Saving | Mommy Points

July 13, 2008

Thinking About College?

Filed under: Children, On The Web, Saving, Work Ethic — Chris @ 11:50 pm

I have a niece and nephew currently in college. Do you have any idea how high tuition is at private colleges these days? It is absurdly, frighteningly costly. When my sister-in-law told me how much money she was paying for their schools I may have clutched my chest and fallen over on the ground.

Many schools are doing things to make tuition affordable to middle class families. Harvard and Yale have both increased the assistance they give to middle class families. This is possible in part because of their huge endowments.

But another school has a unique approach. Berea in Kentucky has no tuition. The school motto is “the best education you can’t buy.” Every single student has a 4 year tuition scholarship. Students are required to work 10-15 hours per week doing jobs that help keep the campus running. Food is grown at the campus farm. Talk about instilling a strong work ethic in young adults. Working toward your own education is really a great idea.

There are income requirements in order to be accepted to the college. In a nutshell, you have to be poor. You also have to be smart. Most of the students graduated within the the top 20% of their class.

I still have a few more years before my ~~money~~ oldest child goes off to college. I have a little while longer to keep plugging ears and singing “La la la, I can’t hear you.”

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June 3, 2008

Buy One, Get One… House?

Filed under: On The Web, Saving — Chris @ 9:11 am

I love those buy one, get one free sales at my grocery store. Not quite as much as I love the buy one, get TWO free sales, but I love them. So imagine my interest being piqued when I saw this morning that a developer in California is offering a buy one, get one house sale.

Surely there is a catch I thought.

Well, the catch is that if you have 1.6 million to purchase a luxury home, a San Diego developer will give you a row house valued at $400K to go along with it. He thinks that people will want the second home for investment or maybe for a family member. So far no one has taken him up on the deal and the one person who has closed on their 1.6 million dollar home declined to accept the the row house. Which is odd, why not just give it away?

I suspect that the free publicity he has received from this far exceeds any actual sales, or houses given away for free. That makes it a win-win situation for the developer, doesn’t it?

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July 18, 2007

Bank Statements

Filed under: Allowance, Saving — Chris @ 10:47 am

(click on photo to enlarge for ease of reading)

Some people have expressed a desire to see what the bank statements look like that we give our children.

This is a photo of one belonging to my 10 year old son.

Everything is itemized the way that it would be in a real bank statement. He received birthday money in addition to his allowance, and he made no withdrawals from his savings to buy things.

Withdrawals would be listed with exact expenditure and the date.

Additionally, we really do have a bank account at an actual bank where their money is collectively saved. Every week my husband transfers their allowances into the single account ($26.50 each week), adds in any additional money earned through extra chores or birthday money, withdraws expenditures.

This system of payment has been the best for us. No cash to lose. No trying to remember how much money each child is owed. Encouraging them to save and watch their bank accounts grow.

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June 29, 2007

The Importance of Saving

Filed under: Allowance, Saving — Chris @ 10:47 pm

Linda left a comment in this post about encouraging her children to save their allowance by matching the money they put into their savings account. Sort of like a matching 401K plan that most corporations offer their employees. I like this idea.

I do wonder though if there are restrictions of how long the money must be saved in order to earn the match. What if they put it in their savings account and then withdraw it 3 weeks later? What do you do?

Linda, inquiring minds would like to know!

I think this comment stood out with me also because I have been discussing savings account interest, investments, the stock market, etc with my children. Trying to get them to understand why these options are superior to hiding a wad of bulls under their mattress.

I have been looking various books online and reading the reviews.

Description from amazon:
This newly updated edition of Growing Money answers every question a budding investor might ask: How do you read stock pages? What’s the difference between stocks and bonds? Why do stocks go up and down? How can I keep track of investments? Can kids invest?

I think that I could use some of these questions answered more clearly for myself too!

This book seems to be alone the same vein. All about saving, spending and investing.

This book is geared for younger kids.

So do you have any books that you recommend to teach children about saving and investing? I think I am going to hit our local library tomorrow and see if they have any of these books or any others that I might not have heard about. I’ll let you know if I find anything that inspires me.

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June 20, 2007

The Importance of Giving

Filed under: Allowance, Instilling Values, Kindness Of Spirit, Saving — Chris @ 8:52 am

It was my son’s birthday this weekend. With seven kids we don’t need to have big fancy parties. We are our own party.

We have some traditions that we carry out with every birthday. The first of which is a treasure hunt. I make up silly rhymes, write them on index cards and hide them. The kids go running en masse from one room to another room finding the next clue until they reach the presents.

It makes the presents fun for everyone.

Just like at Christmas, I encourage the children buy the birthday child presents at the dollar store. It is amazing how many fun things they find there without breaking any sort of budget. They use their own allowance money to do it and that helps them to really take ownership of the shopping, thinking what the other person might enjoy.

(To my daughter: No, I don’t think he would like to have a set of sparkly lip gloss. I realize the Disney princesses are on the label. Are you confusing what you want with what he might want?)

My son got a huge box of bubble gum, a pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey game, a dart gun, a pack of Spiderman pens, ring pops, and a deck of cards. He loved them all probably as much as the high priced presents I bought him.

