Is your child a spender or a saver?
When I was a kid, I was always a saver. I always had more money in my piggy bank than my sisters, I’d try to hang on to birthday money as long as possible, and I almost always spent my money wisely when I did spend it. Now that I have kids, I’m seeing how they differ in their spending habits! Are you teaching your children to save money?
I have to admit that we haven’t really been teaching our kids to save money. We should start. We’ve talked to them about the different things they want to purchase, and how, when you’re grown, you have to work for the money you earn. In turn, we teach them that they can’t buy something if they don’t have the money for it.
Kylie is 13, and she’s definitely a spender. She can’t hang on to $5 for more than 20 minutes at a time. Yes, like the saying goes, money seriously burns a hole in her pocket. She can’t stand to have money! She would rather spend $5 on a crummy item or junk food, than save it for a rainy day and better product.
Hawk is 5, and he’s a “loser”. No, not that kind of loser. Loser, as in, he’s not yet old enough to understand money, so he total forgets about it, and loses it (most of the time to his brother!)
Braxton, on the other hand is an 8 year old saver. I can’t remember the last time Braxton actually spent any of his own money. He saves and saves and saves. He’s the only one of our kiddos with a “piggy bank” that is actually used, and he holds on to every last cent. He’s the one that runs around the house picking up loose change to save. I’m not really sure what he’s saving for, but I like that he’s a saver.
We’ve known for a while that Braxton is a saver, but it didn’t really dawn on me until this morning when I saw this that he truly does save things that are going to be of use to him, someday!
This is the pocket of his school planner. Inside this pocket are little tickets that he’s been given as rewards for various things at school. I asked him, this morning, when he was going to use these, and he just said “someday”. At first, I thought the Show and Tell ticket was a reminder for the following day, but he told me that it can be used anytime!
Is your child a spender or a saver? Is he/she like Kylie and just throw money away just to do it, or is he/she like Braxton and pinch every penny he has?