Sorry for giving no solid details about what is leading me to write these things, but feel free to email me personally if you want to discuss it...
One of the key points that I think the ideas behind Love & Logic focus on is learning big life lessons when the price is small. Teach your kids how to pay off debt when the amount they owe you is only $5. Teach your kids that if they don't have the $10 to buy the latest and greatest toy, then they need to wait to earn the money. Maybe they could even do extra work to get the money faster? Teach the kid that if they don't keep ahead in debt then they might just have to give that special toy back.
The thought is that it's better to learn those types of lessons when the consequence is low than it is to learn later in life when the price is big (or even in some lessons - dangerous).
I have this inherent desire to help people, especially those in need and those who are close to me. But recently I've wondered how it's even possible to help someone who has gotten so far down the path they're in. When will that lesson be learned for them? Apparently not now. I can only sit back and hope that she makes it out OK, but I can't help but think about the enormous amounts of money that could be saved if she learned how to properly use her piggy bank decades ago.
Do you think Ellie is old enough to start learning about saving her money?
MJH - I'm not sure how often you read my blogs anymore, but if you read this, I'd love to hear your thoughts on it and at what age you started to work on teaching your little ones about money. I seem to recall it being a topic of discussion earlier, so maybe I'll search through your older comments.
UPDATE: Here is a link to some cool piggy banks and ideas that Mani sent me. Thanks!
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I'm still around, although summer has been busy. We just got back from a week in my hometown, followed a few weeks later with a week on a cruise w/just my honey & me to celebrate 15 years of marriage. Now we're in the "back to school" rush.
As far as teaching my kids about money, here's the blog post that I wrote on what we do: http://dullgeek.blogspot.com/2008/09/my-two-cents.html
(I started to write this long comment, but then remembered that I posted something. Hope it's helpful.)
I don't have any experience with this, but what you say makes sense. I think it's great to teach little ones about the value and to delay instant gratification. Not sure when or how myself but it's a good subject, that's for sure.
They have these amazing piggy banks (possibly for older kids) that allow you to decided how much you want to save, how much you want to give to charity, etc. They have color coded parts that help you visualize where a portion of each dollar will go. I'll see if I can find a link!
This has been SUCH an amazingly informative conversation. Thanks for the post. I like the idea of the register.
And thanks mjh for all the great tips from your blog post. I like the idea of getting kids involved in the bills. How old were your kids when you started bringing them in on that?
MJH - WOW! 15 years! Congrats! We're going on 5 in September. We are hoping that the baby won't be early because we want to keep the month of September open for the possibility of us doing Anniversary stuff. We don't want to have to worry about birthdays during that time.
Nami - Those piggy banks look pretty cool. I'll update the post with a link. Thanks!
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