Ok, truth be told, I didn’t just wake up one day and realize that, it came painfully and with many ups and downs, bumps and bruises, tears, retreats, and reading just about every spiritual book I could get my hands on.
But after all that, thanks to the hard work I did and hearing the right words at the right time, I realized I deserved help!
Today, I’ve got a harem of women helping me raise my kids (and a couple of great guys as well). Well, I always said everyone should have a wife; who knew I’d need so many?
So, what does it really take to keep my ship afloat?
My kids are with me every other week. On the week they are with me, Lourdes comes three days. I love Lourdes. She takes great care of me, even sewing my clothes when I rip the seam on something or pop a button. I tried 7 housekeepers before I found Lourdes, but she was worth the search.
I have two babysitters during the week because they are both in school and Anna, our first babysitter, wanted to work less than I needed someone. But, she and Noah have such a great bond that we both wanted her to see the kids at least one of the days when they are with me, so she goes to our parent participation Co-Op with him on my work day. She’s even going to make his graduation book for me. Stuff like that stressed me out to the max and I’m so relieved she’s taking care of it.
Chelsey comes the other 4 days and I’ve got so much trust and faith in her that during the work day I can focus just on my businesses and know the kids are well taken care of, loved, having a good time and getting where they need to go.
In 2 weeks, Jodi’s moving in and she’s going to do all the grocery shopping, organizing, cooking, and other domestic stuff that doesn’t happen with just me at home. Jodi and I met through a website called Co-Abode, where single moms looking for roommates connect. Jodi has a 9-month old baby who is cute as a button and I’ve got a huge house with an extra bedroom. Jodi loves to cook and do homemaker stuff and I love to work on my business. A wife without the sexual duties!
Why am I telling you all this? Because it all changed for me when I heard another Stay at Work Mom talk about the nearly full household staff that kept her home running and instead of feeling judgment, I felt this deep awareness that she deserved it and so did I.
If I can inspire one of you reading this to recognize that you deserve support and that it’s okay to ask for help and keep asking until you get what you need (even if other people seem to judge you for it), my disclosure was worth it.
This article was inspired by Penelope Trunk, The Brazen Careerist, who wrote today about post partum depression so openly and it occurred to me that I had a multi-year post-partum depression and when I really stopped to think about it, I realized it wasn’t post-partum depression it was that having my children caused me so much self judgment that I had no choice but to let go of all of it and totally accept myself as I was lest I drive myself insane.
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
Estate Planning? But I’m only 35! Secrets of the Old Rich Guys Revealed
Unless you were born into an Über-rich family (and sometimes even then), your parents’ probably never discussed estate planning when you were growing up and didn’t have any kind of relationship with a personal lawyer (at least not one you remember discussed with fondness!)
It’s not a surprise. 70% of people die without even a Will. So, why would you need to take action now, when you are so young?
Because you are financially smarter than your parents and you care more about the people you’d leave behind than the 70% who die leaving their loved ones in the lurch.
You may be young (or young at heart), but you likely have more far more wealth than your folks already; you certainly have bigger dreams, and there’s a good chance you have kids.
It’s not your age that matters when it comes to planning. Your vision and your family circumstances determine whether you need to plan and when to start.
Regardless of how much money you have in the bank, if you have kids at home, you want to be the one who decides who would take care of your kids in the short-term and who would raise them for the long-term, if you were in an accident. You definitely don’t want to leave that up to a court to decide.
Choosing who will take care of your kids and legally documenting your decisions is estate planning … if you have kids, you need it.
If you do have money in the bank (here in California more than $100,000) or own any real property, you will want that money to get to your family as easily as possible if anything happens to you. The State has a plan for your money, but it’s one that will make life difficult for your loved ones. Under the State’s plan, your family will have to deal with the Court, not have complete control of your assets for 12-16 months and they’ll pay a load of unnecessary expenses that you could have avoided if you had planned ahead.
You definitely don’t want to leave the people you love with a mess because you didn’t take care of things.
Giving your loved ones easy access to your money if you are in an accident is estate planning … if you have money in the bank or own even one piece of real estate, you need it.
And, if you have a big vision for your future, you want to set up your business in such a way that it can never be taken from you if you get divorced or sued and so that when you die, your family won’t lose half of it to the government. Yes, there are ways to totally protect what you are building and they are a lot easier to put in place when your company isn’t worth much, like when you are just starting out in your 30s.
Showing the Universe you mean business about your business and setting it up so that it grows protected for your family is estate planning … if you have a big vision for your future, you need it.
Last, if you want to pass on much more than just your financial wealth and leave the world a better place, you need to set forth the intention to do that and then take action steps throughout your lifetime to capture the intangible assets that are most often lost when someone dies, like your intellectual, spiritual and human assets. It’s about who you are and what’s important to you.
Creating a structure and plan for passing on your values, insights, stories and experience is estate planning …. If you want to leave the world a better place, you need it.
So, what do the old rich guys know that you
should know too?
The most important thing to know is that estate planning is really NOT a do it yourself process.
