<p>I also find it amusingly ironic that an ad for a somewhat expensive restaurant is running as a banner at the top of this page [-X </p>
<p>Why would a 7th grader have a savings account? What money is this 7th grader making? </p>
<p>Well my 7th graders saved part of their allowance from the time they were given one, saved money given as birthday presents or when they worked painting the neighbors fence, raking leaves or babysitting, etc… And, as they turned 13 and had some bar mitzvah gifts in the form of $, had more reason to save. They thank their lucky stars, sure. But they learned the value of a penny form the day they were first given one. They were taught the importance of saving, and the importance of giving back to help those less fortunate. These are, IMO, valuable life lessons that should start earlier than 7th grade.</p>
<p>I agree that it is important for children to have bank accounts. I opened simple passbook savings accounts for my boys and asked that they save half of any money given to them. As time went on, they saved more than that, and one has tapped the account a couple of times for significant purchases (laptop). The money would have been spent on video games or the like when they were younger.</p>
<p>I had a bank account from the time I was 12. I put in my gift money, babysitting earnings, summer earnings and tutoring earnings. By the time I started college, it had grown to a significant sum. I rarely spent anything. I had significantly more than $2k in that account by SR year of HS. </p>
<p>We never had a class in financial management, nor did H, my sibs or kids. We have all managed fine. I think it’s great that scouts do have badges that include budgeting as part of the requirements. Some schools do briefly touch on budgeting and make students assume they have a job, drawing a typical salary in the area and make a budget paying typical expenses in the area. It quickly helps kids realize how quickly money evaporates. </p>
<p>Exactly, CT1417. The earlier a person learns the importance of saving whatever they can, the better the likelihood of a good outcome, barring unforseen circumstances. </p>
<p>I remember playing the board game “Life” when I was younger. It and Monopoly taught many of these life skills. Lets get back to playing these board games…Good family time tooo.</p>
<p>My kids got savings accounts when they were 6-7 years old. I think we funded the $25 to open the account, and then they would ask us to go to the bank so they could deposit $2.50 or some share of their allowance (or later, paychecks). Both used those funds in college.</p>
<p>S1 and DIL just found out about tax bills – they are thankful they saved $$ and will be adjusting their W-4s and increasing their 401(k) contributions so they don’t get surprised next year. We’d had these conversations with them (they asked about such things) when they were graduating from college and looking at job offers, but the reality came along and bit them this past year now that are both full time. </p>
<p>DH and I learned the hard way after seeing our parents make poor financial decisions. It was good motivation for us to make better lives for ourselves. Some of my siblings didn’t heed those lessons and are hitting age fifty with low-paying jobs, zero savings and no retirement plans. Their kids, whose college options were severely circumscribed, continue to pay the price. </p>
<p>HI-
You learned the value of saving from an early age. Did you do that on hour own or was it encouraged by family? Some are self taught,but I think others learn from the teachings of family. Or learn from the mistakes of others. (not meaning you-- just reflecting on how people learn money management).</p>
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<p>In practical skills like basic budgeting and financial managment, lot of meaningful lessons which tend to stick does tend to be learned better when it IS through being experienced firsthand or preferably second-hand rather than being taught in class.</p>
<p>Like Ema, a basic financial skills class was offered as part of Home Ec in 7th grade in my public middle school. However, it did not really make much of a difference because the exercises and everything else didn’t seem to be “real”. While those who were inclined to be savers like yours truly or interested in it as an idle mathematical exercise were interested the rest just treated it as another school exercise chore to get through. </p>
<p>Regarding budgeting, the basics can be taught. However, for most, a lot of lessons only really sinks through when one’s on one’s own and cannot call on parents/friends easily for help/bailouts. </p>
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<p>OFF-TOPIC! :D</p>
<p>I was an outlier by any standard. I started getting signed blank checks M-F when I was 12 as well. I would go to intermediate school, come home, buy groceries for our family of 9, do homework, make dinner, and after dinner help anyone that needed help with homework or typing papers. College was a vacation!</p>
<p>My sibs are mixed–some are frugal while others are spendthrifts. Fortunately all seem fairly comfortable financially, tho all have different standards of living. H and I are the “poor relations.” Works for us. </p>
<p>The next generation in our extended family so far seems ok with funds, but early to know as not many are very independent yet, nor in much debt. </p>
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<p>Hmm, my banner is offering 25% off a subscription to The Economist.</p>
<p>I have an ad for meditation cushions.
( I was looking at them yesterday)</p>
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<p>My Ds have had savings accounts since they were barely out of diapers. D1 has saved practically every penny she’s received in her entire life. That’s birthday and Christmas gifts from grandparents (she was born with 8 of them), aunts and uncles, etc., and we gave her allowance. Babysitting gigs, part time jobs, etc. DH helped her invest some of it when she was in high school. I think she lived on a shoestring in college, working part time and saving any of the money we gave her to live on like a little squirrel saving nuts for winter. Last I knew, her savings totaled around $25k. She’s now in a funded PhD program, and I thinks she’s still able to save a bit of her stipend each month. </p>
<p>Her younger sister has not followed her example and has very little in savings in comparison, but she probably has $2k.</p>
<p>
Ema,
Can you build an addition to your house, either on the side, the back, or build up? Or finish a basement? Hopefully there will be several options for a growing family!</p>
<p>EK-
Interestingly, the Ipad has a different ad running at the top than the computer. Abd I’d made dinner reservations at a downtown restaurant so maybe thats why another restaurant ad was running. Its back to college ads now.</p>
<p>I wonder if the way to teach kids about money management is not to teach economics at all, but to teach them about consequences and the values of delayed gratification. </p>
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<p>That is one good building block and IMO…far more effective than having a basic finance class in school where students aren’t likely to view the exercises as “real” because it doesn’t affect them beyond fulfilling another school exercise. </p>
<p>Especially if the grade isn’t counted as “academic” like Gym or Home Ec was in my junior high. </p>
<p>Interesting idea, hayden, especially in this day and age when so many things get such an immediate response. We find ourselves wanting a text message or email response quickly , and we get frustrated when a cc page loads slowly or the site is temporarily down! Its so hard to teach patience and delayed gratification these days when so many things happen in real time so quickly.</p>
<p>25k in savings? I thought I was special with about 8k. :/</p>
<p>I forget what subject this was in, but my s’s school offered a stock market project. They broke into teams, and were each given a certain amount of “$” to invest. They researched and selected stocks to purchase and followed the stocks for a certain period of time (I don’t recall if they were allowed to buy and sell during this time or just bought once and followed the stocks selected). The group whose stocks made the most money at the end of the exercise won a prize of some sort. I thought it was an interesting exercise to begin to expose kids (HS’ers) to investment and the stock market. </p>
<p>There are also some schools that have kids pair up as “couples” and “raise a child” for some limited time period. The dolls need to be fed, changed, taken everywhere, have constant supervision, they cry, etc. I’ve wondered if those scenarios have had any real impact on preventing teen pregnancy , etc. Wonder if there are any outcome studies.</p>
<p>How old were you when you’d saved 8K, beachlover? Thats wonderful! 25K is incredible!! Congrats, Nrdsb4!</p>