How does it work?

My Kids' Money is a book that guides the parent through the conversation and processes necessary to equip their children with a solid foundation in basic money management concepts. The book, worksheets and other tools provide the framework, the parents provide the values and time.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Houston, we have a shopper

Of course, what newly minted teenager with a brand spanking new debit card isn't itching to go test it out?  So we moved some excess cash out of her savings account (she has a minimum balance requirement that she has never struggled to maintain) and sent her off with Mom to break the card in.  After using her available spending money and a gift card for her birthday, she came home with two new holes in her ears, two pairs of jeans, a book, some stuff from bath and body works along with a present for yours truly.

As promised, I was sent an email regarding every purchase, and a low balance warning after her last purchase. All systems go from that perspective.  I have to hand it to ING, they have done a good job with this.  All the communication comes to the kid, and is written in a relatively kid friendly tone with appropriate word choice and all of that (if only the adults in the financial world could speak so plainly!).  So where to we go from here?  For those of you who have muscled through some of the old blog posts, you know that there are Investing and Giving accounts that have yet to be integrated into the actual banking system (the accounts still reside at The Parents Bank).  However, discussions are underway about integrating the Giving account into her Savings account and simply tracking the split between reserves and money to donate to charitable causes, along with establishing an actual investing account for her (ING, we'll be knocking on your door for that as well!).

All in all, Miranda looks like she has some pretty good habits.  We even talked about her first pay check and how all of this relates to the day she actually receives one (maybe not that far off....I may put her on the payroll).  The light bulb went off in a big way about the need to maintain this discipline with the first check.  She readily conceded the point that it would be far easier to begin that way, rather than start out spending everything as most teens do, only to have to scale back her spending at some future date.  Music to my ears, and validation that this has all been worth it.  Now if I can just get the boy to pay attention......

Oh, and perhaps the most useful app ever created on a smart phone - the "take a picture of your check to deposit it" app.  Now you truly never have to go to the bank.

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