The fact that his siblings picked the presents out for him makes him feel special.

And the fact that they bought their brother presents with money they earned themselves, makes all of them feel special too.

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June 19, 2007

Pulled From the Comments, a Question About Allowance

Filed under: Ages 2-4 years, Ages 5-6 years, Allowance, Children, Ideas, Saving — Chris @ 9:21 am

Jodi left this comment in this post and I thought it was worthy of pulling out for a post of it’s own.

Do your younger children understand the concept of the “bankstatement”? We are doing handipoints with 5 and 6 year old boys and I don’t know if they will understand the concept of the paper being tied to a sum of money. We too have decided that half of their age is perfect, but have “strongly encouraged” that a certain amount be saved and a certain amount be for charity. What age do you start allowance…just curious…as we have a 2 year old son also:)

Jodi

All of my children get an allowance.

Yes, even the two year old. Though for him it is just about being part of the group. I talk about his allowance and he see his “statement” but I am sure he is clueless. Happy, but essentially clueless.

My 4, 6 and 8 yr olds do understand. We explained to them that it is just like the bank mommy and daddy use. The paper tells them how many dollars they have saved. We meticulously track it all on their statements.

I think this is one of the ways that handipoints excels, frankly. For children who are young, you might want to decide on a percentage for them to spend on rewards or allocate handipoints in addition to the allowance money. I don’t have my children contribute a portion of their allowance to charity. I prefer to have them do service oriented charity works, where they can see the direct results of their hard work. But that is just me.

With young children it is important to have smaller goals for them to achieve so they don’t get discouraged. My 11 yr old is perfectly happy and capable to save his money for months on end to make a large purchase. He is also capable of deciding to make smaller purchases along the way, knowing exactly how that will impact his account total. I still have to give final approval for all purchases, though I find at this age I rarely have to say no.

Think of the younger years as working towards this goal. You want them to be responsible. But in order to learn responsibility you need to allow them some freedom. If you turn down every item they want to purchase, they will not believe you that there really is money but more importantly they will never have that feeling of post purchase anxiety. You know the one where you realize you just wasted your money on something you really don’t want afterall.

For example, for younger children you might decide that having a family movie night every Friday night would be fun for your family. Everyone can stay up an hour late, watch a movie in the tv room with popcorn. This could cost 7 handipoints, a handipoint a day that is earned for doing daily chores. (This is just an example, you can use whatever feels right for your family… a family hike, a day at the beach, making huge ice cream sundaes and eating them for dinner. Try to do something fun and inexpensive (or better yet, free!) and don’t forget to add some variety so it doesn’t become expected but instead is anticipated.)

By using handipoints they can track their progress toward some of the non monetary goals.

I’ll admit that I frequently ask my children to help with an extra project to get a reward like one of these pictured above. I might say something like, “Hey, if you all help me with washing windows, I would be all caught up on Spring Cleaning and I think we could have extra time to go to the museum on Friday.” I have yet to have someone turn me down.

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May 18, 2007

Work, Earning, and Saving

Filed under: Ages 10-12 years, Ages 5-6 years, Ages 7 -9 years, Children, Chores, Instilling Values, Saving, Teen years, Work Ethic — Chris @ 10:49 pm

This week my 11 year old son bought a new mountain bike, with money he had saved from his allowance and birthday gifts. The maturity he showed he in the store, looking at various bikes and the features the bikes had, as well as the price, was something he would not have done had we walked into the store bearing only my credit card. If I were paying for his bike, he would have no reason to want anything less than the very best bike in the place.

Over the past week he and I have had numerous discussions about his impending purchases. He wanted a new bike, a video iPod, and a digital camcorder. He does not have the money saved top buy all of those things. So our conversations went round and round, weighing the pros and cons of each purchase. Him lamenting the fact that he can’t buy everything, because he wants everything.

We have had some enlightening conversations.

“Well, you buy everything you want.” he said to me at one point.

“Do I? Like what?” I had asked.

“I don’t know, but you are always going to the store.” he had replied.

“Yes, it is my greatest desire to buy a 12 pack of toilet paper, cleaning supplies, and food for my family to eat.” He had laughed and I continued on, “I think you are confusing things we need with things we want. I want lots of things, but I don’t buy them. At least I don’t buy them without careful consideration. And usually in the end I decide that I don’t want most of them after all.”

It is a tough lesson. But one that is important for children to learn. If you, as a parent, are the one holding the purse strings the responsibility falls on you to say yes or no to your children’s wants and purchases. They have no reason to really think deeply about what they want. And if they can’t have something, well then it is your fault. You are the one who is blocking them from the very thing that they have decided will give them the ultimate amount of happiness, at least that day.

As parents we want to give our children everything. We want them to be happy. But being parents really is more than that. It is giving them the skills to succeed later in life.

I don’t want my children growing up with a sense of entitlement that I see so many of their peers afflicted with. I want them to understand budgeting and assessing their wants. I want them to have the joy that can only come from purchasing a long desired item with money they earned through their own hard work. I want them to have the pride of ownership that can only come from getting something all on their own.

I remember the thrill of going to the store with my purse full of cash I had saved. I remember my first large purchase. I want that memory for my children.

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