Money Matters

Posted on July 11, 2009 - by Jus

When I was a teenager, I wanted a television for my bedroom. My father, who usually gave me pretty much whatever I wanted, told me I would have to save up from my wage at a casual job after school and buy it for myself. Back in those days a tiny 15″ TV was about $300, and I was earning about $9 a hour, so you can appreciate how long it took me to save up for this.

But I will never forget that TV. It was the very first ‘big’ thing that I purchased with my own money and I learned a valuable lesson from it. Not just about saving and delayed gratification, but also the value of money.

I haven’t waited til my son is pubescent to start these lessons. At the beginning of the year, my son asked for a Nintendo DS. He had received a Nintendo Wii for christmas two years ago, and I have rejected all requests for Playstation and X Box as I don’t really see the point in a six year old having multiple consoles. So I said no. But he persisted. And persisted. And finally I told him that if he saved all his pocket money (from chores he does around the house) then he could buy a DS with his own money.

I didn’t expect him to have such self control! For six months he has saved his little heart out. Jumped up from the couch to help empty the dishwasher, brought in the newspaper religiously, fed the dog and much more to keep the pocket money flowing into his piggy bank. We started a barometre on his whiteboard to track his progress and coloured it in each week, watching the savings rise and the distance to his Nintendo DS shrink.

This week marked the final $$ hitting the piggy bank and the last bit of the barometre coloured in. So off we trotted to Kmart’s toy sale and my son handed over his hard earned cash to buy his first ‘big’ thing and he is just so proud of himself. It’s been a great feeling to start this kind of teaching and learning with my son so early in his life – I hope it has the same impact it had on me and more.

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