Money Lessons

Recently we have decided that our son is old enough to be taught money lessons. We wanted our son to be prudent in spending and will not waste money unnecessarily. We notice kids nowadays always pester their parents in buying them toys or things that they want without thinking how hard their parents worked for it. We do not want our kids later to take things for granted.

So, we have converted an old plastic ice cream box into a simple coin box. We use adhesive tape to tape the opening of the box and cut a small rectangular hole for the coin to be inserted. Since daddy does not like to keep coins in his wallet, he always has loose coins at the end of the day. So, we just give him these loose coins and request him to save it in his coin box. His coin box is kept in the drawer under our bed. Each time when we ask him to get his coin box, he will go to the drawer and take out the coin box and insert all those coins that we give him.

Whenever we go out, I will try to explain to him that each item that we need, we need to buy them and not simply take it. We also teach him that when we reach the toll plaza, we need to pay money in order to use the road. We also teach him that when we go to a shopping complex, we need to get a parking ticket before parking our car. When we collect our car, we need to pay the parking ticket with money at the parking machine.

Hopefully when he grows older, he will be able to grasp the concept of money and do not behave like a spoilt brat. Money does not come easy and daddy is working hard for a living. We do not live a luxury life; hence, we think that by starting money lesson early will benefit him.