Ah- Johnny and I are on similar wavelengths today. We are thinking of MONEY! (Spoken as in the Pink Floyd song). I have been very upset with the current economy. It sucks. Seriously sucks. I am seeing people really switch out brand names for store brand. I see people buying less and less. I hear of people telling their kids to deal with the older clothes.

Jay and I are either lucky or we’ve made our own luck. I can never tell. I tend to claim that we are lucky. The truth is, I didn’t get my first full time out of college job until I was 25. Jay just turned 30 before he defended his PhD thesis. From 18-25 (30), we were both below the poverty line. We both learned how to stretch money, how to make things last, how to buy old, not new. How to make a car last as long as possible.

Now? We are in a position we never thought we would be. We have money. Not Bill Gates money or even enough to buy the $1M + houses in our area, but enough that we pay off our bills every month, we put a good sized chunk in savings and retirement and we can still choose to eat out 2 times a week (at lunch). We are not even getting the stimulus check this year, we make too much.

So why do I still go to consignment shops for the girls, and buy my new clothes on end of season sales? Why do I rarely buy myself something at full price? I think the basic answer is so we can save more for the days we need to money. Why waste it? To both Jay and I, money is a tool, not a goal. The goal is comfort and happiness. To be happy with who you are, not how much is in the bank.

To this end, we are teaching our girls about money. Money has three purposes and we explain to the girls that each week of allowance should be used for all three purposes: 

1. Savings. Always save some money first. You never know when you will need it.
2. Spending. Why horde money? It’s a tool, use it.
3. Charity or Tzdakah. You have a tool that you can use to help others. Do that. Help people when you can. Not because it makes you look good, but because it is the right thing to do.

I recently took the girls out to a toy shop. They were allowed to use X amount from their piggy banks. At first, Soleil complained, "But I have more than that in my bank!"   "Yes", I said, "but if you spend it all, what if you need the money for something else?"  She thought about this and agreed to only spend X. We spent about 40 minutes looking and deciding. In the end, I agreed to give the girls each $3 more than their limit because toys cost more than I expected. I am hoping that they learned something about cost, saving and spending….

Johnny today asked about if we feel "richer" than our parents. My basic answer is Hell yeah!, But does this mean our children will be spoiled? That is another question for another day.