[MrMom]

Wife and I have been piecing together the DR plan from the library (no official FPU classes attended) and our 10 yr old has been asking questions and hearing our talks and even has been a part of our decisions envelope wise for food entertainment etc.

I checked into the FPU jr thing and found it on walmart.com for about $13 i think with shipping and tax it was $16 total, ordered it up for her and it came yesterday.

Wife and I went thru it last night (after we paid off 2 credit cards and made a few more budget adjustments!) and are excited about putting this into action with her.

We had her watch the dvd where DR had his kids explain their roles in saving and whatnot and she's actually pretty good about saving already, she has $141 in her savings acct, and that's decent vs most kids getting $30 for a birthday or something and just blowing it...

She isn't saving for anything in particular at this moment, and she does do some basic chores everyday, but we are going to start that commissions chart for her and give her some goals to work for there (having that on the fridge should be motivating).

And she can feel more part of this whole process we are all learning just on her scale, so by the time she is 18 hopefully she will be a lot smarter than us!

If you have experience with the FPU jr. class with your kids I would love to hear about it!

Bill

 

[krbshappy71]

I wish I had received some financial guidance as you are giving your daughter. I was a "saver" to the extreme, oh ya, my allowance, birthday money, Christmas money, you name it. I left home at 18 with 4k in the bank. It was gone in 6 months.

No joke.

Years later, same pattern, tightwad-splurge tightwad-splurge.

I'm kinda sorta on the Ramsey track now (see my signature) but every day is a struggle against old ways.

Good job, Parents!

 

[mateosbaby]

We have always stressed saving with our kids, from their birth on. We have always put their money in their own savings accounts from birth on. When they start earning allowance, then we start dividing up their gift money and allowances into 10% tithe, 50% savings, and 40% spending. (I personally think that at their ages 40% spending is WAY too much - my oldest is only 8, though. LOL) My oldest has about $1500 or so in her savings account, plus quite a bit of spending money she hasn't spent yet. The other 3 kids have less than her in savings, according to their ages compared to her. I *think* they understand why we do it this way, and I try to show them how I divide it (although sometimes I just have to do it myself because we're in a hurry - bank is 45 min. away - long story). I do need to get better at that...

 

[bumplett]

Bill, What do you think of the Dave Jr. as a whole?

Do you think it's too young for your 10 yr old? Or is it right in line with what she's able to do?

I ask because I was eyeballing it myself, but I can't bring myself to spend the money on it if it's something I can do myself - or if it's pretty much what we already do....

My kids earn dominos for chores, etc. This was the easiest way to keep up with it - Say little j takes it upon himself to help me bring all the groceries in from the car, he earns a domino - it's up to him to hang on to it and keep it safe until Sunday - then they can bring me all their dominos & cash them in.

One domino equals $1

I wanted to do poker chips, but I didn't have any - and haven't found any at the thrift store - I still think poker chips would be cool because each kid could have a different color -

anyway, I like our system because it teaches them to keep up with their dom. & not lose them -

after having the actual money - they can store it someplace safe until there is enough to take to the bank - and they have to save at least 25% but more if they choose to.

I was also eyeballing the teen homeschooling unit - but I'd LOVE to actually SEE it first.

 

[jills55]

We got the Financial Peace Jr kits for our kids for Christmas. My kids are 9 and 6. It has been working great for them. They love getting money to put in their envelopes and I am amazed at how much they are saving. The envelopes are really nice, they are high quality and easy to use. I also really like the chore chart. It has a place where you can put deductions too. We started taking money away for fighting with your brother, getting in trouble at school (usually for excessive talking!) and not listening. It has worked really well!

We also taught them a really important debt lesson early on. We went to a basketball game and they each wanted to buy a souvenir. We told them we would loan them the money from their allowance but they wouldn't get anything the next 2 weeks. Of course they were fine with that in the heat of the moment. Once it came time to get their money, we handed it all out, then demanded it back. We saw those kids go into gazelle mode right then! They ran around the house looking for coins, grabbing old piggy banks that had a bit of money in them, etc. They got their loans paid off that day and have never asked for an advance again.

I do think that it is geared towards younger kids, especially if you buy the Jr. books. Those I would not have bought, but they were on sale. And actually my kids use them as bases for their lego creations, so I guess they are getting used

 

[MrMom]

Bill, What do you think of the Dave Jr. as a whole?

Do you think it's too young for your 10 yr old? Or is it right in line with what she's able to do? <snip>

You know I think this is just right for her in terms of age and ability to do it, she seems motivated and I think the nicer board and envelope makes it more real and official (vs our basic white envelopes).

It was onsale at walmart.com with cheap shipping so figured let's grab it and give it a try, she seems very motivated by her new dry erase savings and commissions boards and her fun new envelopes.

I do feel a bit bad as we haven't sat down with her to go over commission stuff yet, just been crazy busy this last few weeks with taxes life etc, but it is on our plan here to get things really rolling for her as she has a summer trip coming up and that too will be motivation for her to save up for that to have spending money etc.

Seems pretty straight forward you could do the basics of it without their fancy envelopes and the dry erase boards, just wanted something kinda official for her figured it might help her focus more on it, but I love the domino or poker chip ideas based on the same principals!!!!!!

Either way we are raising our kids with better methods of money management so we all win on that one!!!!!!

Bill