Kids and money.

[Stormageddon]

Originally Posted by activeStick

My friend does this thing which I think is pretty neat. Obviously kids get a ton of presents when they are young from friends and family for birthdays and Christmas, so they've created a toy store in their house where they store all the gifts the kids have received over the years and they all have a price, like a store. While they get to actually play with a few every occasion, the rest go on the store and they use their own money to buy it.

Their kids actually have conversations about saving up for certain things and split for items they really want so they can play with it sooner. Only people I know that does this.

Thanks for buying these sweet gifts for my kid, I bet I can get at least 20 bucks for this one. I needed a little extra spending money.

[flamesfan1297]

Originally Posted by activeStick

My friend does this thing which I think is pretty neat. Obviously kids get a ton of presents when they are young from friends and family for birthdays and Christmas, so they've created a toy store in their house where they store all the gifts the kids have received over the years and they all have a price, like a store. While they get to actually play with a few every occasion, the rest go on the store and they use their own money to buy it.

Their kids actually have conversations about saving up for certain things and split for items they really want so they can play with it sooner. Only people I know that does this.

I'm sorry, but this is just an awful thing to do.

[Stormageddon]

Originally Posted by I-Hate-Hulse

Don't the kids outgrow the toys quick enough that the won't care about buying them? Thomas the Tank Engine is a thing of the past at 5 methinks.

How long until they realize rather than waiting to buy Nhl 14 off their parents, they can just go to EB Games and buy it for 5 bucks?

[Russic]

I like the idea of the forced savings for bigger ticket items. The process of systematic saving by auto-skimming money out of your account is a dead simple thing that far too few people do imo. As it's been mentioned, you're just teaching delayed gratification. Some kids will take to it and some will not. I think as a parent you have to present lessons like this and whether they take anything from it or not is up to them.

In my opinion making them pay for basic necessities might be a bit much at that age. They have plenty of time to learn about how the world will pick their pocket. For now the basic lesson is work hard --> get stuff.

[Street Pharmacist]

I've shared my entire finances with my 17 year old since he was 15. It's important to see and as long as they're old enough to understand the privacy of that, it helps him get the value of money

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by activeStick

My friend does this thing which I think is pretty neat. Obviously kids get a ton of presents when they are young from friends and family for birthdays and Christmas, so they've created a toy store in their house where they store all the gifts the kids have received over the years and they all have a price, like a store. While they get to actually play with a few every occasion, the rest go on the store and they use their own money to buy it.

Their kids actually have conversations about saving up for certain things and split for items they really want so they can play with it sooner. Only people I know that does this.

Is your friend Rick from Pawn Stars?

[activeStick]

Hahaha wow unanimous negative reaction to what my friends do!

I dunno, I thought it was a cool idea - the money their kids pay obviously goes back to the kids' accounts...

[flamesfan1297]

^probably should have put that in the first post. Although I still don't think it makes it much better.

[btimbit]

Grandma - "Does little Jimmy like that toy we got him for Christmas?"

activeStick's friend - "Not sure, he hasn't bought it off us yet"

[taco.vidal]

Originally Posted by activeStick

My friend does this thing which I think is pretty neat. Obviously kids get a ton of presents when they are young from friends and family for birthdays and Christmas, so they've created a toy store in their house where they store all the gifts the kids have received over the years and they all have a price, like a store. While they get to actually play with a few every occasion, the rest go on the store and they use their own money to buy it.

Their kids actually have conversations about saving up for certain things and split for items they really want so they can play with it sooner. Only people I know that does this.

I can see this creating an issue with the child growing up not understanding the meaning of gifts and the joys of guving and receiving gifts.

[CliffFletcher]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Hahaha wow unanimous negative reaction to what my friends do!

I dunno, I thought it was a cool idea - the money their kids pay obviously goes back to the kids' accounts...

I can kinda see where those parents are coming from. Kids get a stupid amount of gifts for birthdays and Christmas. It's a real struggle to stop grandparents, especially, from spoiling grandkids today. And we've noticed that most of the stuff the kids get is looked at once and then discarded. It's extremely wasteful, and can lead to kids not valuing what they do get.

