When I first moved out of my parents house as a young adult I was horrible with finances.
I was so irresponsible with credit cards and paying my bills that I can’t believe I was able to live on my own, in my apartment for as long as I did.
Let me give you an example.
I loved shopping (still do 😜)! If there was an outing or an event coming up I always had to have a new outfit. Looking nice and presentable was my top priority back then, literally.
So let’s say my rent was due that same week of the event...
𝚙𝚊𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚐𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚙𝚊𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚐𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐, 𝚙𝚊𝚢 𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝, 𝚐𝚘 𝚜𝚑𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚒𝚗𝚐 💭
I would sit there and contemplate not paying my rent on time and just letting them add on the late fees and pay later.
😳😳😳
I was so bad! Most of the time I chose shopping over paying on time. I spread this out so it wouldn’t happen every month to avoid the risk of getting evicted.
On top of that I always fell for the credit card trick. I would let them raise my limit way too high and end up being in the hole for it.
All I saw was shopping money 🤑🛍. I didn’t think about the consequences of bad credit or the constant phone calls about paying these companies back their money. Embarrassingly I viewed credit cards as free money...money now payback years later when I hit the lottery. 😌🤷🏽♀️
Once I saw how much debt and trouble I was getting myself into I tried to blame it on my parents.
I told them
If you would have taught me more about credit cards and the importance of handling my money I wouldn’t be in this mess.
The nerve right?
Yeah maybe my parents could have made credit card debt an urgent lesson but they raised me to be a responsible young woman. They taught me about business etiquette, the importance of saving money and paying my bills on time. Obviously I failed that class. 🤦🏽♀️
It was my childish behavior and mindset that got me in a financial knot and giving into temptation to fulfill my desires.
Come to find out my husband didn’t have the best money and budgeting habits either.
𝙶𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚔𝚒𝚍𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚜𝚞𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚛 𝚋𝚎𝚌𝚊𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚞𝚜. 💭
This thought was haunting me in the back of my mind. We couldn’t let it come true.
Together we have worked to be better savers, investors, budgeters and good credit growers.
We have our priorities in check and hold each other accountable. It did help once the kids got here because it made it more real. We had to be good examples for them and teach them better habits than what we had practiced ourselves.
🐰 Bunny Accounts 🐰
The first thing we set up for each of our kids when they were infants were Bunny accounts. It’s a savings account for kids age 12 years and under that was being offered at our credit union.
We had a set amount that would be automatically transferred to each of their accounts with every paycheck.
The accounts grew slowly and steadily. We wanted to be able to present them with something that would help them have a good financial start with their adult lives. Whether it was used for their first car or first living space it was theirs to decide.
Once we got into cryptos the plans changed.
We didn’t want to depend on a financial institution to hold all of our monies any more. We were excited to have this new option of independent investing, especially because it’s the currency of the future.
I try not to but always think about the worst that could happen. I fear a shutdown or something happening with the banking systems where we won’t have access to our monies. 😬
With cryptocurrencies we are the holders and the sole owners of our wallets. We are the only ones with access to those funds and that makes us more comfortable and confident about the security of them.
Every Penny Adds Up
We’ve been teaching the kids about money and saving every since they were old enough to grasp the concept.
We taught them not to throw pennies away but to keep them when they find them. Every penny adds up and will be worth the save one day.
We started this family money jar quite some time ago and have used it to hold all of our loose change or change found round and about. Now that they are older they have been inspired to start their own coin jars.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen them this determined about saving money. They are usually quick to ask to go shopping for the latest toy but not lately.
Do you know what sparked this new saving motivation? It’s when their...
Wallets Turned Crypto
That’s right! Now that they each have their own crypto wallets the game has changed.
We noticed how quick they were wanting to spend their money as soon as they got it. We don’t give our kids allowance so the money they have is from birthdays and grandparents’ money.
We all know how grandparents like to spoil and give their grandbiscuits money when they see them lol.
They all love bey blades and Pokémon so that’s what they would spend the majority of their money on.
