Comments on: 10 Things to Remember when Teaching Kids about $$$

By: Mama Bear

Mama Bear — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:15:07 +0000

Great post, am linking it in my Link Love post.

By: NKM

NKM — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 14:13:35 +0000

Thanks Marie!

By: Marie

Marie — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:47:33 +0000

NKM:
Choice: short-term until January 1st, 2009 and then long-term? TFSA!

By: NKM

NKM — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:34:14 +0000

Thanks Geoff. Will be making an appointment with our financial advisor to guide our son – it’s time he started his own portfolio or at least received the information he needs until he turns 18.

To kristin – this is one of the biggest lessons you will give your child – it will make her life easier when she is on her own. I agree, I could never understand the attitude behind not involving the children or at least guiding them when pocket money was handed out. All the best!

Thanks.

By: kristin

kristin — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 23:59:52 +0000

growing up we didn’t have a lot but didn’t need for much either. so in the middle. my parents never ever spent a penny more than they made and the only penny they borrowed was for the tiny mortgage that was paid off in a hurry.
but i never knew (and still don’t know) how much money comes in and out of that house. so when i moved out, despite having a good income, i managed to rack up the LOC because of my lack of budgeting skills. took awhile to get on track. tough lesson. could have done a lot more good with that money.
when my girl is big enough, i hope to sit her down every month with the family pay stubs and receipts. why the secrets? why can’t she know how much money we earn? how much food costs? heat etc? on the off chance she tells a friend who tells a friend who tells their parents and then they know? GASP! THE HORROR! (dripping with sarcasm by the way there).
never did understand that attitude.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:00:40 +0000

@ NKM – This totally depends on whether the money for your son is long-term or short-term – ie needs it at 18 for his university tuition – but if it is a long-term (ie money won’t be touched for 5+ years) your son should at least educate himself on better investment vehicles than a GIC, which offers pathetic rates of return right now. While other options (ie low-cost mutual fund index) may not be guaranteed, your son is probably has the highest risk tolerance of his life right now. And its worthwhile to note that with inflation at ~2% a year, investing in an GIC may actually result in a negative rate of return. Now when I was a kid (1980s) GIC rates were at 10-12%. That was sweet – unless you needed to borrow money!

By: NKM

NKM — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:32:23 +0000

Brilliant blog Gail!

This blog just took me back to my childhood – when it was taboo to talk about money, and we were given an allowance to do with as we please without the guidance of how to divide it up and spend accordingly. This cost me a lot financially once I was on my own – Hard lessons to learn on how to manage money efficently. My husband had been brought up the same way – it’s taboo to talk about money.

When we had our child, we decided to involve him in most of the money spending catogories – eg, grocery shopping, he has to make his list which we would incorporate into our list, and if we are short of the allocated money, we all have to come up with some items we don’t really need that week.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday, when he asked how he could invest his saved money in a GIC or something safe – so he could make his money work for him. He is 17 yrs old. I must be doing something right! At least I have peace of mind knowing that we are preparing him for the real world where money is a critical part of it.

Thanks Gail, you rock lady!

By: Kim

Kim — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 17:24:23 +0000

My mother and father both had very different views about money and reading this, I wish my mother had influenced me a bit more on the money side. My parents both lived within their means. If that meant our Christmas when we were three had toys bought from garage sales in the Summer, so be it. We didn’t care — we were three!

The difference is my mother would explain about the rules of money and why she did things and why this cost more than that (as a kid I was fascinated by money and economy). Even when we didn’t have enough to buy something, my mother explained that we had more money, but that was for something else, like food or gas money.

My father on the other hand, worried about money. We always had enough. We were never in any danger of losing the house or living in our cars… but he sure acted like it. I was constantly worried about what would happen when we didn’t have enough. As a result, I have become a saver who sacrifices good spending (on things we need) for saving. Eep! Not that it’s his fault — I just took away the wrong lessons from him.

I hope I do better with my future kids.