Banking on it

Being a student of Financial Peace University and naturally averse to debt, I want to teach my children good money management skills. We use the LearningCents Trio Bank, a clever three compartment bank for Spending, Saving and Giving. All of the money they receive - allowance, gifts, etc. is divided by rough percentage and placed into these three divvies. They each hold quite a bit of cash and coins, are completely separate, and the tops of the Spending and Giving open fairly easily to make withdrawals. The Savings opens on the bottom and is quite difficult to get into, keeping it safe from temptation.

Saving is for long-range planning for something big like college, a car, or a return trip to Ethiopia.

Giving is our tithe and helping others. When we found out about Samuel Phillipson both of the kids emptied their tithe fund to send to help his family. They are generous children and usually want to give more to the church offering than is in their bin!

Spending is used to buy snacks at school, save for “wheel shoes’ or desires. Right now they seem to think that money grows on trees and mom and Uncle Sam are an endless supply, but hopefully they will get the picture eventually. They also have to use their money to pay “fines” for misbehavior, chores unfinished, late to bed, and such. We have a whole checklist to help them be accountable.

With the recent arrival of our new social security cards, we were also able to open bank savings for both and transfer the savings bin to safer keeping. We store our true treasure in heaven, but at the same time try to be good stewards of the blessings given us on earth.