I've had something on my mind for some time now..... money.
Saving money, to be more exact.
Jason and I have done a great dis-service to our kids. Through the years, we've kind of talked about savings and our kids have saved up short-term for items, but we've never established or required our kids to put money away in a savings account for their future. With Rylee being in high school and college just around the corner, I thought we'd better get going on it.... it will be here before we know it.
We started out by giving them money... Monopoly money. I handed them a stack of dollar bills equal to what our monthly paycheck is. Then I showed them a list of all of our monthly expenses. Next, I had them "pay" me one-by-one for each item on the list (mortgage, electricity, gas, food, etc.). It was interesting to hear their comments.I asked Taylee to give me $100, for the City of Meridian.
She said, "Really? That seems like a good deal."
Then I said, " Remember when you saved up your babysitting checks and cashed them into that 100 dollar bill? Remember how much that felt like? Can you imagine spending that WHOLE 100 dollar bill on ONE thing..like water and garbage pick-up?"
She had to admit that spending $100 on utilities wasn't all that fun and maybe NOT such a good deal. :)
After the monthly expense exercise, we had a whole $31 left!
(Jason and I were a little excited and surprised. J/K)
Then we talked about how far that $31 dollars could stretch and what expenses we hadn't included in the exercise. We also tried to explain, that when we said we didn't have money to buy pizza, go to the movies, buy that cute pair of shoes, etc....we REALLY didn't have it. We weren't just trying to be mean.
Next, we talked about the future... and about saving for the future.
We first talked about how much money a mission costs. Today a mission cost $400/month or $9,600 for 2 years. Treyson is 10, so has less than 9 years to save. We rounded up (knowing that there will be inflation) to $10,000, in 8 years. Treyson needs to save $104.16/mo to have enough for a mission, when he turns 19.
Next, we talked about college.
Rylee has this idea about going to Weber State to be with her cousin Jade (who lives in Ogden). We've talked about out-of-state tuition being a whole lot more than in-state, but had never put numbers to it.... until that day. :)
I researched and found that to go to Weber State it would cost;
in-state=$4,081 and out-of-state=$11, 547.
Then I looked at other colleges.
For BSU; in-state=$5,566.
For BYU-I; LDS=$2,280, non-LDS=$4,560.
All of these numbers are for one semester of course, so times that at least by 8, for 4 years...and that doesn't include books, supplies, living expenses, etc.
I had Rylee on the calculator entering numbers and coming up with totals. It became quite overwhelming to her... but a good reality-check too. She started saying she didn't really want to go to college. We told her she didn't HAVE TO go to college, but she got to save for her future any way. :)
BYU-I was definitely the best tuition cost... but I wouldn't know how to predict all the living expenses from living away from home.
So how would they get all this money for their future?
We had to brake it to them that they will be the ones to do it.
So how do we save all this money?
The system I grew up with (and Jason too, kinda) was 10% goes to tithing and then whatever was left over, 50% went to savings and 50% went to spending (on whatever we wanted). I told them that this is what I would like our family to do too.
There was weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth (Oh boy, we should have done this when they were little!). Needless to say, it didn't go over well. Through the tears and comments of unfairness, we talked a bit longer and tried to console. In the end, all of them agreed to our new saving system (for some it took longer and a "check in" shorter agreement was made). They each shook my hand to bind our agreement. Here we go!
For our activity I made up a game "How much does it cost?" I made a list of every day items and had the kids guess how much they thought each item would cost. Then we went to Wal-mart and wrote down the real price. It was surprising for us to see some of the real prices. I was surprised at how much a candy bar was!... has it bee that long since I bought one? :) For the treat, we gave them a challenge, "Here's $2, buy a treat for the whole family, only using the 2 dollars." They ended up choosing Little Debbie Swiss Rolls... 6 in a package for less than 2 bucks! :)
Maybe not the most fun FHE we've ever had, but definitely worth it. We promised as they committed to this new way of saving, they would be blessed because they were doing what's right. I have faith that this is true. I hope they will be able to see it... at least in the long run.
PS- Recently, both older girls have had the opportunity to get their hair cut and highlighted by a ward member...without charge! I see this as an immediate blessing. If they don't see it, I may have to motherly point it out to them. :)
