Full of the family reunion stuff. Can’t talk long. Had been planning to share with you all about allowance as a form of money management, incorporating money making activities in your family discussions. I gave you guys a little bit. More to come.

Here’s our latest money moment: My daughter is committed to making money for dance camp this summer, so she contacted all of her relatives in the area, along with some of our close friends and asked if she could help them organize some aspect of their life for money. My family is so supportive that one of my sisters is looking for her a “sponsor” so that the money my daughter makes can be matched by another member of our family who doesn’t need her help, but wants to help our daughter make some money. How cool is that? A little 401K family style. She is organizing closets (geting rid of the too small/too big clothes, putting the outfits together by color), organizing drawers and organizing paper work. She loves the shredder!

Now I told you that I am not an organized person, but that’s not true. I have great organizational skils and I teach those skills to the kids. The challenge for us is me being consistent in enforcing organization in our house. I’m a bit distracted by other things, but I know that God purposes in my heart to get it together because He flows better in my life when there’s some order. I also know that people are constantly needing help in these areas. My daughter has found a need in the market and is filling the need. Those entrepreneurship lessons are paying off.

So I decided to share with you all some of my favorite money management, financial planning, investment info for kids/children/adults:

1. I love Janet Bodnar’s Money Smart Kids weekly column at Kiplingers.com. You will have so many of your questions answered plus she’s written some great books on the topic as well.

2. Some of my favorite books on the topic (read about them on Amazon): The First National Bank of Dad, Ultimate Kid’s Money Book, Wow the Dow, Growing Money: The Kids Guide to Investing.

3. Favorite websites (not in any particular order): Jumpstart, Young Investor, U.S. Dept. of Treasury links on financial planning, Practical Money Skills, and this site has a 187-page curriculum that is awesome (and you can do this over the weekend/over the entire summer/during the school year), Merrill Lynch Curriculum on Financial Planning.

4. Some of my favorite authors on the topic of family financial management: Dave Ramsey, Suze Orman, Brooke Stephens and although I have some challenges with some of his philosophies, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention, Robert Kiyosaki, author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

5. Here’s my allowance spiel: Children need to learn how to manage small groups of money before they are expected to manage larger sums of money in the future. Allowance is a constant and is not related to chores or grades because I want the habit of money management to be formed. Now fines are assessed when stuff isn’t done right (just like in life) and they need to know how it feels to be penalized for not doing certain tasks, bigger tasks not everyday chores. Chores are part of your blessing, your giving to our house. You don’t get compensated for loving and respecting your house. The rules are simple: We take care of what you need and you use your allowance for some of what you want. All of your purchases must be approved by us and you have to save some (piggy bank or savings account) and give some (we talk about stewardship, tithing/offering, philanthropy in this area). I know a lot of people who do it differently, but that’s how we do it. Once again, our challenge has been consistent implementation, so the kids started keeping a little ledger. But in August, I’ve decided we are going to treat them like all of the other bills and put the cash in their hand on Financial Friday.

Technicals: My 11 y.o, starting getting an allowance when she was 10 and my 8 year old when he was 7. My dad sent me an article suggesting .50 for every year they are old. That’s what I do. Here are some articles that may help you with your decision.

Give ‘Em An Allowance

Suze Orman on Allowance and More

Ivillage article on allowance

The question I always pose is how can our generation, my children be better than us. The answer is money management and financial planning. I didn’t realize the severity of my bad decisions (even though my father more than prepared us to deal with money/invest/save/earn…thanks Daddy again). I think we do a grave disservice when we don’t talk to ourselves about the role of money in all aspects of our lives. It is too simplistic to say “We’re broke.” or “We won’t ever have money for that.” or “That’s too expensive. Pick another toy.” I hope that you and your family will be open to having your children prepare a budget or to having them look at your bills. As the O’Jays would sing(dang this is my second O’Jays reference this week, wonder why I’m not quoting some new jack…oh, their music doesn’t make any sense…oops, another blog topic), “Some people gotta have it. Some people really need it. Do thangs, do thangs, do thangs, BAD thangs with it.” The Bible says “The Love of money is the root of all evil.” I wonder what the ignorance of money is?

Let me know how you treat money with your children. Do you discuss it? Hide it? Embrace it? Don’t think they’re ready? How was money dealt with in your house? Thanks for sharing. This topic is real touchy for some.

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