Your money, your life, your future now becky quick. We begin with a blended family thats when one or both spouses bring at least one child from a previous relationship to their new marriage and as Sharon Epperson reports, for many step parents, combining families and finances can be particularly challenging special blend is this weeks cover story. At first glance, ronnie and lamar are a typical family they own a Media Company and live outside of atlanta with their four children. The two got married 14 years ago. It was basically love at first sight for lamar. For ronnie. They are blended. A couple that joins together with the children from one or both of their previous relationships. Ronnie already had two children before meeting lamar the couple had the youngest two after they married it kind of blindsided me. I wasnt intentional about what does this mean for me, my husband, for my kids navigating the complexities of a blended family can be difficult enough so couples often put off having the much talk, a critical piece of the blended family puzzle the first thing we said we had to do was go out and get someone more educated that can advise us on, you know, what are the proper steps to take and also what are the steps not to take marriage and family therapist and author, ron deal has counseled blended families for over two decades under standing the role money plays in combining two families is crucial as you move forward as a m y family, you cant address everything, but you have to tart one thing is a togetherness agreement. Its a detailed plan of how they are going to care for one another in their marriage in their family and care for one anothers children the tylers often Work Together from their home office, juggling work and family on this point they never waiver, theyre both all in for all of their children financially how did you come up with your decisions about finances for your children . Financially and everything else, i treat the children just as if they were my own, and give them money, well pay for things as if they were my own sometimes i refuse to give them money as if they were my own the step moms club is a book to dpiguide step moms thro the nuances of a blaepdended fay Child Support alimo alimony . Are you responsible for paying for housing . Having that conversation, asking those questions immediately. How hard is that for their part, the tylers say they work through questions by following one simple rule the more you can communicate, even from a financial perspective, the better off youll be as a couple. And when the money talk gets tough, the tylers say ask an expert for help, whether its a therapist or financial expert, knowing they have expertise working with blended families is also very important, becky talking about money in any family can be pretty emotionally charged. Is there a way to ease into it, maybe defuse the situation in ron deal says its really important to make a list of those emotionallycharged issue. Are their trust issues because of the previous relationship are there issues in terms of what the children should have . An allowance, what are the boundaries there what are they going to be allowed to have in terms of financial resources. Buying a car, paying for college, all of those things could be emotionally charged issues many of the b issues but laying them out there takes the sting out of it. Great story whats important to do before blending two families Stacy Francis is president and ceo of francis financial thanks for being here. What do you think some of the unique concerns are when it comes to blended families . You know, there are a few concerns the number one thing is that youre taking a family with two different economic systems, and youre bringing them together. And it becomes even more complicated if one person is in a different economic income bracket and can afford certain things and the other parent cant. I guess you kind of have to come together and maybe come up with one set of rules when if comes to things like paying for chores or situations like that exactly there has to be a set of rules thats the same for each parent and each set of children otherwise its not going to work so setting those rules, being consistent and making sure that youre on the same page. Sharon and her piece made the point that everybody should have a money talk, all couples should, before they get married. What should be in that talk what are our priorities putting money away into retirement what do you feel comfortable spending on vacation, what do you feel comfortable spending for the kids camp and revisiting coming together at least once a month to talk about the finances talk about the expenses for the kids and make lusure youre on e same page. What if you disagree . Most of us marry people who are different from us. So i have to say theres probably going to be some disagreement so figuring out what is the best thing you can do for not just you but the family, and if needed, definitely hiring a financial adviser, getting a couples therapist involved. Throw in children from different marriages and it becomes more complicated. What about the idea of merging accounts if youre coming from two already separate families, putting them into it, do you merge them right away in do you wait is there a timeline for when they should be merged . Its interesting. We are see beiing fewer people merging accounts but most people do have a joint account. And that joint account is for every day expenses whatever you decide to do with your finances, though, the number one thing is that you agree on a philosophy, you agree by those rules and stick by them and continue that communication, because thats what allows a marriage and family to thrive and not get caught up in the difficulties of Money Management with the holidays coming up, that adds additional strains are there things that should be happening in terms of combining spending on gifts or