Financial Education for our kids

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Permalink Reply by Marie Castro on October 31, 2008 at 6:41am

Great Question, my parents didn't teach me a whole lot bout money. I remember getting allowance for chores and money for good grades in school! At 16, got a job because my dad said he wanted me to pay for all my clothes and anything special I wanted. Once I graduated highschool he said, "if you do good in college, he will pay for it", otherwise I paid for it, he never charged me rent, however I did give him some money anyway.

I just finished taking some finance classes at Gateway Church in Southlake and I understand a bit better that its important to apply biblical principles to finances as well. I read alot of Dave Ramsey stuff and want to take Financial Peace University. I also like Suze Orman.

What i teach my daughter about money, is that its important to give offering to the church first, then food, clothing, transportation and everything else. We are learning together and I would like to continue learning. I had a 529 acct for her, now all i have is a checking/savings account and still try giving tithes when I can since I am currently out of work and getting no child support so I am definately humble and try being frugal with what i have.

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Permalink Reply by Rob Steward on October 31, 2008 at 4:23pm

Like Marie said, great topic. My parents were extremely conservative when it came to speaking about money. It was kind've the "hush-hush" subject around the house. We got what we needed as long as we were getting good grades and staying out of trouble. But we never really had a lesson. The only time I can remember anything about banking and financial preparation was my father helped me open a CD when I got a part-time job and had some money.

But during and after college, the bills, the massive credit card solicitations, taxes, etc.... I was a bit in the dark. Better preparation and advice certainly would've been good growing up.

Now I have two kids of my own. One is 2 so he's not ready yet. But the 6-year old, wow. This kid is going to grow up to be Donald Trump. He makes his own money, literally, in his fun free time. Colors the paper green, draws the correct President, puts big denominations, it's funny. I give him $5 per month to an ING Direct account, so he can see online it growing and monthly interest payments. Money from Grandpa also goes into the account. So he's started on the learning of what money is about. When he sees the Moon Sand commercial on TV, and it's $30 + $10 shipping, he says he wants it until he realizes how much of his account he'd have to use. Better to wait for Santa. He lost a sweatshirt for his school uniform recently, and it hurt him when I took the money from his account to replace it--but another lesson about responsibility well learned.

Anyway, thanks for the conversation.

Rob

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Permalink Reply by Eric Shannon on November 4, 2008 at 9:58am

great subject Humberto!!

I don't know what my parents taught me - probably mostly by example rather than explicitly. I do think that instead of making me feel empowered, I felt helpless to earn the money I needed. They would say things like 'no, you can't have your own car because you could never afford the insurance which costs thousands and thousands of dollars for a teenager' when they could have said 'why don't you call around and find out what car insurance costs for a teenager... maybe you can earn the money yourself?'.

They were very frugal, and I reacted negatively to this. Interestingly, their frugality allowed them to put me in a private school starting in sixth grade where I was surrounded by affluent kids. I was profoundly frustrated to find myself near the bottom of the totem pole economically.

with my five and seven-year-old kids, we have started using a peg system described in the phenomenal book 'three steps to a strong family' by Linda and Richard Eyre. My kids have four sets of responsibilities each day - at the end of the week their allowance depends on how many they accomplished. They deposit their money into the family bank. later, as they get older they will be responsible for using some of this money to buy their own clothes and maybe gifts for friends birthdays. Of course, the allowance amounts will rise proportionately.

so far, the system is working extremely well.

Thanks for introducing this topic!
-- Eric

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Permalink Reply by Auris on November 5, 2008 at 1:15pm

This is a great topic and one that I believe is not discussed enough. Money was definetely a taboo topic in my family (is it because we're dominican?) Now that the economy is so bad though, some family members (my aunt) are being honest about their finances. Money is interesting because it can separate friendships and can make you feel worthless. Can one ever put a dollar amount on a human person? However, this is the world that we live in and I am actually planning on becoming wealthy because its the best way to help the world the way that I want. I read and learn everything I can about finances and plan on owning my own business.

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