Cutting Your Budget Can Be The Best Thing For Your Child's Future

When the older, greatest generation looks around at the financial mess we're in, I have to wonder what they think. My mother-in-law is from that era, and I know that she has a few choice words. This is a woman who grew up in the Depression, in a family of 11 siblings on a farm in Louisiana. I tease her somewhat about her thriftiness (she won't let one spoonful of food go down the drain) and about her "pack rat" tendencies (which allow her to reuse items over and over again for various reasons without shelling out any money), but I have to give her kudos. At 89, she is the most independent woman I have met. She's not some perceived redneck from the sticks either. This is a woman who was a former bank officer who worked in the financial industry for 33 years, living in a home that is paid for, with a Lincoln Town Car in the driveway.

She is by no means rich. She's a widow of many years who had to raise her children by herself. I've seen what she pays for her health insurance, food, utilities, and maintenance... and I've seen what she brings home from Social Security and her meager retirement. It barely offsets the expenses. Yet somehow, she manages to make it.

She honestly believes that the reason we are in the mess we're in as a country is that we've forgotten what it means to wait and save for what we want, and that we haven't taught our kids these principles of delayed gratification and working for what they want, and it's a self-perpetuating disaster.

Today's guests on the first half of the Off the Grid Radio Show, Steve and Annette Economides, agree with her assessment wholeheartedly. They have developed a Smart Family Money System that will help moms and dads break free from the umbilical cord of dependency that has their children attached to them for years after they should be out on their own and independent adults.

The second half of our broadcast today features Joel Salatin and continues this week's self-reliant theme. Joel Salatin is a third generation farmer; a prolific writer whose books include You Can Farm, Salad Bar Beef, and his latest work, Folks, This Ain't Normal: A Farmer's Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World; and whose farm, Polyface Farm in Swope, Virginia, and agricultural methods were featured prominently in the documentary film, Food, Inc.

It seems that more and more food providers want food from small, independent farmers that is actually cheaper to process, but because the distribution networks, in order to be insured, operate under guidelines written by Big Ag, it's not available to the consumer. Alternative products are actively blocked from getting from the farm to the table. Joel joins host Bill Heid to tell us all about it.

Join Bill Heid, Brian Brawdy, Joel Salatin, and Steve and Annette Economides for our latest episode of Off the Grid Radio.

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