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“Kids & Money” Archive
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Following up on yesterday’s post about teaching teens about personal finance, here is a link to some free resources from The Hartford (an insurance and investment company):
The Hartford collaborated with the NCAA to produce a 36 page book that is geared towards teens and personal finance. How much information could they get into 36 pages? A LOT. There are sections about budgeting, interest, credit cards, evaluating job offers, insurance taxes, etc. I read through it and it is a great overview centered around a sports theme.
By itself, the Playbook would be a great resource for teens. What makes this Playbook even better is the accompanying 27 page Parent’s Guide that can be downloaded as well. The Parent’s Guide is full of tips on how to discuss personal finance with your son or daughter and even offers conversation starters. It reminded me of a teacher’s manual with how it followed what was in the Playbook.
Both books can be downloaded immediately or you can request multiple hard copies in the mail. Both methods are free. For further reading, there is even more information on the website that I linked to above.
While I was contacted by a representative of the Playbook for Life program to bring these books to my attention, I was in no way obligated to write about them. I think they are a great resource and they have the best price tag of all (free!). Kudos to The Hartford and the NCAA for providing them.
Jen sent me a link to a very interesting article from Boston.com. The Boston Bar Association and the District of Massachusetts US Bankruptcy Court are running a five-part program to help teens with personal finance issues. It comes complete with a scare tactic for the last lesson…the students sit in on a mock bankruptcy hearing.
Financial-literacy programs have sprung up in all 50 states, many of them launched by lawyers and bankruptcy judges who have had a firsthand glimpse of the social wreckage debt can cause. “Bankruptcy judges have realized in the past few years that there’s a gap in education, that many high schools aren’t teaching students about personal finance,” said Judge Feeney, who presided over the mock hearing. “We’ve decided to fill that gap.”
[Via Boston.com]
After reading the reactions from some of the students that were interviewed for the article, it sounds like the program is working. One student learned that credit card interest rates can rise as high as 25% when he thought it was only 5%. As of right now, 750 students have attended the program.
I don’t know about you, but if I was a teen and had to attend a bankruptcy hearing, I think that would have made me think twice about getting my first credit card in college. It also would have been beneficial to learn the other things that they covered in the first four sections of the program (budgeting, taxes, wants vs. needs). It would be interesting to follow up with the students they interviewed a few years from now to see how they are doing financially.
Thanks Jen for the link!
For Christmas last year, I wanted to get my son something that would help teach him about money. There are a few products out there, but one caught my eye. It had some great reviews on Amazon.com and for $12, I decided to purchase it.
Moneywise Kids (aff. link) is a game geared for children age seven and older. My son is six, but he’s catching on quickly and he gets excited when we play the game.
There are two games you can play:
Moneywise Bill Maker - With each roll of the dice you earn money and the goal is to reach $100. The learning portion here is that your child will learn how to count money and will learn how to cash in smaller bills for larger bills. You should see my son’s face when he finally can cash in two fifties for a hundred dollar bill!
Moneywise Bill Breaker - With this game, each player starts out with a $100 bill. They continue to roll the dice to earn money like in the Moneywise Bill Maker game. With each roll, you select a marker and decide whether to buy it or to put it back to buy it later. Markers include life events like buying food, housing and even medical care. Each time a marker is purchased, the player must work to make change. The first player to reach $100 and buy all of the six markers is the winner.
My son is learning how to exchange bills thanks to the Moneywise Bill Maker game. He is still getting the hang of the Moneywise Bill Breaker game. It was interesting the first time we played it because he spent all of his money to buy markers right away. This game gives us an opportunity to discuss saving some money first before spending money. It’s a good to save up some money in case you pick one of the “bad luck” markers that come up where you have to pay money and don’t get one of the six markers you need to win. It’s a great learning tool to plant the seeds of saving and budgeting with your children.
Regarding the actual game itself, for the low price I was surprised at the quality of the game. The two game boards that are provided are heavy duty cardboard. The money is very realistic looking and nothing like Monopoly money. The play money mirrors real money (although smaller size and darker green) and is printed on the front and back. The markers are also thick cardboard circles and can withstand some kid abuse. For some reason, kids love to throw circular shaped things around so I was pleased at the thickness of the markers.
Overall, I think Moneywise Kids (aff. link) is a great game to play with your kids to help them learn money management skills. It compliments my son’s money savvy piggy bank very nicely.
My son looks absolutely adorable with his missing tooth. As suspected, the Tooth Fairy made a visit last night and left a nice dollar bill in exchange for his tooth. She didn’t leave a savings bond as I first thought she would do.
It turns out that I had some troubles writing up an explanation of a savings bond and I felt it may be too much for my son to understand. I toyed with an idea of a Tooth Fairy Bank and tried to work out an “interest” scheme, but that didn’t work out well either. In the end, the Tooth Fairy gave my son a nice letter and left the dollar bill. My son was very happy at that.
I do think it’s important to try teach our children some personal finance and I believe one of the best ways is to discuss it is when the opportunity arises. I thought the Tooth Fairy idea would be a good one, but it didn’t materialize. But there are other ways to sneak in some lessons. For example, when my son has money to spend and we go to the store, I mention to him that he doesn’t have to spend his money now. He can always save it for later.
I thought that my words were falling on deaf ears because my son would spend all of the money he had with him, but my son proved me wrong. Yesterday, he had three dollars in the “Spend” portion of his piggy bank and he wanted to go shopping. We stopped at a dollar store and he was looking through everything. I didn’t say a word this time about saving his money for later. He picked up a box of $1.00 crayons and said, “I could buy these for $1.00 and then save $2.00 for later.”
