Several years ago I decided to start a family economy. I wanted our kids to earn money and pay for their own things. I read a few books that related to the subject, and then we had a LONG family counsel about how we thought it should work. The kids brainstormed on any possible expense they might have: clothes, books, shoes, treats, birthday presents, car, gas, dates, etc… We talked about different ages and when we thought it would be reasonable for the kids to pay for their own things. We talked about how they could earn money at home. We talked about how you shouldn’t be paid for cleaning up your own messes, or contributing to living in the home, and what extra jobs we thought should be paid for, and how much you should earn with each job. We talked about how much of what they earn should go into savings and to charity. We talked about effects of debt and decided that mom and dad would not be allowed to let you go into debt for anything. It was a really good conversation with the family.
Some of the kids were quite concerned about having to pay for things (even though they wouldn’t be paying for much because of their age). One of the selling features for the kids was the rule that mom and dad couldn’t tell you how to spend your money (as long as it was something that went against the standards or rules of our family). I wrote up our plan for how we would implement everything, I found an app to use for tracking money our kids earned and spent (we were going to do cash but the kids decided against it for several reasons), and we got started.
It has been one of the best things we’ve done as parents. It has helped our kids grow so much, be more grateful, understand how to be good with their money, etc. That Christmas when our son got clothes and shoes….he was extremely grateful because he knew how much they cost and understood how hard he would have to work to buy them on his own. They are grateful for things that other kids take for granted. It’s been so good in so many ways.
Our son got a job, and saved up all his money from the job and home for a few years so he could buy a car when he turned 16. That was a really neat thing to see. Right away though, something went wrong with his car. He knew that he would have to pay for the repair, and he knew it would be expensive if he had to take it into the shop. He watched a lot of videos on youtube, diagnosed the problem, and then spent a day taking apart his car (without experience), and putting it back together. The moment when he knew his work had fixed the problem…..you can’t buy how that made him feel.
Here we are a few months later and he went to replace his spark plugs. He had three bolts that had the top break off. What was supposed to be a quick repair turned into quite the endeavor. He did more research on youtube and was able to get 2 of them out, but the third one wouldn’t come. We ended up having a friend look at it, and they told him he would need to replace the whole cover. The part and labor would be about $500. He sat on that for awhile. He didn’t have the money for that repair. His dad helped him find a cheaper part online, he did some more research, and told me today that he thinks he can fix it himself. This is coming from a kid who had absolutely NO experience fixing cars 6 months ago. I don’t know if he will be able to do it, or if we will have to take it into a shop, but I do know that he is changed for the better because of the experience. He has learned that he can figure out how to do stuff he has never done. He’s learned that he can save money by doing things himself. He’s learned that he is capable of so much more than he would ever know. And this is all because he is responsible to pay repairs his car might need.
Our family economy-one of the best decisions we ever made.
Work In Progress 