Teaching Your Child (and yourself!) to save...

Kids love to collect  pennies... just ask my 4 year old who will stop in the middle of a busy parking lot to grab one!  They rarely understand their value when they're so little... but they are shiny and they love to collect shiny things.  This can be a great way to start a conversation about the family budget. This doesn’t mean worrying children about the day to day bills or making them feel guilty in any way. What it does mean is explaining where money comes from and where it goes when we spend it.

Teaching your children to save can be fun.  By setting up a “Adventure Jar” you can create an exciting way to save.  Our family has a "Disney Jar".  When our children find loose change around the house, with our permission, it goes to the "Disney Jar".  When they get money in birthday cards, they have the choice, to spend it, or to put it into the jar... more often then not, we are finding those dollars in the large jar on the kitchen counter.   I honestly cannot wait until we get to go to Disney (more than likely it will take much more than that old jar) to watch them and help them realize that they helped save for that adventure will be a very cool day!

Another way to teach your kids (and yourself) that the world is bigger than ourselves... set up a Charity Jar.  For every dime you drop into the "Adventure Jar"... drop one into the Charity Jar... research it, find something you love.  ASPCA, Tom's Shoes, World Vision (organizations like World Vision and Compassion International allow you to "adopt" a child, you will get pictures and letters and you can send some of your family back... let your children see that they are helping a fellow child)... You will find something outside of yourself and you will probably find that you enjoy putting money into your Charity Jar just as much as the other.  

If you don't have children right now, what's stopping you from starting your own piggy bank?  We all accumulate loose change.  More often than not, it ends up going into the ash trays of our cars, our lint screen in our dryer, or into a vending machine.  Go online, find yourself something cool.  A fabulous new outfit, a fancy restaurant for you and your sweetie, or dream bigger: a cruise or vacation you've always wanted, then find a Charity that you are passionate about...  and start snatching up those pennies!  It might not add up immediately.  You may run into an unforeseen opportunity or emergency and need to break the bank a few times.... but the important thing is to set it aside.  

Be deliberate and you will see results, both in your life and in your world!