Teaching Budgeting?
posted in conversation, fathers, Frenzied Daddy |FusionFall is out, and Miss B (the DQ, Miss Smart Aleck, The Resident Four Pointer, She-Who-Is-On-The-Honor-Roll), is very excited. It’s not a free game, but it is “inexpensive.” It’s about six bucks a month; it’s less than one rental at the video game rental store, it’s less than half the price of Everquest, it’s one (adult) serving when we eat fast food. She did play it during the free open beta, and enjoyed it.
During the recent budgetary crisis, I discontinued her allowance. It was only $2.00 a week, but it would cover a basic FusionFall subscription.
Something that one of the morning DJs said has kind of stuck with me all day. The station I was listening to is supporting a program that does mentorships for kids from pre-K through high school, getting them out of a cycle of poverty. One of the DJs spoke up and said that when he left home (as a teenager), he had an unofficial mentor who taught him things like how to get the electricity turned on when you rented an apartment, how to balance a checkbook, how to open a checking account. These were something his dad (or mom, but he only mentioned his dad) didn’t teach him.
It’s something my dad didn’t really teach me either. Not directly, anyway- I did see him with a huge ledger sheet doing his budget.
So I was wondering about teaching Miss B “how to open a checking account” and “how to balance it.” When should she learn that? I’ve been mulling over, at her next birthday (Jan 4), that she’ll be 12. I could take her to the credit union and help her open a checking account, and organize a deposit for it once a month for the balance of her allowance, and she could pay for, say, fusionfall, out of it. Is twelve the right age to start that, or should I wait?
And yes, I know that opening the account might take significantly more than her allowance.