Sure, you can prepare your own will, trust or health care directive, but real deal, make a difference for your loved ones estate planning (what I call Family Wealth Planning) is about far more than documents; it’s about making the very best decisions for yourself and the people you love most so you can leave the world a better place. And that kind of estate planning cannot be done without the guidance of a trusted personal lawyer to be there for you throughout your lifetime and for your loved ones after you are gone.
Think about the old rich guys …. the guys whose family wealth has grown at each generation –Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Ford to name a few – all had personal lawyers advising them and their family after they were gone and long before they amassed their wealth. Because of these relationships, they left long lasting legacies that improve the world. Contrast that with rich guys like Joe Robbie, Powel Crosley, Jr., and Cornelius Vanderbilt who were once the wealthiest men in America and whose fortunes have been almost entirely dissipated to estate taxes, lawsuits, divorces and general affluenza.
So, learn from the old rich guys who did it right. Show the Universe you are serious about your business by getting control of your financial future. Leave your family with a legacy of true family wealth. If you want to leave the world a better place, even on a small scale, now is the time for you to begin planning your estate.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
Moms: Take Charge of Your Family’s Future
I’m hosting a free teleconference for MOMS ONLY and if you are a mom, you need to be there.
It’s next Tuesday, February 19 at 1p PT/4p ET.
We are close to sold out on our line block, so please get registered now if you plan to attend so I can tell if I need to reserve more lines.
Even if you can’t make it, go ahead and register anyway so you’ll get the recording of the call for download.
And, if you’ve got any friends who need this info, please pass this along and tell them to get registered too.
Here are all the deets:
I’m hosting a free call for moms because 74% of you don’t have your financial house in order and haven’t even legally named guardians for your kids.
And, I’m committed to doing something about the growing number of elderly women entering poverty in their 70s and 80s - it’s a whopping 20%!
The time for you to take action is now!
This Mom’s Only Call will show you how to get your financial house in order, take control of your future, and secure your children’s well-being.
Some of the topics we will cover:
1. How to make sure your children’s future is not left in the hands of a broken down court system and a Judge who doesn’t know you or your kids.
2. How to legally keep your family wealth in your pocket and out of the government’s.
3. The secrets that guarantee you won’t become one of the 20% of elderly women living in poverty … the time to secure your future is NOW!
4. How to pass on your family’s WHOLE WEALTH not just your money…Make sure your children are raised with your values, stories, insights and experiences.
5. Exactly how to take control of your finances if something should happen to your spouse.
6. Why paying estate taxes is completely voluntary…you might think you aren’t subject to estate taxes, but you’re probably wrong,…discover why.
7. How you can protect your kids’ inheritance from a divorce or a lawsuit.
I look forward to hearing you on the call! Register now.
With lots of love,
Alexis
PS - please get registered now so I know if I have to expand my line block as soon as possible. The call is Tuesday, Feb 19th at 1p.
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
11 Things to Ask Before Hiring an Estate Planning Lawyer
These are the 11 things you should ask before engaging an estate planning lawyer to help you plan for the well-being of your money, your family and your life.
- Do you prepare a comprehensive plan for my kids’ care if something happens to me, like the Kids Protection Plan™ that names short and long-term guardians and gives specific instructions to all of the guardians and my caregivers? What about an ID card for my wallet listing the short-term guardians with their contact information?
- Are all of your fees flat fees? What about for ongoing work after the initial completion of my estate plan documents? What happens when I call with legal questions 2 years after my planning documents were completed? What if the questions are about something other than my estate plan?
- Do you have a whole team in place or is it just you? What happens if something happens to you or you retire?
- What happens if I need to get a quick question answered and you are not available?
- Do you make sure my assets are titled in the right way? How?
- What happens when things change in my life? Do you notify me about changes in the law? How often do you communicate with me?
- Does my planning fee include a regular review of my plan? What if I want to make changes to my plan?
- Do you have any sort of an estate planning maintenance program or membership program for ongoing service and, if so, what does that include?
- Do you have a process for helping me capture and pass on my intangible wealth, such as my intellectual, spiritual and human assets or who I am and what’s important to me?
- Can you structure my estate plan so that whatever I leave to my kids will be protected from a lawsuit against them or if they are divorced in the future? How often do you build that kind of planning into client’s plans?
- Do you guarantee your service?
Knowing the questions to these answers before you engage an estate planning lawyer will ensure you put in place an estate plan for your family that will really work when your family needs it and won’t end up just a pile of worthless paper after you are gone.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
See Me on Better TV
I’m back from NYC and if you want to get a sneak peek on what I was doing there, check me out on Better TV. And, welcome to all of you new subscribers who saw me there!
You’ll be able to name guardians on the KidsProtectionPlan.com website very, very soon. It was supposed to be done last week, but … we had a few more tweaks before we could release it to you.
I promise you, it will be well worth the wait.
My kids were sick all week while I was gone much to the chagrin of my ex who was taking care of them all week (and did a fantastic job!), but just when I thought they were getting all better, Kaia got an earache and ruptured her eardrum!
The poor bean was in excruciating pain that is just now getting better.
Speaking of parenting, the Britney saga continues with her parents finally taking back control. And while you may think her case has no lessons from you, you’ll be surprised when you read this week’s article - check it out.
