Wisdom of Rich Dad

Already, smartphones can pay for Big Macs, Girl Scout cookies, and taxi rides. With the much-anticipated rollout of Google Wallet underway, some models will also be able to spend gift cards and pay at many more locations.

Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass, two examples of mobile money, work by storing your card data (from credit cards, prepaid cash cards, and loyalty cards) on your phone, then transmitting the info to the checkout stand when you wave or tap your device.

With new applications and improved phones making mobile money more common, this is a good time to master the basics:

Tap-and-pay systems. Google Wallet and MasterCard PayPass transmit your encrypted payment information wirelessly from your phone or a keychain gizmo to a special reader. Some systems require physical contact between your phone and the reader, but a new generation of phones hitting the market in 2012 will turn the tap to a wave.

While this may not sound like a big improvement over swiping a credit card, it might save you time and money as daily deals, coupons, gift cards, and loyalty rewards programs are integrated. Meanwhile, transit systems in London, New York, and Singapore are all evaluating PayPass as a replacement for metrocards.

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An Auckland school has this week provided thousands of parents with a glimpse at the future of education – and it’s an expensive one.

This won’t come as a surprise to many – most parents will attest to the cost of putting their children through school, particularly with the ever-increasing price of uniforms and stationery materials.

However, what may raise a few eyebrows is Orewa College’s decision to place the latest model of Apple’s iPad on its “compulsory” stationery list for Year 9 students next year.

It’s hard to see the majority of Wanganui schools going the same way, at least in the short term.

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Ten-year-old Evan Lipset is learning how to delay gratification one mouse click at a time. With the help of the interactive online allowance tracker, ThreeJars.com, he can sit back and watch his money grow and choose to either save, spend or share it.

Since logging onto the Website 10 months ago, he’s decided to save his allowance to the tune of $500, an absolute triumph if you ask his mom, Debra.

“Evan couldn’t hold on to money,” she says. “If he got a dollar or if he got birthday money he’d spend it immediately on really silly things…now, he’s running home from school and jumping on the computer to check his balance.”

When it’s time for his $10 per-week allowance, Evan receives an IOU from his parents, which is deposited into his virtual account on the Web site. His account also earns a small amount of interest. The site charges $30 a year after a free, two-week trial, but his mom says it’s worth every penny because it’s helping her son to prioritize and set financial goals, something she never thought possible at his age.

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Sometimes we are not as diversified as we think we are. To see what your portfolio actually looks like, rather than just what you want it to look like, you might find it useful to use a free Morningstar tool called the Instant X-Ray. The Instant X-Ray is easy to use.

Simply enter your holdings, include how much is in each holding and the Instant X-Ray sorts through their data and gives you a read on just how diversified you are.

Insight Into Your Portfolio’s Current Holdings

The process only takes a few minutes. For people who have investments in a couple of different places (Individual Retirement Account, 401(k), accounts) the tool allows you to aggregate your holdings in one spot and get an overall read on how well you’re meeting your diversification plan.

It doesn’t tell you how your holdings typically behave in relation to one another, so it’s not a guide to how effectively diversified your portfolio is, but it’s an interesting snap shot of what you own.

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John Horn, a consultant with McKinsey & Co., thinks “war games” have much to offer business decision makers.

First, to be clear: Business war games don’t involve playing war. They’re analytical exercises that put a business through the paces of planning a strategic response to a worst-case scenario — anything from a devastating recession to the entrance of an aggressive competitor into the same market.

Admittedly, Horn makes his living in part by designing these war games. He thinks they can help us learn by simulating — albeit to a limited extent — real-world environments. The key to their effectiveness, however, lies in their design. There’s a difference between using a game to teach, and trying to learn from a game that’s designed to entertain.

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These apps for your iPhone or Droid make it easier to save cash on your purchases. Plus they’re free — so you’re already ahead.

Gas Buddy

With gas prices increasing every single day, this app can save you a pretty penny. It gives you a list of the gas stations near you, the price per gallon, and directions to the station.

And at nearly $4 a gallon, shaving a few dollars off each trip to the pump can adds up to over a hundred bucks a year — not bad for a free app.

ShopSavvy

Recently I popped into a sporting goods store looking for a pair of cycling sneakers. The pair I wanted was $100, and I was pretty confident that I could do better.

So I scanned the barcode on the shoe box with my ShopSavvy app and saw that I could order them through Jenson for $85 with free shipping — a $12 savings.

The only downside? They arrived a week later missing the bike clips. I guess there’s a buyer’s beware lesson there.

Grocery iQ

This app is ideal for anyone who has ever sent their husband to the store for groceries only to have him come back with potato chips and beer.

You can scan the barcodes of the groceries you want (say, the box of Cheerios in your pantry) and Grocery iQ will generate a list of the exact items. It will even categorize them by food group and show you what coupons are available.

Then you can email your list to said husband and up the odds that he will return with the items you requested.

TheFind

Like ShopSavvy, just scan a barcode and TheFind will locate the best prices online and at retailers in your area — plus show if there are coupons available.When I scanned the Point Break DVD on my desk (don’t ask), TheFind App found it online for as little as $6 (a steal) and at a Borders nearby. Although it told me that the closest Borders was five blocks away when there is also one in my office building.

Plus, it gave me coupons for as much as 33% off at other retailers.

Shop Lucky

Lucky Magazine’s App gives you top picks for dresses, jeans, jewelry and so on, and let’s you check availability online and at nearby stores.

You can even put the goods on hold for same-day pickup!

Granted, this may be more geared towards ‘spending’ rather than ‘saving,’ but it’s still cool. You can also see Lucky’s daily deals, which offer 50% off of the editor’s exclusive picks of the day.

Today’s deal: on-trend diamond stacking rings for just $62.50.