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Rasing a child into Financial Peace

rasing-a-child-into-financial-peace

I’m embarrassed to say that it wasn’t until I was almost 31 that I even considered that money is a responsibility.  I didn’t receive instruction from parents, in schools, or from churches.  No wonder our finanicial market is in shambles.  The closest I ever came to advice was when my ex-husband and I were planning for our first apartment months before our marriage.  We’d gone to the local electronic store and picked out several things that we thought were necessities.  We got a nice new tv, a brank spanking new microwave, and who knows what else.  Here we were- two twenty year olds with jobs paying minimum wage, still in college, but we had every right to this new stuff.  We didn’t even have an apartment at this point. We were surprised when our application for credit was denied.  We asked my soon to be father in law to cosign, and he said no.   In my twenty year old entitlement I was disappointed and angry.  Did he want us to live without neccessities such as a TV and microwave?  Not surprisingly enough, our marriage was riddled with financial difficulties.  Neither one of us had the common sense God gave a mule.  We maxed out our student loans to pay for our apartment, credit cards to pay our utilities.  We jumped for joy with every credit card offer that came in the mail, and went to Wal-Mart to celebrate with a new bike, a new set of dishes.  We bought Beanie Babies, shopped out of catalogs.  We bought our house a year later when he got a job.  He’d not been at his new job even one day, yet we owned a house.  Our income didn’t meet our outgo.  It was a disaster.

I think about these things now because I’m determined that I will teach my children to be responsible with money.  I imagine it will be mandatory for many parents with young childrern these days because we don’t want our children to endure the same heartache in their lives and relationships.  I don’t want mine to have the anxiety and stress that money can bring when not treated responsibly.  There’s a commercial on TV right now about how some people are no longer keeping up with the Jonses’, but are making the choice to live more responsibly.  Dave has Financial Peace Junior, and I plan to use it, along with the teachings of the Bible to teach my children to be responsible with money.  I want my children to have a servant’s heart, to think about the needs of others before their own.  I want them to give freely and with a happy heart, while saving, and spending a portion of their money.  A already loves money.  She woke me yesterday morning  and told me first thing that she wanted to go downstairs to get daddy’s money.  When he comes in the door from work in the afternoon- she goes for his pocket to get his change.  I want to teach my children to work, to save, to give, and to spend.  Any instruction I give them will be more than most of my generation has received.  I don’t want to pick on my parents, but if you look at society as a whole you’ll see it.  It’s rude to ask someone their salary.  Why?  It just is you might say.  The only person that benefits from this is the employer because there is no accountability.  If no one talks about what they get paid- there’s no way to know if you’re being underpaid or overpaid.  We’ve made money a taboo subject.  We don’t talk about money- instead we drive cars that prove that we have money.  There are labels on our clothes and shoes to prove that we can “afford” them.  If we’re hush hush about what me make- then we can pull over the lie in the image that we portray of ourselves.

A turns three in May. I’m already unpopular at my children’s birthdady parties because I don’t waste $100 on goody bags, or themed parties.  I’ll start using Dave’s Financial Peace Junior this summer.  I feel that she’s nearly ready for it.  Not quite, because she loves rocks as much as she loves “monies”.  I have to admit that I’ve overindulged her up into this point.  She has more toys that do nothing but clutter my house than I care to confess.  It’s going to be hard for me.  More hard for J I’m sure.  He never learned NO, and his mom still buys him whatever he asks.  In the mall last week for the first time did she want something, and then started crying because she didn’t get it.   It was much like the 20 year old me in the electronics store.  I wanted it, and I wanted it then.  I had to have it, and I was upset that I couldn’t have it.  We survived without those brand new things of course, and A will surive in the short term without having every whim met. What I’m more concerned about is the life long implication and teaching her to be responsible with money so that she is never outside of Financial Peace.

February 19, 2009 | Filed Under Just Whatever 

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