This is a fantastic post about teaching kids the value of a dollar.
My parents gave me an allowance of $1 every Sunday – with the potential to earn more money doing chores around the house. That was probably the best lesson my parents taught me – that to earn more money, you have to work hard.

Thanks for the tips!

That worked out really well! We don’t carry comprehensive since we prefer the savings that comes from driving old cars into the ground, but we plan on giving him our dented 2010 Civic that Dad is currently driving if son seems responsible enough since we live in a semi rural area. In that case, replacement will be up to him if anything happens and hopefully I can have your parents attitude.

Great article Tracy – thanks for sharing!

I always loved holding bills instead of coins as a kid. :)

So cool to hear so many people are teaching kids about charity. Thank you George!

This post was actually written by a reader of the site, Shane! All credit to him :) Thanks for the encouragement Rami!

I think it’s vital for a child’s growth and transition into teenage life to understand the fundamentals of money and although it sounds cliche, that it doesnt grow on trees!

Understanding the actual value of money and exploring the possibilities of saving/investing money is something a lot of adults can’t fathom so being taught it young is extremely beneficial.

Thanks for the great post, as per usual Joel!

Thanks Jason. I’m collecting a bunch of other responses, stories and ideas for parents to share around. I agree this is a great topic.

One thing I’m really interested in watching is the Great Wealth Transfer play out over the next few decades. Baby Boomers will be transferring ~$60 trillion in assets and wealth down to the generations beneath them.. But the wealth will only stick around as long as the “children” know how to handle it. For people that don’t know how to handle $100 properly today, they will never be able to handle $1M properly later. It all starts with teaching our kids better personal finance habits :)

According to published reports, only 17 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance. I was actually surprised to see it was that many! But things are starting to shift and a push to teach money management to kids in school is building. Until then, the onus is upon us, the parents, to teach our kids the most basic, life-survival skill.

We’ve just started my 4-year-old with the three money jars – Give – Save – Spend – and we also do a reward chart system for him. At the end of each week he can choose between a prize of under $10 or take $6 in cash to distribute into his jars.

The challenge with being in the digital age is that kids never see us physically save money — they only see us spend it. We are trying to demonstrate tangible ways to show our boy that we are saving and giving — not just spending.