Raising Oklahoma, Part 2

Early on, when Lauren was about four and a half, Kelly and I decided to use a piggy bank that Lauren had gotten as a gift to begin teaching her about how to save money. We decided to teach Lauren to “feed the pig” every time that she received cash as a gift, or was given money to spend. Often, Lauren was given a gift of a ten or twenty dollar bill in a card. We taught Lauren that she had to “feed the pig” with half of the money received, the other half could be spent as she wished. Our thought was to use the money saved for an undetermined future use that could also be used as a financial lesson.

The first couple of times that Lauren “fed the pig” were fun and very successful. Lauren was excited to “feed the pig” and we saw her savings begin to take off. However, about a year later the newness wore off as she began to realize that she was losing out on shopping opportunity every time that she was given money. Worse, she started to become resistant to saving. Our dilemma soon became a regular struggle of wills. Lauren did not / could not see the importance of learning to save. By this time, she had saved over $350.00, and had a short laundry list of things that she wanted to buy. It was at this time that I decided to do something different and take her education to a higher level.

To be continued....