Still, there are probably better ways of addressing the issue. You can ask people not to bring gifts to birthday parties. Or you can have a one-toy-in, one-toy-out policy.

[corporatejay]

Yeah, I prefer the "no gifts" approach.

[undercoverbrother]

Originally Posted by Party Elephant

I'm really disappointed by the lack of Sliver in this thread.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

this guy is bang on point

[nik-]

Make him open a investment account TFSA. Then force him to buy large market cap stocks with a reasonable dividend.

[Bandwagon In Flames]

My parents had a decent strategy with my siblings and I. It was a good way to enforce responsibility and going to college without them actually having to pay for said college.

Basically we had to pay for our own college because responsibility blah blah blah. They'd force us to put 50% of everything away in a savings account for school. If we attended college then we'd get free room on board until we graduated. If we didn't want to attend college that money would be for us to move out.

I was able to pay for my schooling without any help which was great. The downside is I had to work 30 hours a week through school to actually have spending money as well as tuition for the following semester. Definitely would of learned more in school if I didn't have to work so much, but it still worked out for me and both my siblings.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames

I was able to pay for my schooling without any help which was great. The downside is I had to work 30 hours a week through school to actually have spending money as well as tuition for the following semester. Definitely would of learned more in school if I didn't have to work so much, but it still worked out for me and both my siblings.

Would you really have learned more in school if you didn't have to work so much? Could it more be that you could have learned more in school if you didn't go out as much? I don't know what you did in university, obviously, but there are lots of hours in the week for school and work.

When I was in university I took a full course load and worked as a server/bartender at night and on weekends (about 35-40 hours per week). My planning and organizational skills quickly improved, and I learned how to prioritize. I was able to get everything out of school and work, but I didn't go out and socialize that much. If I didn't work, I don't see myself getting anything more out of my schooling. I might have even gone down, as I'd have more free time, and could push assignments and studying to a later date.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by squiggs96

Would you really have learned more in school if you didn't have to work so much? Could it more be that you could have learned more in school if you didn't go out as much? I don't know what you did in university, obviously, but there are lots of hours in the week for school and work.

When I was in university I took a full course load and worked as a server/bartender at night and on weekends (about 35-40 hours per week). My planning and organizational skills quickly improved, and I learned how to prioritize. I was able to get everything out of school and work, but I didn't go out and socialize that much. If I didn't work, I don't see myself getting anything more out of my schooling. I might have even gone down, as I'd have more free time, and could push assignments and studying to a later date.

I agree. I worked my way through school too.

[Coach]

Also worked through school, and volunteered and had a social life. I got through but my marks probably would have been better if I had more time.

For me, the attitude towards school is really the main factor. As a kid, coming from HS straight to Uni I didn't want school. It was just an extension of HS and was basically the worst part of the week. Now after leaving and looking back on it (and going back to school soon) I have a much different attitude towards the benefit of knowledge gained and how actually being engaged in school can make it *gasp* interesting.

[V]

I drank my way through University. I've never regretted it. To each their own, I guess.

[Drury18]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

I can kinda see where those parents are coming from. Kids get a stupid amount of gifts for birthdays and Christmas. It's a real struggle to stop grandparents, especially, from spoiling grandkids today. And we've noticed that most of the stuff the kids get is looked at once and then discarded. It's extremely wasteful, and can lead to kids not valuing what they do get.

Still, there are probably better ways of addressing the issue. You can ask people not to bring gifts to birthday parties. Or you can have a one-toy-in, one-toy-out policy.

For my daughter's birthday last year she held a birthday party asking for items to donate to a cat shelter instead of presents. Her choice, she decided she had too much "stuff" and would rather help out homeless cats.

We had 10 people at the birthday and my living room was FULL of cat litter, cat food, toys, paper towel, cleaning supplies and stuff for these cats. I was blown away. The kids she invited to the party had gift bags just stuffed with cat food and toys from the dollar store and my family pitched in Costco sized boxes of cat food and cat litter.

I still remember dropping it off to the shelter and them asking me 3 times if I was done unloading from my car yet. We took up a corner of their storage facility with everything friends and family gave.