Last week I saw a tweet from Adam at Money Savvy Daddy that said, “If you could teach your child just one money/financial lesson… what would it be?”
I love to learn what people are teaching their kids so I was eager to read the responses. Not surprisingly, many people said, “Save!” Saving is definitely important, but saving without context… how can that be successful? What are you saving for?
Six months ago, I published a post on how much interest J had earned since the Bank of Mom opened for business.
At the time, he had gone from $45.00 to $231.99 over the course of 15 months.
Today, just six short months later, he’s surpassed the $400.00 mark with a total of $405.21. I love exponential growth in action!
Here’s his statement for this month:
I don’t normally go out on Black Friday, but my sister and her husband came home this past Thanksgiving, so a trip to Target was in order. While shopping, I stumbled on a magical game called Pay Day.
A quick scan of the box showed that it was a money management game, and I knew I had to have it. Plus it was the “retro” edition, which made it even more desirable. (Why is that?)
I bought the game (for a discount because the Cartwheel price was lower than the in-store price) and we played our first game that weekend.
The rules are easy. Everyone starts out with $325 (in the retro edition). The board is a month, and before the game starts, you decide how many months you want to play.
A few months ago, I had a parenting win. J received a gift that he couldn’t use, and instead of exchanging it for something right away, he returned the item and put the money aside for something he really wanted — The Temple of the Ultimate Ultimate Weapon Lego set.
This BIG set cost $99.99, and with 6% tax, he needed a total of $105.99.
He started on August 26, 2017 with $25.17 in a Target gift card.
By saving $8.00 every two weeks (of his $9.00 allowance), he calculated that he would reach his goal on or before January 19, 2018.
Not only did he save part of his allowance, but J was inspired to do chores for extra money and also added in some gifts from relatives. Both accelerated his progress towards the goal.
On November 10 (2.5 months in), he had $90.67.
Welcome back to our five part series on making your money work harder! This series is part of a BIG conversation I had with J where we talked about other ways to invest his money beyond the Bank of Mom.
In part 1, we talked about savings accounts, in part 2 savings bonds, in part 3 CDs, in part 4 stocks and today in part 5 we’ll wrap up our discussion with keeping track of your net worth.
It sounds a little pretentious, doesn’t it? Keeping track of your “net worth.” Like something only rich people do.
But think about this. If you go on a diet, do you log your meals and calories? What about if you’re training for a marathon? Would you write down your runs and workouts? And if you want to cut back on social media? Would you track your time?
I love that it's #FinancialLiteracyMonth and my feed has tons of articles talking about teaching kids about money!
Letter To My Son: How To Be Wise #FridayFeeling
https://t.co/PfqJcqhGYC
My parents started talking to me about money when I was a kid, and taught me everything I should know - but I still made some mistakes. #MindfulSpending
Featuring @RuthSoukup @natbankofmom @MyJourneyLori @LorieKonish @janetfreynolds @MSDLifeCoaching @LifeZemplified @femmefrugality https://t.co/PrFic3cr2u
Being honest with your kids and involving them is a HUGE win! #FLM2018 #FinLit https://t.co/4guAUplT1w via @debtdiscipline
