A Dad’s Attempt to Teach a Money Lesson

On my last flight, I had the opportunity to listen to one of the podcasts (Your Money Minute podcast, see Episode 38) with Mary Karges about a really cool product called the Moonjar.  The Moonjar is a tool that can help teach children about money and how it can be used.  I wish I had one of these when I was younger!  There are 3 “slots” for a kid’s money in the Moonjar…Share, Spend, Save.  The goal is to teach kids that money spent can’t be shared with others (like giving to your favorite cause) or saved (for a bigger goal like a car when you’re of driving age).  It’s a great way to have conversations with kids about money and that money doesn’t grow on trees, or come from the magical ATM, there has to be an actual source of funds behind the ATM.  Listening to the Moonjar podcast though, reminded me of something I did with my daughter a long time ago when the subject of “allowance” came up.  I wanted to do two things, respect her desire for an allowance and teach her a lesson about the real world. Continue reading “A Dad’s Attempt to Teach a Money Lesson”