Aside from the usual parenting duties of keeping your kids happy, educated, and simply alive until adulthood, it is equally important to teach them other useful life skills along the way. As I have written about before, one of these necessary skills is personal finance. While I do not expect them to be financial wizards by the time they hit high school (still plenty of years before that, thank God!), I have at least been trying to teach them the basics of spending, savings, and even some limited information about investing. This week’s lesson was about how to use their new debit cards. And yes, you read that right: I willingly taught my daughters how to spend money using plastic… what on Earth have I done?!?
I began teaching them personal finance about a year and a half ago when they started receiving a scheduled allowance every Sunday following my return from Romania. Every week, they receive the amount money equal to their age; Elaina currently receives $10 a week and Gabriella receives $9. Once they receive this money, they have the option to put it into their Savings Account (really Checking, at 0.1% interest) or their “Investing” Account (really Savings, at 1% interest). Before they got back from their Summer in Kenya with their mother, I got them both bank accounts to further educate them about banking, including debit cards. While they have shown amazing restraint so far, it was only a matter of time until they wanted to buy something on their own. And in the footsteps of Bandit Heeler, the undisputed best father in the known universe, their fun was just another opportunity to teach a valuable life lesson along the way.
The girls wanted to go to their favorite store, Five Below, to test out their new debit cards, with Elaina looking for markers and Gabriella buying more slime; contrary to what some vintage adults think (this guy), it is in fact not a cold-weather coat store. After making fairly reasonable selections, with both girls deciding to spend less than ten dollars, they cautiously approached the register. Seeing their hesitancy, the sales clerk caught on to what we were doing and showed the girls how to use their cards in the payment terminal. I just stood back and let them handle the transaction until it was time for their Personal Identification Numbers (PIN). After plugging them in, the girls finished their transaction, realizing how easy it actually was to purchase something with a card. They immediately handed their cards back to me while I explained that, because it is so easy to quickly spend money with a debit or credit card, they need to eventually keep track of the funds in their own accounts.
This was actually a pretty fun experience for all those involved. The girls were happy to purchase some goods while (maybe) learning something along the way, the sales clerk seemed genuinely happy to help in their financial education, and I was happy to provide another tiny life lesson to my daughters. While a deeper conversation will eventually be had once they get credit cards (do they have ones with a $20 limit?), this was a pretty good start; teaching them about writing checks is probably going to go over just as well as explaining that phones used to have cords. But those are lessons for another day. One day my girls are going to be off on their own and I want to make sure they have the best possible chance of success as adults. And every little bit helps.
Thanks for checking in on us.
Cheers!
Adventures in Single Dadding 