family traditions combining family traditions, making sure you represent both, and especially if its your first holiday together, thats even more important. And being on the same page about holiday gifts. There are some families where the child will walk away with 30 gifts, with quite a bit of loot. Whereas another family may have one, two, or three and instead, volunteer at a local soup kitchen both of those are fine but the children have to be treated the same that makes a lot of sense stacy, thank you so much up next, were on the money from renting movies through the mail to a steaming powerhouse how netflix got its start and why no one thought it would work and later shopping season i about to begin, are you stumped on what to get the kids . We have tips on the hot holiday toys right now lets take a look at how the stock market ended the week unless youve been living under a rock, youve probably heard of netflix the company raufrpgslaunched in7 before practically anyone owned a dvd. I spoke with the companys first ceo and the author of the new book that la nevwill never wor. I asked him how he came up with the idea back in 1997, i was ready to start another company at the time all i wanted to do was sell something on the internet. My cofounder, Reed Hastings and i were brainstorming ideas, and they were crazy ideas. Things like customized shampoo, preformulated dog food one of the ideas was video rental by mail, which was equally crazy, as crazy as custom shampoo and dog food. But what turned it around was all of a sudden this thing called the dvd arrived we could mail a dvd for the simple price of a first class stamp, and that was the seed for netflix. At the time it was blockbuster that owned that market that was our weekend wed rent movies and bring them back how did you think you could take on blockbuster, or did you the funny thing is, i called this book that will never work. That was the universal response. My own wife told me that will never work but the reason was simple. There was a blockbuster on every corner, 9,000 Blockbuster Stores but reed and i had a hint that blockbuster was vulnerable, because we believed that their Customer Experience left, well, lets say it left room to be improved upon. We thought by having a full selection, by having better customer service, that we actually might be able to make a dent you guys actually thought about partnering with blockbuster at the time, they didnt see the genius, right this was right after the crash of the dotcom bubble we decide we had to sell ourselves to someone, and block buster was the obvious person. When they asked how much we said 50 million. And they basically laughed at us the stroke of genius when you decided to go streaming and stop mailing the dvds, otherwise you would have gone the way of blockbuster, too you got there first but now everybodys chasing you. How did you see that its really helpful to go back to the beginning. Because our culture is the key to understanding things like that and one of the cultural attributes of a company like netflix is the fact they realize anytime spent focussing on the past is going to compromise your ability to succeed, especially when the two of them may confuse each other on compete with each other. In the book, you talk about your dads rules for success what were the rules that meant so much to you the day before i started my first job, this is back when i was i think 21 or 22, my dad handed me a piece of paper with some handwritten, randolphs rules of success to give me before i started my first job. And these were not business rules in the accept sense of po cash flow is king, they why mer more rules of life do 110 of what you were asked consider it always up and down never give opinions on things you dont have the facts for these were rules for life. And in essence, it was how to be a mensch, how to be a business person and that the key to success as a business person was fundamentally being a person good rules for all of us. My thanks to Mark Randolph up next, not sure what to get the kids this Holiday Season weve got you covered. And cheers to the holidays well get you the top pairings for your thanksgiving dinner that wont break the bank. Prewashing and removing stuckon foods, the first time. Wow, thats clean cascade platinum. My bladder leak underwear. Orried someone might see so, i switched. To always discreet boutique. Its shapehugging threads smooth out the back. So it fits better than depend. And no one notices. Always discreet. Wthats why xfinity hasu made taking your internetself. And tv with you a breeze. Really . Yup. You can transfer your Service Online in about a minute. You can do that . Yeah. And with twohour Service Appointment windows, its all on your schedule. Awesome. So while moving may still come with its share of headaches. No kidding. Were doing all we can to make moving simple, easy, awesome. Go to xfinity. Com moving to get started. With the holidays just around the corner, you are probably starting to think about all the gifts you need to get, especially for the kids. If youre looking to prisurprise them with something fun, we have some picks and jackie, thank you for being here this is like my savior at the start of every shopping sooeaso. The first one right in front of you is fgtvs giant mystery tv this is based on a youtube channel. Fgtv is a family that plays a lot of video games but they also have a lot of fun with it. Theyre a loud, exciting channel to watch and these are toys based on characters from the show if youre like me, your kids want something gross what is this, pop, pop snot . It fits the gross trend but the compound trend with started with slime i see youre ready to go check this out. So goopy. Snotty slime, thats whats in all of these pacts here and jackie already gave me a heads up it comes with a hammer the slammer hammer. What do i do . Youre going to whack it, and its going to pop. Yes, thats it