Family Bank much belated update.
So, our family bank… Kit’s picking up another pouch for me so we’ll have six now that Miss Olivia’s on her way. (Not that she gets allowance in the next five years, I just like being prepared.)
ALL of us have been forgetting about allowance, except Christopher who occasionally remembers and asks what he has in there. It has been handy to have the cash on hand for when random things came up and we snitch from the family bank for pizza runs or such. When I did some catch up today with the family bank we discovered Christopher had $46 in spending, Moira has $32, and we’re three months behind on their tithing. Ouch. 
(Part of that problem is I now pay our tithing online through our bank instead of writing a check so I forget to have them pay tithing when we do our fast offering. Reminder to self, don’t forget.)
I transferred their savings to our bank accounts awhile ago and then took most of that from the kids’ savings and put it as a lump into our IRAs. We can withdraw the amount we put in without penalty and that lets us use compound interest in our favor as we work towards long term goals. Ideally when the kids need savings access we’ll be able to pull it from our budget/money market account and not touch the IRA. Worst case scenario we can pull it out though but until then it’s the best place for us, interest-wise. I am keeping track of how much I’ve deposited from each kids’ account, of course. We decided against setting up individual accounts for their education funds and to put everything into our Roth IRAs, then using the money market account for emergency access. Since we’ll need educational/mission funds in 10 years and we don’t retire for 30 years it made sense to consolidate for the long term. It made more sense when we sat down with our financial advisor and discussed this. Anyhoo…
C’s working on his mission savings goals, when they turn eight we have a talk about that and they can put money into savings above and beyond the mandatory 40% they get from allowance. So this is money THEY earn, not what we give them (unless they want to put their spending into savings.) Here’s the mission savings breakdown:
age 8 $50
age 9 $75
age 10 $100
age 11 $125
age 12 $200
age 13 $400
age 14 $600
age 15 $800
age 16 $1000
age 17 $2000
age 18 $2400
Total is $7750 which would cover most (but not all, I’m guessing) of the mission for a girl but for a boy it would probably be:
age 15 $1000
age 16 $1500
age 17 $2500
age 18 $4000
So C’s saving $50 this year towards his mission from money chores, his spending, etc. Mo will start in a year from now.
We’ve not started Bennett with an allowance yet. Neither of our older kids showed any interest really until they were six so instead of beginning at five we’re waiting another year, or until Bennett cares to start. Mo still seems rather ambivalent about it, there’s not been any toy or thing she’s been eager to save for or purchase with her own money.
I want to be more consistent with the allowance, letting them see the progress with their savings (make a chart?) and be sure they are turning in their tithing each month. We’ve also been talking about charitable donations, we’re still saving pennies for the Pennies for Peace program and we made some donations to Haiti and the Compassion International girl we sponsor through Pioneer Woman. C’s been learning about the church’s charitable programs, the humanitarian fund and perpetual education fund. They can choose to put some of their spending money towards those and we want to encourage that as well.
So far I think it is teaching some valuable lessons, when I remember to get the bank binder down and discuss it with them. Money management, thriftiness, charitable giving, delayed gratification, savings & interest, tithing. Today Christopher made his first major purchase with his allowance and as we discussed it and researched options he asked, “Am I being thrifty?” then told me about the scout museum painting about scouts being thrifty. It was a good learning experience.
