Those of you that know our family know that we are HUGE Dave Ramsey fans. We are so very thankful to Dave and his ministry. He has given us financial freedom. He is a large part of why I am able to stay at home and live comfortably. We don't live paycheck to paycheck and except for our house we are debt free. This lifestyle enables me to stay home and do fun things (more about this later). Don't get me wrong we don't have tons of money or spend freely, we live within our means and on a budget.
One of our main goals with our kids is to learn the value of money and hard work. Andrew and I don't believe that kids are spoiled by the amount of objects they have we we believe it has more to do with how you raise kids than how much you give them (more about this later). This is what Dave had to say about teaching kids about money.
Give them lots of grace and mercy when they are little and teach them basic things. At age three or four, have your child clean up a few toys in his room. When he does, congratulate him a lot, wad up a dollar bill, and put it in a clear plastic container that he uses for saving. We want it to take up space so he sees that he’s earning money. When he does that a few times, take him to the toy store and let him buy a toy. He will learn about earning and spending, and he needs to be learning about saving and giving, too.
Start to teach those four lessons at an age-appropriate pace and add more and more responsibility as they get older. When they are old enough to have chores, start paying for chores. Work and get paid. Don’t work and don’t get paid. Some chores you do just because you’re part of the family.
That’s how life works, and we want to teach our kids about life so they don’t come home and live in the basement. Progressively, teach them over and over the lessons they need to learn. From age 15 to 18, get them a checking account and teach them how to reconcile it with the bank and how to manage their finances. When they get to college, they will have learned how to live on what they have. It won’t be a surprise. When they marry, they will be a blessing to their spouse instead of a burden. It’s a part of parenting and a process—not an event.
We have started to do our part in trying to teach Emma about money. It starts with a chore chart. It was easy to make and I paid less than $10 for the supplies for both the chore chart and allowance boxes. Her chore chart has 5 chores listed; Put trash in the trash can, Put clothes in the laundry basket, Put dishes in the sink, Pick up books in your room, Clean the playroom. We choose these five because they are things Emma needs to work on the most. The chores have both pictures and words. I used Velcro to affix the chores to her chart so we can change them as needed. Every night we go through her chart and complete her chores. As she completes each one she puts a butterfly (she choose butterflies and flowers for her chart theme) with Velcro on the day and chores she has completed. If she gets 30 butterflies out of 35 she gets a dollar allowance a week. This has also turned into great counting practice. Bellow are several pictures of her chore chart to give you an idea of how this works
Here is a close up of the chore side of the chart.
When she does do her chores she gets an allowance. We choose to go a little different route than the dollar that Dave recommends. She gets a dollar a week. She has three boxes for her allowance. She puts $.10 in one for church (this is her tithe), .$25 in one for savings (we will take this to the bank after it has a couple of dollars and put it in her savings, and $.65 for spending (this is to spend however she wants). By doing this we are teaching her to give to the Lord first, save second and spend last. We are hoping to help her understand the importance of saving and not just spending. I taped a picture/word on each box with the money that goes in each box, this visual helps her understand how much money goes in each box as she has no clue about money yet. Here are some pictures of her allowance boxes.
Lined up on her dresser
One up close so you can see how I taped on the money
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