Raising Financially Smart Children

in All About the Money/Planet Motherhood by

Earlier this month, I had resolved to build up my savings by joining the 52-Week Money Challenge. Well, I am happy to report that I had already started the program. In fact, I am already on my fourth week and my motivation is still very high.

At the spur of the moment, I had also decided to include all four of my children in the challenge. It’s never too early to teach young children the value of thrift. While our children can continue to expect us to work hard to give them a better life and a brighter future, it wouldn’t hurt to train them to set aside a portion of their daily allowance for the rainy days. The girls are much too young to understand the significance of the exercise, but I’m elated that the boys are all on board and actually serious about this.

Starting the program was not as easy as I had first envisioned. First, it was rather difficult finding a good piggy bank for each of us. I wanted one so secure it would be very hard to get money out of it. Let’s face it, the temptation to pilfer from the piggy bank is great especially during emergencies. I tried buying online but the choices were quite pricey for me I decided I’d rather put that money (plus the shipping fee) in the piggy bank instead. Thankfully, I remembered we have a store here that sells bamboo piggy banks so I bought four (one each for the boys, two for me). For the girls, I chose to use used SOLA bottles instead.

It was also hard choosing a track for myself because I had to find a balance between what is manageable for me and how much I want to have at the end of the year. Eventually, I decided on doing the P30 and P50 increments. Why two, you ask? Well, the first one is for the gadgets I want to buy before bidding goodbye to 2015 and the other and more ambitious one is so I can go on an adventure when my husband comes home.

On our second week of the challenge, however, I realized that it’s impractical to keep money in piggy banks. This was reinforced by a comment I read during a recent blog roundup. The commenter (I forgot your name, I’m sorry!) had said money in piggy banks become stagnant as they don’t earn interest. To solve this, I brought my older kids to the bank to open up their own savings account.

This turned out to be a good move because the boys became even more excited about saving! They were giddy when they were asked to fill in and sign some forms. They were practically jumping up and down when they were handed their passbooks. They later told me that when the lady that attended to us treated them like adults, they felt very happy and proud. So cute!

Now that we’ve opened savings accounts for them, we will be prematurely break the bamboo piggy banks so we can deposit the money in the bank. Needless to say, the boys can’t wait for Saturday to come.

12 Comments

  1. That is great to hear. Same her, Mommy and I is doing the 52-week money challenge not only for me but for Matt, my mother and MIL. But for the others, we choose to do it in reverse para hindi mabigat pagdating ng last quarter ng year.

  2. I also opened a BDO Junior Savings account for son, and transfer a certain amount monthly in his account. He also have a piggyback that we make him drop coins in it from time to time. Very heavy na rin yung coin bank nya and we did not open it pa last month. Soon we'll break it and deposit in his account na rin.

  3. Kids in such tender age is the best period to teach them on how to save for the rainy days. Let them know the value of savings, not the manner of savings or methods. In this case, the kids will surely impress and be converted perfectly to save.

  4. I'm also into the 52-week money challenge and I also include my son. Just yesterday, my son and his Dad count all the coins he had saved from last year. Together, we went to BDO to deposit these and those I already save for him from the 52-week money challenge. We do the reverse and just 20-peso increments for him.

    Mommy Maye2
    http://www.ourfamilyblogsabout.info

    • Yes, you need to choose a bank that you can fully trust. My decision was based on the proximity of a BDO branch to our house (walking distance lang sya) and the fact that it's the only bank open on Saturdays. I wanted them to make their transactions themselves.

  5. BDO also offers UITF (Unit Investment Trust Fund). I am not sure about the minimum if it is 5000 or 10000. Once your savings reaches the amount (5K or 10k again not sure), you can opt to transfer it to a UITF Product. UITF is an investment product where the bank will pool the investors (you will become an investor)money and place an investment – and you can choose where to put it. I did this and my UITF grew double at the end of 5 years.

  6. We opened each of our kids a bank account last 2013. Whenever I go to the bank, I ask them for their savings and deposit them. They actually are the ones who decide how much to deposit. It is good to teach them how to save money and not just spend and spend.

  7. this is really a good move. i will also do thspis when the time comes na i have my own kids na din. but for the meantime, ill have to endure the temptation muna of opening my coin bank..hahahha

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