Resources to teach your kids about money

Today is a resource day on allowances. If you missed our family's allowance practices yesterday, click here. And just so you know, this is a resource page for you. I did not receive any compensation for promoting these products. 

You know that awesome bank I shared a picture of yesterday? It is the best. Made of clear plastic so the girls can't break it and they can see their money. The savings category only opens from the bottom to make it harder to get to. The top has small white boards so you could write the amount on top if your kids are more organized than mine. It was made by a company called Learning Cents and when I went to buy another one for my niece, I discovered they are no longer in business. Let me show you the awesome pictures of our bank so you can start a new company and produce something similar  again.

Bottom of bank

Top of bank

Okay. Now that someone is hopefully starting a new business. Let me share some books with you and then show you some of the banks that are out there.



Financial Peace Jr. :Teaching Kids About Money! This kit has a story, a chore list, and an envelope system. It is targeted at elementary kids. If you are familiar with Dave Ramsey, there won't be anything new that you couldn't do yourself. But sometimes, if the tools aren't at hand, I never get around to setting up the systems I need. Also, I would hide this book from my kids. I hate the subtitle "Cool Tools for Training Tomorrow's Millionaires." Seriously, I don't want my kids to see that subhead even though it sounds cute. Making a ton of money is not one of my goals for my kids.The Junior Series. These six cute stories provide a good way to teach your kids about six areas of money: spending, saving, giving, integrity, debt, and work. My kids learn better from stories than they do from lectures. Buy these used on Amazon on buy all six from Dave Ramsey's site. They are half off right now.Money Sense for Kids by Holis Page Harman. This resource book from Barron's covers where money is made, what all the numbers on bills mean, how the money gets from the mint to you, the purpose of social security numbers, how banks can give interest and more. It is fascinating and incorparates history and math. You'll be learning with your kid with this book.

I can't find any banks as awesome as the ones I have. But there are options. Some families add a fourth category for investing. First a DIY tutorial I found on Pinterest. It's from a blog 
called Bits of Everything. 
 

The next bank is from The Money Mama. It costs $14.99 plus shipping and the jars are plastic.  

This bank is best for your littlest kids. I love the tray on this one and each house opens up and would be easy to take to the bank or the store. It is from Money Smart Kids and costs $15.00 including shipping. The main drawback is their size. The houses are small, measuring just 41/4" wx 11/2"d x 3"h. The website says each bank holds 75 quarters.  

I love the look of the bank below. The tray can be ordered in pink or green or white. The label is a chalkboard label so it can ne personalized. It costs $30.00 plus shipping. The jars are glass. Lil'Light of Mine sells them...check out her beautiful scripture cards if you visit her website. 

This final bank matches the characters in Dave Ramsey's Junior books. The three banks can be separated. The sides and backs of the banks are transparent so kids can see their money accumulate. These are currently on sale for 25% off which makes them $14.99 plus shipping. Reviews say they are way bigger than expected (dimensions are not given) and very sturdy. Click here to purchase this bank. 

If you have more resources or thoughts about teaching your kids about money, please share! 

Allowances: how much, how often, what for?

There is nothing I like better than a peek inside the inner workings of another family. And so today, I bring you some of our philosophies on allowances. I hope you will share your thoughts too. Grab my ideas that you like, put them in your idea bag and when it is time to think allowance, you will be prepared.

Allowance is a tool to teach your kids to handle money. It is not stagnant. As the girls get older our allowance practices have changed. The goal of allowance is to teach kids to be responsible, to be discerning about value, to make a budget, and my favorite, to learn delayed gratification.

I started giving the girls an allowance way too young. I think they were 4 and 6. I was tired of saying no. No, you can't have that plastic glow-in-the dark snake. No, you can't have an edible pinwheel. I started thinking in cliches like, "I'm not made of money you know." So I started wondering about allowance. I wanted to say, "Well you have your own money." When I am unsure about an idea, I do research.

Several sites suggested allowance amounts should equal the age of the child. Such generosity was not in the budget. I settled on giving them half their age. Per week. And then it turned out, I wasn't good at paying them weekly. So I pay them half their age x 4 weeks per month. This means that there are only 48 weeks in our allowance calendar, but they haven't noticed. They think they are special since none of their friends get an allowance!

Five minutes of reading about allowance, convinced me that allowance would just be a privelege of being in our family. I didn't want the girls to decide that they wouldn't do their chores because they didn't need money or to start earning so much babysitting money that they quite their chores. Chores are required.

I also knew I wanted one of those banks, divided into categories. I wanted it to be clear so they could see the money and plastic so they could drop the bank and not have it break (in pre-allowance days they dropped a piggy bank once). The exact percentages (usually 70-15-15) have altered over the years, but a little goes in saving, some in giving, and the rest in spending. I've seen banks with a fourth

In retrospect, I would have started allowances later, after the girls could actually count money well (1st or 2nd grade).  In starting so young, the girls wasted a lot of money on toys and plastic things they never used. Eventually, I started saying, "Sorry, but that isn't worth your money. No." So I still had to say no.

But maybe those early money lessons were good. We talked about the materialism monster and how he makes us think that if we just get the super sonic glowing miniature plastic pet with big eyes we will be happy. And we are, for 2 days or maybe 2 hours. And then we need the underwater swimming doll with special removable tatoos. And because the girls made their own choices and bought the doll bed they never used or the squinkies they lost within a week, they've learned first hand about wasting money.

And the American Girl my daughter bought? She worked hard to save her money, resisting other exciting spending opportunites and she appreciates that doll more than most girls. She marvels at girls who want 3 or four of those dolls, wondering if they know what else $100 would buy.

Currently, we don't regularly offer chores the girls can do for money. They get an allowance and that is sufficient for most things. As they get older that might change, but we like our system for now. Their allowance means I don't pay for school popcorn, school fairs, book fairs, or most hair accessories (when they kept losing them, I quit buying). And while I assist, they pay for part of the gifts they buy each other. On the occasion when the girls want more money, they have to save.

Helpful hints:

• Never let your kids borrow from future allowance. It is a bad habit. 
• Give your kids allowance in bills that allow them to split it into the categories you have chosen.
• When they are young, use banks that allow the kids to see the money inside and that are not easily broken. 
• Sometimes, let them spend their money on whatever they want, even if it is a waste of cash. 
• Talk with them about your budget, your spending philosophies, and your money management. They will soak it up. (Even little things, like if you use a debit card, never put it away in your pocket!) 
• Add to the allowance occasionally. The girls don't get enough allowance to buy school supplies and clothes at the beginning of the year. So I give them a budget. We make a list of the supplies they need, cross off what they have and they can use the rest of the budget to fill in the holes of their wardrobe. This teaches them to budget, to save, to plan, to see what they already have. It's a great addition to our allowance lessons. And without this system, they think they need new markers every year! 

Share your thoughts on allowance and then come back tomorrow and I will share some allowance resources with you: where to find different banks, different books to read, etc.