Money, Money, Money, Money

Finance is a hard concept to teach to children.  Think back, if your children are older to what it was like when you tried to teach them the value of a penny, a nickel, a dime, a quarter and even a dollar.  If your children are young enough, you already know what I mean.  When my granddaughter does a good deed or chores, I allow her to put coins in a piggy bank.  She will ask if she can have three of them.  However, she is content with the fact that she got three, not the value of each so often she will put in two pennies and a dime instead of the quarters that are available.

I think it is important to work on finances with children when they are young.  Chore charts with rewards are a great tool.  They teach them responsibility as well as the value of money and that sometimes you have to save up for big ticket items and you don’t always get everything you ask for just because you are cute!  Giving a child everything he or she asks for allows them to develop a sense of entitlement without the effort.

We did all of those things.  We used real money, play money, pretend checking accounts and even pokemon chips.  Then it came time for each of the kids to go to college and I proudly took them to the bank one by one to open a checking account and of course get a debit card.  “Mommy” did pretty good.  She understood money in/money out.  She never really liked the money out part and so has become rather frugal as an adult, which is great.  Then “Calvin” came along.  He simply did not get it!  The whole debit card thing really messed him up.  He was certain that if he used his debit card but checked off credit card when asked how he wanted to use it, all was well.  I could not get it through his head that when he used that card in any way, the money came out of his checking account.  Hence, we made several trips to the bank to straighten out overdraft charges.  Thank God he is marrying someone with financial sense!  “Mini Me” understood all of the concepts, she just never let the money stay in the account long enough to multiply!  “The Blonde” struggled.  She felt that the bank should be more understanding.  She knew she didn’t have the money in her account, but reasoned that she only overdrew the account by ten cents and did not see the need for the bank to get so picky about it.  By the time “Pook” and “The Surprise” headed to the bank, I was resigned to the fact that I should just check on their balances myself and make sure they always had sufficient funds.
 
I guess it is true that the younger ones get away with a little more than their older siblings.  Really, they should be VERY grateful for the fact that the oldest wore me down for them!  Have a great week! God Bless!