Testimonial:

“I am thrilled to be part of a program that teaches our children a valuable life skill.”

Mary Pajak,
Parent Aide at Stony Hill School in Wilbraham

There are many reasons why your child should save regularly:

College – with the rising costs of higher education, more children are helping with tuition

A Car – new or used, all students dream of the freedom of owning their own car.

Fun Money – from clothes to music to video games, students have their eye on that special something.

Summer Vacations – in school or with friends, your child may have the opportunity to travel.

A Rainy Day – your child may just like to save and see their money grow! Saving is a rewarding and valuable lesson to learn!

Talking About Money
Money can be a very tough subject for you and your kids, but you’re probably doing something right if you’re talking about it with them at all. Here are some tips:

As A Family
As a family, talk about how television commercials and other advertisements try to get you to buy things you don’t always need. This will help develop a basic understanding of needs vs. wants.

Try to include your children/child in discussions about family purchases. Maybe you are thinking about buying a new car. Including your children/child in the discussion might be helpful for them to understand how and why you are saving for the new car.

Talk about ATM’s
There is no time like the present for teaching and modeling healthy financial habits. There are teachable moments every day that you can use to help your kids learn about money. Some teachable moments that will help your child learn how to make responsible financial decisions might be an event that’s a part of your regular routine like paying the monthly bills, buying a car or planning a vacation.

Never underestimate the power of a single financial conversation with your child because it could influence how they use money for a lifetime. Below are some tried-and-true ways to teach your child how to deal with money.

• Use glass jars to divide up their allowance.
  Take three glass jars and label them as spending, saving and sharing. When your child gets an allowance, she can split it up and put some money in each jar. That drives home the fact that money isn’t just for spending—there’s also saving for the future and sharing with others (whether it’s for charity or buying gifts for family and friends).

• Have them open a savings account.
  Saving money is very habit-forming, so the earlier your child begins to save, the better. Consider opening a savings account for him. Young kids will enjoy getting their passbook stamped, and teens will appreciate seeing their money earn interest. If you’re really determined to emphasize the importance of saving, you could offer to match all or half of what he saves each month. Setting the stage for a lifelong pattern of saving may be worth a few extra bucks per month.

• Help them set a financial goal and work towards it.
  If your child gets an allowance, encourage her to save up to buy something she’s had her eye on—for young kids it should be a small goal, because they can’t save for months at a time. As she gets older, the delayed gratification can lengthen, and she can buy bigger ticket items after saving longer. Success is a wonderful teacher, and children will gain confidence in knowing that they can reach goals they set.

• Have them research the costs of what they want.
  If your child wants a huge birthday party, have him make the phone calls and search the Internet himself to price it all. When the final numbers are added up, he’ll probably be shocked to see how much it would cost, and his requests will become more budget-conscious. Even if he just wants a new jacket or new sports equipment, have him research the price at a few places. Getting kids involved at that level will make them more aware that cost (and not just want) is a big issue.

• Teach the difference between wanting and needing.
  “I want” is a phrase you’re probably all too familiar with. Next time your child says she wants something, tell her you know what she wants, but you want to talk about what she actually needs. Make two columns on a piece of paper—on one side list why she wants that particular thing, and on the other side list how (or if) those reasons are really needs. The probable imbalance of the two lists is a good start in illustrating how wants and needs don’t necessarily go hand-in-hand.

• Let them make their own spending decisions.
  The best way to become a smart spender is to make lots of spending decisions. Tell your child you’re going to give him $30 to buy a pair of shoes—if he finds a cheaper pair, he gets to keep the difference. There’s nothing like cold, hard cash as an incentive to be a comparative shopper. Or allocate enough money to him for a month’s worth of movie rentals, and if he doesn’t spend it all, he keeps what’s left. You’ll quickly find a thrifty money-management side to him that you never knew existed.

• Show them how finances impact the whole family.
  Next time your teen begs to go on a ski trip with friends or a school trip to Europe, say, “Sure, you can go.” But then sit her down and show her how it would affect the rest of the family. Explain that spending the money to send her on that trip means that her sister/dad/mom will have to sacrifice something, an improvement to the home will get delayed, or a family vacation could be postponed. It’s a real eye-opener when kids see that there’s not an unlimited supply of funds for everyone in the family to do whatever they want.

• Keep records for a month to track spending.
  Record-keeping is important for older kids, and the best way to teach that is to make a game out of it. At the beginning of the month, ask your child how much he thinks he’ll spend on movies or food (or any regular expenses he has) in one month. Then have him keep track of all his spending—do it with him if necessary. At the end of the month, compare his original estimate to the final tally to see where all the money really goes. Expect serious surprise on his part.