To effectively serve clients, Personal Financial Managers must stay current with trending financial topics. By doing so, they can deliver relevant content in briefings and anticipate questions to prepare responses for. Below is a brief description of five trending financial topics including high inflation, increased insurance costs, increasing debt, entrepreneurship paths, and online gambling. Implications for military families are described.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new medication for weight management in adults with obesity (FDA, 2023). This is just the latest advancement in the management of obesity.
To be an effective financial educator, your work should be informed by personal finance research. Below are findings and implications from three recent studies on economic well-being, financial literacy, and using “Buy Now Pay Later” to pay for groceries:
Children’s relationships with their primary caregivers are foundational to their emerging social-emotional development (Morris et al., 2007), which intersects with children’s challenging behavior (DEC, 2017). The Division for Early Childhood’s position statement on challenging behavior outlines five practices practitioners can use to partner with families to address challenging behaviors (DEC, 2017).
Mobile technologies are growing exponentially worldwide, reaching 7.95 billion accounts in 2020, 6.06 billion of which are on smartphones.
Domestic violence can affect anyone and when it comes to gender, it does not discriminate. Feelings of shame, hopelessness, isolation, and fear surround this painful and confusing public health issue. These feelings, along with a variety of other barriers, make it challenging for victims to talk about abuse. This becomes even more complex when the victim identifies as male, due to superfluous societal pressures, stereotypes, and misinformation. In the United States, according to the CDC, one in seven men (18+) has been a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner, and one in ten men has experienced rape, physical violence, and/or stalking by an intimate partner. Yet, statistically, men make up a significantly smaller percentage of callers to the national DV hotline and other reporting avenues.
Each year, as the leaves change color and the air turns crisp, communities across the globe eagerly prepare for the spooky, delightful festivities of Halloween. It’s a time when neighborhoods come alive with decorations, laughter, and the promise of sugary treasures. But, as we revel in the spirit of the season, it’s crucial to remember that the Halloween magic should be accessible to all.
Nature has never failed to amaze us as a profound source of joy, inspiration, and wonder. A sensory garden is a specially designed garden, that provides a wide range of sensory experiences, including touch, scent, taste, and sound in addition to sight. For children with special needs, sensory gardens can provide a unique and enriching experience, allowing them to explore their senses and connect with the world in a way that is both therapeutic and educational.
I recently conducted a search for the term “help families thrive” on government websites and found over 2,400 results, surpassing the results for searches like “improve family resilience” (649 results) and “enhance family well-being” (1,710 results). Clearly the concept of “thriving” is appealing, though its exact definition is unclear.
What is challenging behavior? Challenging behaviors are essentially children’s actions that adults find challenging. An adult’s definition of challenging behavior depends on the context (e.g., adult’s experiences, culture, values) (DEC, 2017; NAEYC, 2022). Early childhood practitioners must reflect on what they consider to be challenging behavior and counteract individual and systemic factors influencing their reaction to behavior (Gilliam et al., 2016).
This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy, U.S. Department of Defense under Award Number 2023-48770-41333.
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