In this episode of The Habit Chef Podcast, you’ll hear how my teenage daughter developed strong financial habits and what it means to her now.

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Listen in, and you’ll learn:

• Why it’s important to teach good habits to your children
• What systems you can use to make the process easier
• How a simple, free tool makes a huge difference
• The surprising positive ripple effect  that could be started

Notes from this Episode

Getting a bank account setup for your child:

• To have your child listed on a bank account, they will need a picture id. We used a passport card.
• Our setup is a main checking account, a short-term savings account, and a long-term savings account.
• Our names are on the accounts as well, and she has a Visa debit card and checkbook (with overdraft privileges explicitly removed).

Setting up your system:

• We decided on a monthly stipend where she is responsible for her own expenses, including clothing, school lunches, etc.
• Periodically, she does have opportunities to earn more money. (That’s another podcast.)
• To receive her stipend each month, she prepares a budget vs. actual for the previous month and a budget for the following month.

While much of our discussions have been on the literal mechanics of budgeting and spending money, this project has also opened up the opportunity to explore related areas that weren’t immediately obvious when we started.

The way this empowered her to give to areas she was passionate about really inspired me. After hearing our pastor speak about the plan to add two more campuses, she integrated this into her budget all on her own. She committed to this in February 2012 and has followed it every month since.

Links

Mint App – much better than the green ledger

Share your ideas for teaching your most important habit in the comments.

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