That was a super-proud-mommy-moment. Even though I thought he wasn’t listening, he really was 
Man, there are times you read a bit of news and it makes you smile. Why? Because it’s something you believe should be occuring in public schools and finally someone is making it happen.
Ohio Treasurer Richard Cordray sponsored a bill that would make it mandatory (yes, mandatory!) that all high school students take a personal finance class. If he were here right now I would hug that man!
This won’t be implemented in Ohio until 2010, but it is a wonderful start. I sure hope other states follow Ohio’s lead.
[Via WTOL-TV, via Consumerist]
It’s already November. I am still amazed how quickly summer whizzed by and how quickly fall is coming to an end. Christmas is just around the corner (yikes!). Last night my husband and I were talking about what we should get our son for Christmas. He has told us a gazillion things he wants, but of course I’m on the lookout for ones that can be fun and teach him a little bit about personal finance and money management.
He already has a piggy bank designed to do that, so I need to find something else for this holiday season. I know some of you thought his piggy bank was pretty neat so I went searching for “piggy” banks that are similar in nature. Here are the ones I found, from least expensive to most expensive. Note: Prices are of time of publication - please check to see if the price has changed.
My Giving Bank - This bank has three compartments - Save, Spend and Give (centered towards tithing). The compartments are three buildings: Bank, Store and Church. Blue transparent plastic. Price: $13.59 at Amazon.com (aff. link)
Money Savvy Pig (aff. link) - This is the one that my son has. It has four compartments - Save, Spend, Invest and Donate and kids decide where their money goes. Blue, Pink, Red or Green colors available. Plastic. Price: $15.99 + shipping & handling.
Money Savvy Cow - The cow is made by the same folks who developed the Pig. It also has four compartments - Save, Spend, Invest and Donate and kids decide where their money goes. Clear see-thru plastic with black spots. Plastic. Price: $15.99 + shipping & handling.
LearningCents Bank - This larger bank has plenty of opportunity to personalize with stickers and the lids have a dry erase surface for keeping track of the amounts in each compartment. There are three compartments - Save, Spend and Give (or you can get one with Tzedakah instead of Give). Pink or blue colors available. Plastic. Price: $21.99 + shipping & handling. The pink one is on sale right now at Amazon (aff. link) for $19.99.
Moonjar Classic Moneybox - This hexagon-shaped bank has three compartments - Save, Spend and Donate. It even comes with a little passbook to track the money deposited into each compartment. Tin with acrylic lids. Price: $24.95 + shipping & handling.
Money Momma Piggy Bank - This piggy bank works to teach kids money management by applying the 10/10/10/70 concept to their money. Every dollar is split: 10% to charity, 10% to investing, 10% to saving and 70% for everyday expenses. Ceramic. Price: $29.95 + shipping & handling.
Now, you don’t have to go out and buy one of the above to help teach your child about money management. With a little bit of time and creativity, you and your child can make banks in the compartment-style spirit. TheMint.org has some suggestions on how to make these banks for very little cost using things around your home. They also offer suggestions on how to talk to your child about spending, saving, donating and investing.
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Try to avoid filling out to many credit card offers. Try setting up savings accounts and saving over time for the things you want, instead of just putting it on your card. You can save a lot of money!
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My son is only five years old right now (soon to be six, though!). He doesn’t really understand many things about money, but I’ve still been trying to do a few things here and there to help him grow up to be responsible with money. We are going to give it our best shot to give him good money management skills.
Thanks to another blogger holding a contest, I was able to get a Money Savvy Pig for my son for free. This special piggy bank has four slots where kids can put their money: Spend, Save, Invest & Donate. It has been fascinating to watch my son divide up his money. I thought he would put everything into the spend slot, but he has put money into all of them. He’s a little confused as to what it means to donate (he keeps trying to give Mom and Dad the money in the Donate slot LOL), but hopefully with the Christmas season soon upon us, he’ll understand it a little bit better. We’ll give him choices as how he can donate his money.
I’m also planning on giving him a special extra bonus when he loses his first tooth. Along with a gold dollar (if I can get a hold of some), he will get a $25 savings bond from the tooth fairy. When he’s older, he can see how much money that savings bond grew into.
Probably the hardest part (but also the best part) is to teach him about spending money wisely. He often sees toys on TV or in the store and says, “I want that!” Times like those, I try to point out similar items he may already have at home. If it’s construction related, that is pretty easy to do. Other times I may try to show him similar items that are more affordable. Another thing that I do is to point out things I would like, but I do not buy them. I try to show him by example that sometimes there are things Mommy and Daddy want as well, but we do not buy them. I also now talk through my thought process when comparing what items to buy so he can listen in and be an active participant.
This older article from Forbes agrees about the role model part:
“As a parent, the best way to teach a child about finances is to be a role model,” says Edward Powell, chief consumer officer at LendingTree.com in Charlotte, N.C. “You should show restraint with money. Your child should see you budget, comparison-shop and make regular contributions to a savings account. It’s not enough to talk the talk, you’ve got to walk the walk.”
[Via Forbes] (thanks Amy for the link!)
There is a balance, though. While you want to make sure your children understand spending limits and budgeting, I don’t think you should let them in on your specific financial situation. For my son, he has no idea right now about our debt situation and he likely won’t know about it for some time. He still has the right to be a kid and not be burdened by our financial problems.
For those of you with children, is there anything special you are doing to try to teach your children about money?
That reminds me, it’s almost time to do a little personal finance interview with my son again (we did one when he was four and did another one when he was five). I love hearing his answers
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