Saturday, September 15, 2007

Kid size commission

Some of you know that Ross & I started the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University several weeks ago. It's been interesting to see how much of a difference it makes to physically write down your budget the way Dave suggests instead of our own way, or even worse, no budget at all.

One of Dave's ideas is to give kids commission instead of an allowance. He says there are enough people in the world who want allowances made for them, lets try to train children differently before they get to that mindset.

I sat down with both older girls last week and discussed a chore chart. We decided which kid will do what and how much they could possibly earn. Cyra has 5 chores and can earn $5 each week. Kenady has 3 chores and can earn $3 each week. Here's my dilemma. I constantly remind them to check the chore chart. It's supposedly to be like a job. If you don't do it, you don't get paid and eventually your job will be given to someone else who will do it in a timely fashion. I have to make sure I give them the opportunity to succeed without constant reminder.

Cyra has 3 envelopes. Church, savings & spending. $1 to church, 2 to savings, 2 to spending. The spending money is for anything other than family activities. Mostly toys, treats or birthday gifts for friends. I pray that she learns to use money wisely and has no interest in credit cards when that time comes. She's hoping our new plan can help her to become a millionaire by the time she's a grown up. I know she can!

Kenady has a clear plastic jar. The money gets wadded up in a ball and put in the jar. Dave thinks that helps them to see their money grow and then get smaller when they spend some. She's pretty excited about doing chores!

As for us, the plan is AWESOME! It's so basic, but novel at the same time. So far, we've paid off 7500 in debt! We can't wait to be debt free! Our new mottos is "Let's do the things that other won't, so that later on, we can do the things that others can't!"

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