Finance by Kids

I am saving money to buy legos and a Fitbit. I also want to buy some stuffed animals.

My dad saves for birthdays, family stuff, work stuff, and other important stuff.

We’ve learned about sharing since preschool. If you have a little extra, share!

This doesn’t mean throw your money around, although donating is an awesome way to help others and yourself. 

Once we went to our neighbor’s house for a Christmas dinner. They also invited a family that had lived in a refugee camp before coming to the United States. As we gathered around the table, we started talking about popcorn. They kids in this family had never tasted popcorn!

When the oldest daughter in the family, Guidance, saw the kernals to make popcorn, she said “Maize.” I wanted to pop the popcorn right there so she could taste it. Instead, my brother and I ran home (only 8 houses away) to find one last package of microwavable popcorn in the pantry. With the package in hand, we hurried back to our neighbor’s house. 

We placed the package in the microwave; Guidance was amazed at to heart the kernals “pop.” But to my dismay we burned it. Oh no! 

“Don’t eat the black ones,” I said. “They’re not good.”

The kids in this refugee family loved the popcorn they ate all of it, included the black ones. They were okay with it. They loved it. 

The father of this family began to speak of where they came from. It sounded horrible - the conditions, how they were treated, and so on. Then, in broken english, he said, “So to come here where people want you to come to them - it is good.”

So next time I have some “popcorn”, per se, share it. Invite someone less fortunate to dinner, donate clothes, and give your extras to someone who will appreciate, possibly much more than you. 

I was at my friend’s house. I was pulling his wagon and the wheel fell off!!!

I had to buy them a new one. My Mom and Dad told me I had to replace what I broke. I searched for a new wagon and it cost $80. I had nowhere near that amount. So my Dad helped me find a used one on Facebook Marketplace for only $20, just 8 miles away. 

If I bought the new wagon, I would have lost $80. But I only lost $20 buying the used one. I saved $60. But the used one was very dirty. I cleaned it and made it look really good. Then I took it to my neighbor and he was happy. 

I learned that it is never good to break someone else’s stuff. I lost $20 to replace it. But that was better than $80. I had to take $20 from my budget that I was hoping to use on something else. But I know it was the right thing to replace what i broke. 

In our family every child gets a dish job. They are responsible to do that same job every day. For example, I clear the table and the counters. This arrangement teaches us to work and it keeps the kitchen clean.

This can be the same with my budget. When I make sure every dollar has a job, my budget gets “clean”. I feel confident in the money I spend because I have given every dollar a job, and I know that the money I spend is supposed to be used for that reason. 

A budget is meant to organize my money. But how can I fully use my budget to its full extent if I put all my money in one place? A budget helps me decide my priorities. And then I can give every dollar a job based on those priorities. Sure, putting all my money in one place to one category/priority is giving it a job, but I can do better than that! I choose my priorities and then give every dollar a separate job, helping to get the whole kitchen clean :-)

If all of my brothers and sisters has clearing as their dish job, the counter would get clean. But nothing else would. So spread your money around to all of your priorities, and give every dollar a job.

Babylon! The richest city in the world. A place of opportunity, where all men have the capacity to make something great of their lives. Staggering towards this great city are three men, chained together by circumstance, and yet profoundly different by character. In this paper I hope to highlight each of these three men, their choices, their consequences, and most importantly, how it matters to us. Because at the end of the day, their paths are our paths, and their decisions can have impact in our lives.

First is Zabado. His greatest ambition is to never work a day in his life. He hopes to take the easiest jobs, and will shun exertion in any of its shapes. He, along with so many others, remains a brick carrier for the rest of his life. Second is Pirate. He despises work, but instead of seeking to avoid it like Zabado, he fights it head on. Bitter and resistant, he ends up beaten by his masters for refusing to do that which is his due.

Third is Meddigo. His best friend is work, and although he faces trying circumstances, he is convinced he can pull through. He manages to get a decent job, and works his way up to being a foreman. His path lead him to happiness and satisfaction.

Like so many others, we can try to shortcut our way through life. We can become bitter and angry when circumstances turn foul, and life doesn’t seem like what it was meant to be. Or, we can accept work as our benefactor, the best friend we have, and turn our circumstances into the prosperity we desire.

A sacrifice is where you give up something now to get something better later. I’m going to share three things I’ve sacrificed.

1. My family is on a sugar challenge and the rules are no sugar in the first two ingredients. We can’t have sugar for seven months but we have five cheat days. By making this sacrifice I will be able to earn $50

2. My mom let us go to Wendy’s and buy a kid’s meal. My sisters decided to use their own money to buy baconater fries, I decided not to spend the $2.70. I’d rather save it for a big Lego set. 

3. Every time my sister goes to the store she wants to buy gum or a bag of BBQ chips. But I would rather save that money and buy something better later. 

These are the three things I gave up for something better - because I would rather save up for a big Lego set!

I love ice cream! I love slowly licking ice cream off a delicious ice cream cone. 

When I eat an ice cream cone, I can slowly savor the flavor, or I can eat it as fast as possible! But I choose to savor the flavor.

When budgeting we can choose to put all our money into one thing, or we can separate out our money and start preparing for the future. 

Savoring the flavor of an ice cream cone doesn’t mean I have more ice cream. Although it does make the delicious taste last longer. 

Again, this is the same with money! As we choose to savor our money, we will make the money last

In my family, we love fruit. Specifically apples. We have a three-tiered metal fruit bowl on our black table. After every grocery store run, it is my sister’s job to put away the fruit. She arranges the oranges, bananas, lemons, and green, yellow and red apples on the fruit stand.

Now picture our fruit stand a week later. The few apples that are left have bruises, the bananas are gone, and the last peach is shriveled. What to do?

And then I remember the apples that have been stored in the fridge. I open its door and pull out the drawer. I take out a green apple, and cut it up. A slice goes into my mouth, and it’s so crisp, and cold, and juicy!

This is comparable to saving money for those “end-of-the-week” things. My mom says that she was way more guilty about Christmas when she and my dad didn’t put away money each month for it. Since, she and my dad have had fun picking out Christmas presents for us.  

My brother, who is serving an LDS mission, says he wishes he had paid for it all himself. I am putting away savings for this.

What crops up? Christmas, weddings, birthdays, hospital trips, registering your car, paying for your child’s overdue fees at the library, taxes, HOA subscriptions…

Put aside a little money for those things that crop up, and put a little thought into how you can prepare for the future.  So that next time you need an apple, it will be all the sweeter.

I am only 12, so there isn’t much I know about investing. But I have learned that I need to take care of my money. I had 5 dollars in the back pocket of my jeans. When I changed out of them, I forgot to remove the 5 dollars. The next day when my mom was doing the laundry she found my five dollars in the washing machine. I didn’t lose my money, but I sure could have. So this ties together a couple of laws about protecting your earnings and investing them wisely.