Buyer's Remorse?

Not here, at least not this time.  Anyone who has read this blog with any regularity knows that my nine year old successfully saved up a huge pile of cash and made a Big Purchase - a high end Lego robot kit.  That was back a couple months, and one of the big pieces of my work with my kids and their money is to circle back and reflect a bit on the purchases they make.

The robot was played with pretty frequently at first, but there had been a lull.  It takes some patience and planning to build these things, and then they need to be programmed before they do anything.  There's a learning curve, and it can be bit intimidating.  I was beginning to think that this was now a $300 paper weight.

That was before a nearly four hour building session this past weekend.  Logan is now the proud owner of Robogator, a foot long, programmable robotic alligator looking thing.  Took him about 15 minutes to handle the programming the morning after the build, and it now moves, detects motion, etc.  Cool!

He still digs the robot, and the likely next step is to build the humanoid form robot that is also a part of the kit.  As his Dad, I am thrilled that this is working out for him.  As his financial coach/teacher, I'm glad he learned how to save for a big purchase.  Even if you have not been using any sort of allowance program with your kids, I'm sure there is something they purchased with "their money".  See if you can find it in their room, let alone figure out if it had been used lately.  Then it's time for a conversation about if it was a good buy or not. 

Go talk to your kids!