I gave my 10-year-old niece $500 for her birthday. The catch is that it is a two-year ING Direct CD.

Now she wants to invest her $50 Christmas money from Grandma. My sister (her mom) is pretty sure that it's directly because of the CD.

Hey, I think this is a great success!

In other news, I've fully funded my 2008 Roth in 2008, paid off $7K in credit card debt, and made about $5K in 401k contributions.

I think that's great that you gave your neice 500 bucks. That's more than I plan on giving my relatives!
Congrats on paying off debts and funding your retirements.
2009 has to be better for you!

its the perfect way to teach, i know when i was younger i was always pumped to go to the bank with my mom for two reasons...

to see my interest updated and see the money i had earned by doing nothing

and the lollipops

ING does not provide lollipops, sadly.

The niece gets used books for birthday and Christmas for the rest of her life. But I will help her invest.

That is fabulous. What a great aunt you are!

I need to have my kids talk to their cousin. I recently discovered that at nine years old, she'd saved well over $600. My kids beg to go to the store if they find a nickel on the street.

You can train them to save money by simply giving them piggy banks where they could placed coins and wait till they receive full. You can also open bank accounts for them and let them deposit money using their allowance. It is recommended to show them how much they have got earned to keep them motivated.

We like Junior's Adventures from Dave Ramsey.

For older kid's an alternative to Monopoly is "Act Your Wage." We bought and use it for our community center. The kids love it!

Recommended Ages: 10 to 110 (Even though some 7 or 8 year olds usually want to play as well)
Language: English

•Keep your savings up and expenses down as you compete to be the first to yell, “I’m debt free!”
•Don’t let your emergency fund go below $1,000.
•Plan for expenses using the envelope system. You don’t want to have too much month left at the end of your money.
• Spend, Save and Give through the income and expenses of everyday living.
•Dave Says cards keep the wisdom coming.
•Pay off debt using your debt snowball.
•Whether you’re an accountant, teacher or lawyer, no matter if you’re upside-down or right-side up—with Dave Ramsey’s Act Your Wage!, it’s fun to win with money.


Also love the Junior Aventure's bank. We don't actually have one but It's easy to get three little piggy banks and label them "give, save, spend."

I'm sure there will be haters out there on DR but we like these to help educate kids about money.

While not a fan of threadomancy.

That's a nice piggy bank. Where did you find it?

After doing a search I found it on Amazon.

I also found this article about piggy banks for kids.

I'm fascinated by this topic, despite having no children of my own (yet).

Financial stability is such an important part of our culture/communities and nation, but to my knowledge it's not taught at all in k-12 public education. I know I certainly didn't learn anything about it in high-school or college!

My mother gave me my allowance, and then told me to put half of it in my piggy bank. Putting away 1/2 of my income has served me well since then!

Mr. Pop

http://www.plantingourpennies.com/