Spending is Learning!

Spending is how your kids learn! Saving is very important too… But greater lessons come from spending.

I know, I know… It is sometimes hard to watch them make a poor purchase. Either they are spending too much on something you know they will lose interest in… or they are spending good money on something you know is going to break in ten minutes once you get home.

That is part of the journey. Kids need to spend their money to learn. Furthermore, they need to make spending mistakes to learn. Don’t rescue them every time or control all their money decisions because it won’t help them to become good money managers in the future.

I remember when one of my boys spent his hard-earned $20 in the dollar store only to have every single thing break within the day. Lesson learned.

Another one of my boys saved for 6 months to buy an interactive robot. He REALLY wanted this robot. Well, he played with it for a month and now it is a decorative piece atop his dresser. Lesson learned.

I resisted stopping the purchases and I’m glad I did. They will be more thoughtful spenders as they grow older because of these experiences. Better to learn with a robot at 12 years old than a credit card as a young adult!