Raising Money Smart Kids

About two months ago we started reading, Raising Money Smart Kids, by Ron and Judy Blue. I can honestly say that this book is an amazing resource to taking the necessary steps to teach Faith and Jaxon to be good stewards of their money and to make wise choices. Some tips/quotes that really stuck out in my mind are the following:

-God owns it ALL. -Blue

-More is caught than taught. -Dr. Howard Hendricks (Not only with money but with everything we do as parents).

-The world is bent on teaching you and your children to get all you can now--no matter what the cost will be in the future. -Blue (Let's face it, most kids today have no clue what delayed gratification is).

-The biggest mistake parents make in training children to manage money is not giving them freedom to fail. -Blue

-Allowance is not payment for chores (they are expected). There might be some that are optional. -Blue

-No taking allowance away if grades go down. -Blue

-Never vary on the amount of allowance you originally agreed on. -Blue

-Children can be taught to ____________ but they haven't been trained to ____________ until they do it correctly, voluntarily, with no nagging or demand that they do so. -Blue

For the season of life we're in right now with a four and five year old; we found two things that we really wanted to implement. One, we started doing a month ago and we're in our second month of experimenting. We put ten dollars in coins in both Faith and Jaxon's money jars. We decided on two things that we wanted to kids to stop doing, and if they were caught doing those two things; we would have them go in their jars, take a coin out, and give it to us. At the end of 30-days, whatever they had leftover; they could use to buy something at the store. We knew that it wasn't until we actually went to the store that they would see the true value and lesson we were trying to instill. By the end of the 30-days, the good news was that both kids had money to take with them to the store, the bad news was that they couldn't buy just anything--it all depended on what they had left over from their deductions. Once they picked out their toy of choice (about the tenth choice, actually), we heard some great dialogue between the two of them in the car on the way back home.

"Next time, I'm going to keep all my coins so I can get that __________."
"I'm going to try my hardest not to do __________ so I can keep ten dollars."

I'll tell you what, we're over half way into the second month of doing this and the kids are doing a way better job than the first month, as expected. As I type, I think they both just have one coin that's been taken away. We've had fun with this little experiment for sure! The jar below is similar to what we have--it has a digital reader on top so you always know how much you have in the jar. You can reset it, as well.













The second implementation for our kids is what Ron Blue is famous for (aside from his amazing books)--The Envelope System. Now, you don't have to use an envelope, you can use jars, small boxes, and I've even seen the tithing, saving, spending piggy banks. When they reach the age of eight--the envelopes increase, but for kids younger than eight; you definitely don't want to overwhelm them. Basically, we're going to decide and agree on an allowance for both Faith and Jaxon. Ten percent goes into tithing, another ten percent goes into savings, and the remainder goes into spending. We definitely want tithing to become ingrained in their minds as recognition that God owns it all. Saving definitely teaches the principle of delayed gratification (giving up today's desires for future benefits). And, spending will hopefully teach them that there is a reward, and futuristically help them with decision-making, budgeting, and wise buying.

Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” Malachi 3:10