Article re: Teaching Kids About Money

[SJ]

My coworker sent me a link to this podcast. It is an interview with an author who wrote a book called "The First National Bank of Dad."

www.econtalk.org/archives/2012/05/owen_on_parenti.html

The podcast is long, but the transcript below picks up some highlights. Basically the author opened "savings accounts" for his kids, and paid them interest of 5% month, which he said was high enough to matter to them and was on a timeframe they could understand. He basically gave them free access to save or spend this money as they chose.

I think he has a lot of really interesting methods and I like the idea of a consistent and concrete system.

[mie]

Thank you for posting this.

[schrodinger]

That's a really interesting idea for encouraging saving. DH's friends did something similar with their daughter (15yo) to get her to save for her car. They matched 50% up to $2.5k towards her car. She puts every dollar she makes into savings because she knows she's getting a great deal.

I have two step-daughters (8 & 5.5) that we try and teach about the value of money. The oldest one really gets it. She's been saving her "points" from allowance for over a year for a trip to the waterslide park, she picks up change whenever she sees it, and is a hoarder with her money. She gets the value of money and knows how to determine if something is worth the cost or not.

The youngest could care less about money. She's not motivated by it. If she has it, she spends it, but not on stuff she cares about. Its just not her thing. Funny how different they are in what they value.

[hanihani]

Thanks for posting! I'm so MM, I put it on hold at the library.