and the slime comes out some of them have a little character in it to collect yeah, i see some of the characters in here a. And maybe even better than that, i can suck up the snot you can put it in there and pull up. Anybody whos seen the nanny for babies, it sucks the snot right up you can push it right back through. Look, there it is, nasty snot okay smarter. This is is for the more intellectual parents and grandparents love toys that are based on science, technology, engineering and math, stem principles. The this is great for teaching early programming skills to the little kids. This little guy turns on, and hes very simple kids can learn and they follow the storybook. If you press forward, back, forward right, and then you hit go hell go forward, back, forward and right. Oh, so its like early coding very simple a unique product and we love it. This one looks pretty cool and also expensive this is the pac man counter cade we love this the my favorite trend is the retro, nostalgia, showing your kids what you loved when you were their age, right . I love it every year i wait for you to get here soy can figure out what to buy my kids. Ah thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Up next on the money whether youre hosting a holiday dinner or an invited guest, a bottle of wine is sure to come in handy we have the top picks coming up. [ ] looking to simplify your skin care routine without sacrificing results . Try olay total effects. One dose provides more vitamin b3 than 50 cups of kale and improves 7 key areas of visibly healthy skin. Try olay total effects. The holidays are a time to gather with family, friends, maybe eat some Delicious Food and of course enjoy a bottle of good wine. What ra tare the best picks foru buck joining me is the executive wine editor and ray, thank you for being here im always thrilled to be here you can give us a heads up on whats coming. I get really popular around the holidays suddenly friends are texting me. You brought a white to begin with i brought a white to begin with the which i genuinely love. But their is a reeiesling. This is a dry riesling. Its not sweet so if you look on the label, this one actually says dry and you take a sip its not sweet at all. Thats great, actually. Ive never had a riesling i liked. Its 12 a bottle weve got rose i thought rose was a summertime thing rose can be drunk all yearlong im not going to look silly i guess it looks festive you basically are christmas right there. There you go. This is el coto from spain. A little strawberry smell. Oh, yeah, that is sweeter a richness, the truth although not at the end its dry at the end a little bit of tannins. Spectacular wine for cocktail parties. Was i right youre right. Youll go forth and become a wine expert. Then we have red what kind of red . Old vine red from marietta cellars. What does that mean its a bunch of zinfandel plus some other rhonestyle grapes they planted a whole bunch of stuff all together and it recreates that style of wine its rich, pretty fruity i wanted to bring a sonoma wine, because there were the fires recently right in the end, there was a lot oftrees that got burned up but vineyards actually act as a fire break and the fire tends to run up and stop. So there wasnt that much damage to there was one winery that burned down. The smoke in the air doesnt affect the grapes . About 94 , 95 of the grapes this year were harvested before the fires. It can affect it, but once youve got the grapes off the vine youre great. Thats tasty, too i never liked reds, but you keep bringing reds that i like. It has a spiciness, almost a little pepperiness, its a 15 bottle of wine marietta makes this bottle all year round its been a goto for me for the holidays through the years are these widely available . Certainly, these are widely available. You have to hunt a little for the riesling, but its worth the hunt in is the fanciestlooking bottle youve ever brought us. This is splurnling on a budget its only 30 its 30. As a friptd of miend of mine sas covered in metal its kava. Its what its kava from south of barcelona. You missed your opportunity oh so here we go. This is wine lesson number one if you dont chill the champagne down enough or the wine, you will get it overflowing. And this has been on set a little while i was thinking we might have some sort of disaster. It adds to the drama. Cheers. In isthis is a lovely wine, t 30 a bottle its a great celebratory wine. How bubbly. A lot of bubbles if its very warm, it will seem more foamy. By the way, these are slightly different glasses these arent the flutes. These are the new riedle champagne glasses. Theyre not flutes i hate flutes you cant bend your nose on the end of the flute and then you feel silly theyre wineglasses but a little taller. You get the bubbles and you can drink with your nose these work like a charm. Thank you for bringing us all these choices. Cheers. So good to see you happy heading into the holidays. Absolutely come back soon. Would love to that is the show for today. Im becky quick. Thank you for joining us next week, the new Housing Trend that cob popping up in a back yard near you. Have a great one, and we will see you next weekend cheers hat feeling sluggish or weighed down could be signs that your digestive system isnt working at its best . Taking metamucil every day can help. Metamucil supports your daily Digestive Health using a special plantbased fiber called psyllium. 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Its time for options actions. Heres what weve got tonight on the show coming up on the big show tonight. Controversy after a report about a big bet from the worlds Biggest Hedge Fund dan nathan outlines how to play it from home then therenergy carter worth is looking at one stock from that sector that could be coming back from the dead plus if you thought that was a crushing scene, you should have seen what happened at the tesla cyber truck debu