Teaching My Children about PF

I just wanted to share what I consider a parenting success story. My wife and I have been giving $20/week to our 11 and 8 year old every Saturday for some time now. Not tied to chores or grades or anything, nor did we put restrictions on what they could buy. Our goal is to teach them about managing their money and what it means to spend it. For a long time, we rarely had to physically hand them paper money because as soon as payday rolled around, they’d want to buy something for one of their digital games. Sometimes they’d even ask for an advance, which we refused. Once you spend the money, it’s gone. They’d almost always spend their money on some skin or in-game currency on a game, get bored with that game, and then move onto the next one. Wash, rinse, repeat.Recently, my 11 year old has been saving most of his money to buy a laptop. The last time we sent him to the grocery store (we live 2 blocks away in a small town), he even bought his brother a treat because his brother had spent all his money for the week. It has been so satisfying to see him create a financial goal and a plan to reach that goal instead of spending his money just because he has it. It’s cost us hundreds of dollars, but I feel it will save him thousands or tens of thousands of dollars by learning this lesson before he lives on his own. We are fortunate enough to have the cash to give to the kids, so I understand this isn’t something everyone has the luxury of doing. I wasn’t 100% sure how this would turn out, but I am glad we gave it a try. via /r/personalfinance https://ift.tt/2XRArFJ