BEYOND THE PIGGY BANK

Last week I heard about the 3-piggy-bank approach to teach younger generation about money management.  Click here for the audio message.


And this week, a dear friend shared an article on how one parent applies that to her daughter.  Below is the summary.  To read more, click here.


I thought I would share with you.  Though how the concept is applied may be different from one parent to the other, I hope this can be an inspiration.  And I believe this too can be applied to couples who are different in their spending habit and are yet to find a solution to their challenges.

How are you teaching your children about money?

Once my older daughter, Ava, turned three, we had her do simple household chores so we could teach her how to handle money. I am not a fan of rewarding others for things they should be doing anyway, but I did make an exception with Ava since my initial goal was to teach her money management skills.

We started with chores that were easy for her to complete: cleaning her room, brushing her teeth. Every night, we would check off the chores that were completed, and every Friday we added them up and she was paid. We called this money what most parents do: an allowance. No matter what you call it, make sure your child does the work to earn the money.

After Ava got paid (she could earn up to $1 each week), she had three jars: Give Away, Savings and Spending. She first put 10 cents in the Give Away jar, 25 cents in the Savings jar and the remaining amount in the Spending jar. This worked so well for us. When we were at the store, often Ava would see something she wanted. We never had any arguments; we would simply say, "We'll have to go home and see if you have enough money in your spending or savings jar to buy it."

Ava has used the money in her Give Away jar in numerous ways. One year there was a little girl at my school who lost her father shortly before Christmas. Ava used her Give Away money to buy this little girl a stuffed animal. Ava actually came to my school and delivered this to her personally. Another year, Ava used this money to buy canned food for needy families in our community. This past Christmas, there was a family at her school that was struggling. Ava used the money in her Give Away jar to buy them a gift card to a local grocery store.

If Ava continues to apply these lessons in life — gives away 10 percent of her money, then saves 25 percent of it and uses the remainder for spending — and goes above and beyond in her job, she will be wealthy in more ways than a fat bank account can show.

May we be found faithful in what is His.