Money Awareness

One of the things we did to get ready for our 18-year-old daughter to go away
to college in September was to get her a checking account with a debit card. I started
auto-depositing her allowance into this account and refusing to give her cash
or to pay for small things as I had before. This has done more than all of our
conversations and references to articles on
The Motley Fool to raise Jessica’s awareness of
how money works.

Yesterday, Jessica was going to a birthday party. She took $30 she had earned babysitting
the night before and went to the book store to buy something for her friend. She
came back upset, with two books and no money left. She had always bought two books for
friends’ birthdays but she was new to paying for them herself. Yesterday, when
she saw how little her money bought, she made the mental connection between work and
goods:

1 long night of babysitting = $30 = 2 books

I just smiled and did not say a word.