******************UPDATE*********************
Starting May 2, you can see me on Better TV every Friday as the new Family Financial and Legal Expert.
In May, I’ll be talking about why, as a parent, it’s not enough just to wear clean underwear when you leave your house and what else you should be doing, recession busters, why and how to be your family CFO and get your financial house in order, tips for planning your next family vacation on a budget, whether you need to worry about the nanny tax and, if so, what you should be doing.
“See” you there!
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
What You Can Learn About Estate Planning From Britney Spears
You probably can’t imagine how the case of a multi-millionaire, fallen from grace pop star could have any application at all to you.
Well, you might be surprised to know that Britney’s case has a lot of lessons for all of us, no matter how much money we have in the bank.
The other day I told you that Britney’s dad had been appointed as conservator of her person and co-conservator of her estate, which means dad’s now in control of what Britney can do, who she can see, and he’s controlling all access to her bank accounts and credit cards.
Well, apparently, over the weekend, Britney attempted to hire her own lawyer (Andrew Streisand) to fight her dad’s attempt to take over her personal and financial affairs.
But, the Court refused to recognize Streisand as Britney’s lawyer because the court-appointed lawyer assigned to evaluate Britney said that Brit doesn’t have capacity right now to hire her own lawyer at this point.
So, she’s out of luck.
For the life of me, I can’t imagine why Britney didn’t have a relationship with her own personal lawyer before now, but apparently she didn’t. You’d think that someone with her wealth would have a Will, a Trust, Health Care Directives, Powers of Attorney, Guardian Nominations … basically a comprehensive estate plan to protect her kids and her money.
And you’d also think that her estate planning would have been handled by her personal lawyer.
Guess not!
If it had, her lawyer would have had standing to appear on her behalf in Court today. But, because she didn’t, there’s no one representing what Britney wants in this whole fiasco.
How is this applicable to you?
Because it highlights how important it is for you to have a relationship with a personal lawyer before you need it.
By the time you need a relationship with a lawyer, it’s often too late. You are in a crisis situation and beginning a relationship during a crisis is often either impossible or very costly.
Instead, if you begin a relationship with your personal lawyer while everything is good and right in your life, you and your family will have someone to call who knows you and what’s important to you during that crisis situation.
One day you’ll need a lawyer, I don’t know when and I don’t know why, but when you do, you’ll be so grateful to have a relationship with your own personal lawyer.
It’s too late now for Britney, but it’s not too late for you … today having a personal lawyer is both accessible and affordable and if you own your home, care about your family, and want a trusted advisor to call when you are in crisis, you can and should have one of your own.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
Subscribe to this feed• Email This • Stumble It! • Digg This!
Add to del.icio.us • Share on Facebook • Kirtsy This
Britney Spears Grounded!
Britney’s parents finally stepped in and took control of their out of control daughter’s future and she’s grounded until at least Monday. And, its about time!
Brit’s a perfect example of what happens when kids get control of big money too young and why you want to make sure you’ve set up your estate plan for your kids to make sure they never get outright control of the money you’ll leave behind for them too early.
Almost universally, when setting up trusts for their kids, my clients don’t give their kids the possibility of financial control over family wealth until they are over the age of 30 because they know what could happen when kids’ get control too soon.
The Spears’ family didn’t have that option because Britney earned her money, so the day she turned 18, Britney had no restriction on how to use her money. Less than 8 years later, she’s spiraled out of control and while she may have plenty of money left still, she may never get to enjoy it if she doesn’t learn the lessons her parents didn’t have the chance to teach her while she was busy becoming a superstar. I hope her parents will have the fortitude to get her back on track.
Yesterday, Brit’s dad took the first step by filing for conservatorship over Britney’s person and her estate.
What does this mean?
By being appointed as the conservator of Britney’s person, dad Jamie is given the right to control who gets to see her and where she goes, plus he can get access to her medical records and depending on the paperwork filed, he could also get the right to make medical decisions for her.
As co-conservator of her estate (with lawyer Andrew M. Wallett), Jamie now controls access to Britney’s credit cards and bank accounts.
Effectively, Jamie Spears is back in control of his daughter’s financial and physical well-being. He’s been given the legal authority to be a dad again and ground her.
The conservatorship is temporary until Monday, but I have to imagine it will extended. This is certainly a case where it’s needed.
Brit’s grounded for now and let’s hope that the Judge sees how much this girl needs her parents back in the driver’s seat for a while.
Don’t worry Brit, I was grounded for 3 months when I was 14 and it was the best thing that ever happened to me. Your parents are doing this because they love you and as soon as you get that, you can start to turn your life around too. It’s not too late.
© 2008 Alexis Martin Neely
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include everything in quotes with it: “Written by Alexis Martin Neely, mom, writer, speaker and Personal Family Lawyer. Alexis makes it super easy for your family to talk about and plan for sticky subjects like money, death and taxes. Get Alexis’ humorous, enlightening, and often quite revealing “Family Wealth Secrets” at: www.FamilyWealthMatters.com.”
-
Subscribe
-
