Money Lessons 4 Kids

A week plan – budgeting

Alenka — Mon, 11 May 2009 19:28:35 +0000

Last week we had a conversation in our family about money, budgeting, savings, and why we can’t buy everythink…

So we decided to give our daughter 100 EUR to provide us with whole week food. She prepared the menus for every day fom breakfasts to dinners and then she made the shopping list.

And it was an interesting week… first she was very enthusiastic about it, how she can buy whatever she wants and we will eat her favourite food… but then when the money was running out, she got desperate, she refused to finish the week plan. But I made her… I am not proud of it, but I always believe one has to finish what he started.

On the last day we had a family meeting. First she explains how she managed the money, how she felt, what she liked and disliked about it, what would she do differently… And then everyone answers the same questions. And it was quite educational for everybody. She even asked to have more weeks like this.

Money allocation – 3 piggybanks

Alenka — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:58:29 +0000

When we give the children some money, whether it be allowance or payment for a simple job, they often don’t know exactly what to do with it.

They are proud to get it, but they don’t have a clue, how they want to spend (or save) it. Very few children are persistent enough to save for something big, and the usual small treats (icecream, sticker…) are not close as expensive as they think.

I personally found idea of 3 piggybanks (jars) very useful. Label them with:

SAVE

DONATE/SHARE

SPEND/INVEST

The children can draw a picture of what different aspects represent for them. For example, for the spending, they can draw bicycle or Nintendo or something bigger they want to save for. My daugter Tina draw a little kitten for the Donations, because she wants to help the animal shelter.

Together with children decide on the amount (or even better percentage) to divide the money they receive. We decided on 10% for donating, 30% for savings and 60% for spending.

You can get MOONJAR to help you with this. They are cute and already labeled and can come together with felt animals and little book about money. Visit their site here.

What are schools teaching our kids about money?

Alenka — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:25:30 +0000

Recently my younger daughter Tina came home with all kind of questions about money. You know, like any curious 9-year old:

How the ATM machine knows it is our money?
How you put your salary in the ATM?
How can an owner get money from the company?
What are accountants doing in the company, when they are not directly involved in the production/service process?
If I go to the work, can I simly ask for more money?!?!
How do you pay the bills?
What is a credit card? How they know you have any money in the bank?

and so on and so on….

I found out that they went to visit the bank near school, but actually I wasn’t able to get a clearer picture what they told them. Obviously not enough for kids to understand. They were even more confused. Before they know you have to have the money to buy the things in the stores, but now… “Mummy, you can buy things with your credit card. You can pay later.”

Hello?!?! Ok, I admit, it is a perfect education for the consumer society, but not for the independent, wealthy, rich people we want our kids to be.