This post was underwritten by BMO Harris Bank, which offers a matching $25 on a new savings account opened for your child through their Helpful Steps for Parents program. Learn more at bmoharris.com/parents.
As a certified public accountant (CPA), naturally this topic interests me: "Saving and Helping your kids to understand money and its value." And as a CPA, you’d think I’d be really, really good at this. Yeah, not so much. I don’t have to tell ya’ll how bad this economy is. We are all living the tough times every single day. Our savings have evaporated, mainly due to medical expenses (sure makes living in Canada with free health care sound very appealing). But something I can still do, and you can as well, is help my kiddos understand money. Luckily, they both are learning about money (the denominations) in school right now (grades 1 and 3). The rest is up to me and my husband though.
What do I think they need to know? The BIG concept we are working on now is that money is NOT infinite. Contrary to (their) popular belief, money doesn’t grow on a tree in the back yard. We’ve been talking to them about where exactly money does come from – Mommy and Daddy go to work and get paid for that work. Then we have to use that amount of money to pay the bills – the house, the water, the electricity, the car, doctors, the child care, gas and groceries – before there is any (if any!) money left over for movies, eating out, extras. This SO hard for them to grasp. Many a time I get “just use your money card” as a response. I think it’s harder to teach the concept of money these days because we do use our debit cards so much more than cash. If we used all cash, they could actually see the money as it is spent and know when it’s all gone.
We’ve also started giving allowance ($1 a week) so they can have their own money to manage. My 9- year old son has spent every dime he owns – he even gave me back his piggy bank. My daughter has saved every dime (she wants to “buy a car when I’m old enough” –she’s 7!) in her piggy bank. They can earn extra money for extra work (like yard or house work they don’t normally have to do). I’m torn on just handing out money or making them earn it. What say you? Do you give away money as allowance or do chores have to be completed first?
The next step I think will be opening bank accounts (savings!) for them. I remember those Christmas Savings Club accounts from when I was a kid. Do you think banks still have them? Or did they go the way of free checking and disappear? Of course, now I have to figure out what age they should be to have a savings account. This parenting stuff is harder than it looks!
Share your thoughts. How do you teach YOUR kids about money?
I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective. To learn more about BMO Harris Bank, visit their website http://bmoharris.com/parents.
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1 comments:
Given that we have no extra money right now, the kids are not getting an allowance.
When the oldest was younger she got an allowance ($5-$10 depending on how old she was). She had chores she had to do. Some of the chores were because she is part of the family and will work around here for free just like we do. Other chores were tied in to her allowance- if she didn't so them she didn't get the money. She was a bit older than M & B when we did this.
When she was 15 all allowance stopped and she was told to get a job. She also had to pay for some of her own things- any entertainment and school lunches come to mind (we always had lunch fixings but if she wanted to buy, she had to pay for it). She also had to pay for her own car.
Come to think of it, I think she paid for more stuff then than she does now...
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