by Hope
I’ve written several times about my kids and money. One of my main goals is to teach them all about money everything from managing their own checking and savings accounts to monthly budgets and even on to credit scores. I didn’t have an inkling about what a credit score was until I went to purchase my first home with my husband back in 2003. Way too late for me to have done anything about it if I had screwed up. My kids will go in to ‘adulting’ and managing their own money with their eyes wide open to the good and the bad.
I think I mentioned in a recent post about Sea Cadet remaining in VA for the summer and working at the same summer camp he worked at last year. He loved it! He was required to save 50% of every paycheck, and he did very well with that. When he officially moved down to GA in August, he and I had a sit down about how that money should be handled. This is what we agreed on:
- $400 was put into a joint savings account. It will be used towards car repairs as needed.
- The remainder will be doled out to him $20 a week as spending money.
- I am giving him another $20 per week as spending money.
- At this time, I am paying all his monthly bills: gas, insurance and phone.
With the younger two, they are given $20 a week as allowance. It’s not earned, it’s given.
With their own monies, they all are responsible for any activities they want to do, personal hygiene purchases and Gymnast must pay for hair cuts if he wants more than 1 per month (I pay for one per month.) They are able to earn extra money with odd jobs, but when they earn money they must save 50% of it in their savings accounts.
Sea Cadet it not working at this time. I wanted him to focus on his college classes. He is completing his senior year of high school as a college student at the local technical school. He is taking 11 hours, and thusfar doing really well. I imagine I will encourage him to seek a part time job beginning the next semester, but I wanted to give him every opportunity to be successful as he begins the EMS program and wasn’t sure how challenging it would be for him.
Princess has started cleaning houses (family to start) to earn some money after the opportunity presented itself. And Gymnast almost daily asks for paid jobs from everyone he knows. Little does he know how busy he will get as these leaves start coming off the trees.
All of my kids pitch in around the house, everyone cooks one night a week, cleans the kitchen after themselves, takes care of their own laundry and so on. These are not paid jobs, it’s just expected that we take care of our home and our belongings. We are to that age and that expectation level that I do not have to push them or schedule ‘chores’ anymore, they just do it. I couldn’t be more proud, and frankly our home has never been cleaner.