We started holding some of it and only giving them a percentage to spend. This is where my husband got the idea about creating each of them a crypto wallet.
We started showing them our family wallets and individual wallets weekly and how our investments were growing. The looks on their faces were priceless.
That’s your money? You actually have that to spend if you want? It grew that much since last week?
Those were some of their comments. It got them really excited and ready to start their own.
It’s pretty amazing being able to learn and grow together as a family. We sit down and talk about these things and my husband teaches us altogether about the market, our wallets, how to transfer etc. Together we are learning how to be better stewards over our finances and watching them grow right before our eyes.
Seeing how excited and committed to this our kids have been has been very rewarding. ☺️
They often ask their dad
how’s my wallet doing?
😂😂😂
They like seeing those numbers rise! 😆
Remember when I mentioned we don’t give them allowance? Well we’ve adopted an amazing payment system that will work well for our family.
Stay tuned to learn about how we are helping them fund their wallets by setting up a chore chart and work for hire to further teach them about responsibility and working hard for what they want. I’ll show you exactly what we are doing to achieve this. 😉
What ways or strategies do you have set in place to teach your children about healthy finances?
Lol my financial habits were so rotten growing up that the word healthy just came to mind. 😄
I saved 10% of all the money my kids were given (100% when they were babies) in their own accounts. When they got pocket money I taught them to save 10% of it even before they really understood what 10% was.
Then I made a mistake with my daughter. I gave my eldest access to her account when she was 13 and she got carried away at Christmas and spent most of it on presents for everyone. 😢
I learned my lesson and held on with my son.
Once he got a Saturday job he decided to open another account so he had 3. The original one that 10% of all earnings/gifts went into and which he didn't touch. One his pay went into for daily "expenses". And a third that was a sort of in between savings that he used to save up for things like a computer or tickets to festivals.
He didn't break into his original account until he bought his first car which he was able to pay cash for and he still puts 10% of earnings into it.
He also has a huge jar that he puts spare coins into. Last time he emptied it it had more than £300 in it.
Neither of the kids ever got a credit card and nowadays mainly use their phones to pay for stuff.
Saving 10% of income worked well for us too when the kids were little and we had £11K of credit card debt to get rid of. Seeing our savings go up whilst watching the debt go down was very motivating.
Posted Using LeoFinance Beta
What happened with your daughter at 13 is why we decided not to give them access to their wallets until we feel they are responsible enough. I guess we have to give them a chance to prove themselves but that won’t be until later teen years. Even then I still feel they need guidance because it’s so easy to make decisions you’ll regret later.
That’s neat that your son had 3 accounts for different purposes. Paying cash for a car is amazing!!
I can imagine how motivating that was :)
Thank you for reading and commenting ~
!ENGAGE 50
ENGAGEtoday.Hope that stuff sticks with yours :D I've tried variations on most of those things with mine and well one of them still desperately needs to spend money the second she has enough for something XD she doesn't complain about not having any money anymore because every time she does she hears the same thing she doesn't want to hear back from us ;D
I hope it sticks too.
Lol. I could see my daughter doing that too. She likes to spend money the most but I’m really hoping she stays motivated to save.
Thanks so much for reading and commenting :)
I like you to teach me what I can do as well to be financially buoyant
Sometimes it's good to have nerve and talk things out. Pent up emotions can cause great disaster if left unchecked. I was lucky to live in a firearms restricted country. The way my parents treated boys and girls unfairly nearly pushed me to the brink of purchasing a gun to murder the entire family.
I definitely agree with talking things out instead of storing up emotions.
Whoa! 😳 I'm so sorry to hear it was that bad but definitely glad you didn't act on those thoughts.
You are an awesome parent, my dad worked in the financial sector but taught me nothing about finance, its not his fault he was busy working and I hated math, but I was always interested in money but I never had a healthy relationship with it! I think crypto is fantastic and I'm excited where its going defi is really hot right now, can't wait to see where it all goes!