Ok, Readers, I’m in need of your opinions. I am wondering how you handle you kids’ money.
Our current modus operandi is: PChad gives some pocket change to the kids, the kids put it in their piggy banks, the banks get full, I empty them into a jar, I use the money in the jar to pay for school lunches, etc.
It’s our money cycle. If the kids get money as gifts, we usually use it to buy a toy/clothes/shoes for them. So far, the kids don’t get allowance, so we haven’t had to deal with that either… yet.
Here’s where you come in! How do you handle your kids’ money? Or, if you don’t have kids, how WOULD you handle it? What did your parents do when you were a kid, & did that system work?
Comments, please!
What ever you do with the rest of the money, I'd teach them to put 10% aside for the Church & 10% in savings before they do anything else...
ReplyDeleteWe set aside all $ from Cash-back credit card rewards and most product rebates and put it into custodial brokerage accounts for the kids. Of course that's the "they won't touch it until they're much much older" money, so we also have their piggy banks but don't really have a plan on those. If Brenda or I find $ on the sidewalk (or change while on a walk) we usually give it to Noah and have him split it between their two piggy banks....
ReplyDeleteWe do a mix... spare change goes into the kids piggy banks.... we've used it for when they ( kids 5 and under ) ask for a specific toy, or to use it as a lesson for when they break something. My son broke something of my wife's that he was told 3 times not to play with. I emptied the change with him, counted it, and then went to the store to buy and replace it.
ReplyDeleteIn the end it was only $5 but it was a good lesson for him :)
If they are given money as gifts they can either choose to put it in their piggy banks or buy something special.
I wanted to be treated as an adult when I was like . . . 5 . . . and I was gratified any time my parents or others obliged me. The best of this was any time I was exposed to the idea of property, whether that be my space, my possessions, or my money. I liked knowing that my things were mine . . . and I did not at all mind hearing that ownership comes with both benefits AND responsibilities. This wasn't completely without strife of course. Sometimes I wanted something for nothing, and sometimes I wanted a do-over when I treated my property poorly, but in retrospect those were good lessons too.
ReplyDeleteIMHO, when you (or someone else) give something to your kids it needs to be theirs. So I would say no laundering lunch money through piggy banks, and no intercepting cash gifts. Give them a place to keep their money, help them count it, explain what the value of it is, explain the value of saving, give them opportunities to spend it on things that you wouldn't normally buy them yourself, and respect their silly decisions on how its spent.
As a small aside, one of my favorite memories with my niece so far is that at ages 5, 6, and 8 my Christmas gift to her was $100 of spending at the toy store. And even at 5, she totally got it. She would pick something out, I would tell her how much it cost and keep a running total. Eventually she would pick out something that would bring her over the limit, and I would explain what she would have to put back if she wanted the new thing. She made like 10 different cost-benefit-tradeoff analysis decisions in an hour. It was pretty awesome. :-)