I have been thinking about how to teach Kelly and Christian about managing their money and investing for the future. We talk about money and its place in our life, but we have not yet put together a formal program. When I first considered homeschool, I read Raymond and Dorothy Moore’s book The Successful Homeschool Family Handbook. They highly recommend homeschooling families start a family business to help teach fiscal and general responsibility. I agree completely and plan to start a small family business within the next couple of years. In the mean time, I want to teach Kelly and Christian to manage and invest their money in a systematic way.
When Kelly receives money, she puts it into a little purse that she owns. When Christian receives money, he puts it into his piggy bank. They get money as gifts, do odd jobs, and have generally been proactive about finding ways to increase their nest eggs. A couple of months ago, Christian wanted to buy a remote control airplane, so we dumped all his money out on the bed and talked about what might be a good way to divide it up in a responsible way. Kelly participated and this is how we decided to divide up the money: