Money in the Bank--Kids and Money

Kids and Money.

My daughter receives an allowance of $30 per month.  When she first started getting the money she’d spend it immediately.  Now she saves and spends smalls amounts on video games or eating out.  In order to save for a $200 PSP system (I pay half she pays half) she accumulated $130 into her savings account.  That amount makes her feel as if she’s rich because she is always volunteering to spend that money:  Auntie, take me home to get my video game and I’ll pay you, I have $128 in the bank;  Granny, we can go to Furr’s I’ll pay I have $128 in the bank;  Momma, I can buy a game I got $128 in the bank.  I think she even volunteered to give her school friends two dollars because she has some money in the bank.  I had to keep reminding her that if she’d spent the money like she wanted then she wouldn’t have any money in the bank.

But I recognized myself in her but where she is nine I was a grown woman.  I’ve just learned that money in the bank does not mean money to spend.  I’ve always paid my bills on time and any other money left over is supposed to be spent not saved, right.  I am thirty and I am just now getting over the concept of money in the bank does not mean you have money to spend.  Slowly but surely my daughter is learning how to save and not spend.  So most definitely it’s good let kids have their own money.

In order to get her out of the habit of volunteering to spend her money, I’m thinking about converting her ING savings account to an ING orange checking account with a debit card and let her see just how fast her money will disappear if she doesn’t think before she spends.