Issue Date: September 2, 2007
What kids' rewards programs can do for you
Upromise, a 6-year-old rewards service with more than 8 million members, offers money for 529 college savings plans from companies like Bed Bath & Beyond, ExxonMobil and McDonald's. It's facing competition from upstart Little Grad, a program that works with more than 2,000 online retailers. Here's how they both work:
Upromise
To get started: You (and family members and friends, if they wish) register credit, debit and grocery-store loyalty cards at Upromise.com and get rewards when dining with Upromise partners or visiting online retailers via Upromise's website. Get more rewards by using a Citi Upromise credit card.
What you get: You can direct rewards savings from your Upromise account to your own 529 plan or have them directly deposited into a Upromise-managed 529 plan.
Little Grad
To get started: Register on LittleGrad.com, add family members and friends to get additional rewards, and download the Little Grad Savings Manager program to receive rewards when shopping at affiliated online merchants, not just at the Little Grad website.
What you get: Rewards savings from Little Grad are transferred into a 529 or another type of savings account.
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So she wants to be a star?
20% of teens think they'll be famous someday.
Source: Teenage Research Unlimited
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At a time when celebrity worship is everywhere, many kids fantasize about joining the ranks of the rich and famous. But the road from YouTube to the real tube or from varsity to the NFL is longer and iffier than most kids think.
Parents can help kids develop a Plan B, says Florida State University sociologist John Reynolds, who has researched the gap between teens' ambitions and actual jobs as adults. Unfulfilled goals can lead to disappointment, depression and wasted time.
To balance reality and passion:
Never dismiss a child's ambitions. Instead, mention plausible alternatives. For example, a young athlete who likely won't make the pros can aim to be a sports manager or sports writer.
To find out what's driving your children's dreams, ask them to complete the sentence: "If I were a famous ... " If your daughter dreams of being recognized and admired, then ask her to imagine what it's like to have paparazzi peeping through her bedroom window or fans posting unflattering photos on the Internet.
Be honest about family finances: If your child's passion is costing you a fortune, involve him in outlining a specific budget with an exit strategy, just in case.
Contributing Editor Ann Pleshette Murphy is ABC's "Good Morning America" parenting expert.
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To slim down, first you need to bulk up
Adding lean muscle tissue to your body can help you consume more calories and burn more fat. Here, John Berardi, co-author of Scrawny to Brawny, offers some essential tips to help you develop lean muscle:
Boost calorie burning with interval training. For example, try this 20-minute workout: Do 30 seconds of running, biking, rowing, skipping or stair-climbing as hard as you can. Then follow this with 90 seconds of slow walking, biking, rowing or stair-climbing. Repeat 10 times.
Increase lean protein intake. If you're exercising regularly (especially strength training), make sure you get some lean protein with every meal. Shoot for about 1 gram per pound of body weight.
Build muscle to speed up your metabolism. Most average folks lose about 5 to 10 pounds of lean muscle mass per decade, which correlates to a 5% to 10% drop in metabolism. To prevent this drop, build back some of the lean mass by hitting the gym and training your muscles with resistance. If you gain back 5 to 10 pounds of muscle, you can rev up your resting metabolic rate by more than 100 calories each day.
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Calcium foods are vital
To keep bones strong as you grow older, should you eat foods that are high in calcium or take calcium pills?
A new study from Washington University School of Medicine says postmenopausal women who got most of their calcium from their diet or from diet and supplements had better bones than women who got most of their calcium from pills alone.
Probable reason: Calcium in food is better absorbed.
Women who averaged 830mg of calcium daily in food had higher bone density in their spines and hips than women who averaged 1,030mg of calcium daily from pills. Women who ate high-calcium foods and took pills averaged 1,620mg and had the highest bone density.
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