We've been working through Financial Peace University with SarTodd, and the other night as we listened to the part of the lesson about teaching kids about money, we made a commitment to ourselves and our children. We are going to make sure that our children understand money, and more importantly, how to manage money. Dave talks about how his kids were on "commission" from the time they were 2 until they were 18. This is NOT an allowance. This is NOT a payment for doing things that are expected anyway. This is commission for going above and beyond the everyday, "You belong to this family, therefore you will pitch in" tasks.. There will be set chores that our children can choose to do (or not do) to receive payment. After they've received payment, their money will be divided into three categories, "Give", "Save", "Spend". We're starting Owen with the opportunity to earn $3/week. To make it easy, $1 will go to each of the categories. Owen is pretty psyched about all of this, he's excited to earn money that he can call his own. I'm excited to give him the opportunity to learn about managing money from an early age.
We came up with a list of tasks that Owen can easily accomplish and that would really help us out. We came up with more than three, so I can easily switch the tasks that I would like to have accomplished from week to week. (Or even offer a bonus $ for completing an extra task.) This week, his tasks were to use the hand vac to:
1. Vacuum under the couch cushions, and vacuum the floor in his room.
(A picture of the dirt that O collected. It was very important to him that I photograph this)
2. Vacuum and clean out the jeep.
3. Help me clean out the flower beds and haul leaves and debris to the compost for me. 
It's Monday, and he's already completed all three tasks/earned $3!!
So today, we sat down to make containers to store the money in. As he gets older, we'll switch this over the envelope system, but for now, Dave says that little children get more reward from seeing the cash in the containers.
As always, I'm pretty proud of my little man. AND I'm just so excited to guide him down a path of financial responsibilty and ultimately, Peace.
Yay! I'm so excited that Owen is on the Dave plan! Those containers are adorable, as is Owen doing his chores. I am glad the Gator is involved.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I got my WONDERFUL card. Todd was hiding it in with the bills *not on purpose*. I had it all along! Can you believe it? Thanks for being the best friend ever, and giving me my pregnancy medals, when no one else is handing them out. And as always, thanks for making me cry like a little girl when I read it...I know I can always count on you to be my best friend :)