Entitlement? Not our Daughter!

One of the running debates among all the kids and money crowd is whether or not to link allowance and chores.  I fall squarely on the "No" side of the argument, particularly when the kids are young.  As they age, however, it is something that needs to be dealt with.  It is even more of an issue for us that it is for some, as Kellie does not work and I work from home, often in shorts and a t-shirt.  Our kids really struggle with the idea of having both parents work, etc, as it is not their reality.

Why go in to all of this today?  Well, we are shipping Miranda off to some of the cousins who have young kids for a visit this summer as "mother's little helper".  She is super excited, and absolutely loves the kids, but this is also to get some practice under her belt for future babysitting and the like.  As a result of all of this, Kellie has enrolled her in the a one day babysitting class.

Here's where we start to take on entitlement.  If you are one of the few who have read the rough draft of the book, you know I want the allowance to flow regardless of chores because chores are a part of contributing to the household, and the purpose of allowance in our house is to teach them how to manage money.

Given that this babysitting thing is going to be a for profit venture, this class is an investment, and if I'm not getting a cut, the cost should be Miranda's, not mine.  Of course, we just sprang this on her, so there will be some cost sharing rather than her taking the entire thing, but the conversation that goes along with this is just like that above - if you want to start making money, you have to invest something - time, money, etc - in order for it to work.

I think everyone wins in this scenario - chores get done, allowance is paid, I have a financially savvy kid, and she realizes she has to have skin in the game.

Logan Hits His Goal!

Big week at the Reed household in the Banking World - Logan has managed to hoard enough cash to make a "MAJOR PURCHASE".  The last nine months have been very interesting to watch as he saved almost every penny of allowance, Christmas Cash, Birthday Cash, pennies on the street.....you get the picture.

He now has enough to buy the robot kit that he has been saving for.  This is no small amount of money.  Now we have yet another opportunity to teach - where the heck to we actually purchase this thing?  EBay?  Amazon?  A Local brick and mortar store?  Direct from the manufacturer?

There could be nothing worse than going after the lowest price, only to find out you get what you pay for with bad return policies, excessive shipping charges, restocking fees and the like. 

Here's to our kids making good buying decisions!

Thank You Dan Pink

I follow a few other blogs (and thank you to my few followers and those who leave comments!  I appreciate it!) and today was quite the study in contrast.  One is a guy who comments on things economic, and today obviously provided him quite a bit of material. 

Then I read Dan Pink's post, and I stopped everything I was doing to consider what he said.  The title of his post is The 44-cent solution and you can read it here:

Dan Pink's Blog

I run a couple businesses and am an aspiring philanthropist, and I am clear that this fundamental premise should be one of my guiding principles:

Doing great work is tough, of course. But sometimes it’s possible to do really good work — remarkable things that make us saw “Wow” — for just 44 cents.

The point, of course, is not to do things on the cheap, but that little things, seemingly insignificant things, make a difference.  And sometimes that difference is huge.


Makes me even more committed to my little project.  Each child and each family we end up reaching will make a difference, maybe even a huge one.