Money Doesn't Grow On Trees

As a kid, I had an allowance for doing chores, but I never really had any part-time jobs due to my family situation. I never really had a proper bank account until I left for university and needed to write my own cheques, and was fortunate that I had scholarships and a co-op program to help pay for school. I was never taught how to manage money, save for my father telling me that the best way to live life was no debts over and over and over.

My daughter is three and a half years old, but she is already beginning to understand the concept of finances. She has a piggy bank (literally a plastic pig with her name on it) where we place all money she receives. She doesn't worry about how much is in there, but she does understand that she doesn't want to empty it completely.

When we are going out somewhere, she will sometimes ask to take some money out of her piggy bank to purchase something. We generally let her decide how much, and she usually takes only a few dollars (instead of the bills that are in there) and buys something (after learning that the items she truly desires are more money than she brought). Sometimes she decides not to buy anything and instead put the money back into her bank towards a more pricey item.

She also takes some of her money (of her own volition) and brings it to a donation box (her preferred charity right now is the local children's hospital - "for the kids who are sick") occasionally. Admittedly she chooses to buy for herself more than donate, but the fact that she considers charity at this age is something I am proud of too.

Ultimately, she will earn an allowance for chores, and will open a children's bank account. We will teach her how to budget, how to save, and how to manage her account. But I will always tell her that the best financial advice I can give her is, "No debts."

This post has been written as part of the Parent Bloggers Network blog blast entitled Money Doesn't Grow On Trees on behalf of Captial One's Moneywi$e eLearning Tool.