J. Lo Has a Boy and a Girl

Shortly after midnight today Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony gave birth to healthy twins, a boy and a girl, in a Long Island, N.Y. hospital. They are the first children for the 39 - year-old, singer, dancer, actress, fashion designer, and perfume maker. Her crooner husband, 38, already has two boys with former Miss Universe (GE, VIV), Dayanara Torres, his ex-wife. Not even a day old, the bouncing babes are already seven-figure earners. Reports that People magazine (TWX) is poised to pay as much as $6 million for exclusive snaps of the tots, are already circulating. 

Even though the kiddies, weighing 5 pounds and 7 ounces, and 6 pounds, are already rolling in kitty, MainStreet hopes J. Lo will stick with the parenting philosophy she shared recently with David Letterman (CBS), practicing the “tough love” her mother and father used when they raised her. With credit card debt on the rise, teaching a child financial literacy is as important as teaching them to read. 

“Financial responsibility has to do with living within your means,” says Barry Glassman, a senior Vice President of Cassaday & Company in McLean, Virginia. Glassman suggests starting at five years old. “This is where you can introduce allowance. Some money goes to spending and some goes to saving for something a week’s worth of allowance can’t afford. Then another part can go to charity to help others.”

To teach budgeting basics, Glassman suggests using three different colored piggy banks. The blue one is for spending as you like, says Glassman. The green is for future savings for things they would like but don’t have right now. “You can add 3 cents each week for every week they save to teach them compound interest!” says Glassman. Make the third one yellow and reserve that for charity. Tell your child that piggy bank is to save for people who "don't have as much as we do," says Glassman. “Your child can pick the charity.”