Teaching Kids About Saving and Delayed Gratification

Teaching kids about saving emphasizes the importance of delayed gratification and understanding money management.

### Teaching Kids About Money: The Concepts of Giving, Saving, and Spending
* 👶 When discussing "give, save, spend" with young children, the focus on saving centers around teaching them the concept of **delayed gratification** rather than retirement.
* 👧 With three kids aged 9, 7, and 19 months, the emphasis is on **understanding the basics of saving** before delving into more complex ideas like **retirement and work**.
* 💰 The oldest child is nearing the age where a savings account will be opened to teach her about **interest and how saving can help money grow**, especially since she enjoys math.
* 🐷 The youngest child has learned to save using two piggy banks, which became a fun exercise when they counted the birthday money totaling **$636** together.
* 🏦 The decision was made to deposit this money into a custodial account, enabling the child to see her money "**get to work**" earning interest.
* 🤔 However, this required further discussions about the concept of **money being out in the world working for her**, as she initially struggled with the idea of her **empty piggy banks**.
* 💡 This experience highlights a valuable lesson for both children and adults: sometimes saving and managing money is not about what is physically accessible, but rather about **understanding the broader financial picture**.

When you say "give, save, spend" with your young kids, where do you have them save? Saving towards retirement or just teaching them the concept of delayed gratification?

I thought that was a good question. What do you think?

That's great, so yeah, I've got uh, three kids: 9, 7, and then uh, 18 months or 19 months, somewhere in that ballpark. Uh, and so for them, that 19-month-old, it's really just giving it all.

Always got me: "Why don't you just say one? Well, well, cuz he's older than one; he's almost two, right?"

It's like, "Right, why you say almost two? He's almost two." I've got an almost two-year-old. Um, so when I talk about "give, save, spend," specifically that "save" part, I really am honing in on deferred gratification. That's what

I want them to understand. Now, I could talk to them about the concept of retirement, but man, I'm still working on talking to them about the concept of work, you know what I mean? So I don't want them to think about getting done with work; I want them

Deferred to some point in the future. Now, my oldest is getting to the point that, in the next couple of years, we'll probably open a savings account at the bank so I can start teaching her

about interest and how, when she saves her money, it can work for her and make more money. She's my little math-minded girl; she's going to love that concept, and I'm so excited. But I

have to get the basics down first. I have to get the behavior down before I can get the logistics down. So, for me and my kids right now, that's how we're focusing on saving. I will tell you—my own experience on this is that my

youngest got to the point where she had two piggy banks because whenever she got birthday money from grandparents or whatever, she just stuffed the bills in the piggy banks.  And we came up with

this idea: 'Hey, one weekend, let's count the money and do something with it.' So it was a great exercise; we had fun counting the money, and it came to $636. Then I convinced my youngest,

I was like, 'Let's put this in your custodial account so you can actually earn some money on it.' It was very fun.  She was like, 'Great, the money's going to get to work!' And then there was a period of time I had to explain to

Her, you know, because she'd be like, "My, my bank's so empty now because now these piggy banks are so full, I mean, practically stuff's coming out of the top."  Had nothing in it anymore, so we had to have some additional discussions about how the money is actually out there doing

something, but she tangibly couldn't touch it anymore. And there's probably something to be learned about that, because that's, that's kind of a thing in adult life, too.  Is that, I mean, I think about like this firm: you come here and we're managing, you know, over a billion dollars

of assets, but if you came here, we have no money. I mean, there's no money; it's not like this. So for all you robbers out there, don't come here. But that is, but that's kind of like, you come to my house, I might, I might have enough

money to buy Girl Scout cookies, but I don't have so much. There is probably a lesson with your children on that: you know, sometimes buying and saving is not about what you can touch, because there's a teachable concept there as well.

THIS Is How We Teach Our Kids About Money!

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The Money Guy Show

Question about where to have young kids save money: for retirement or to teach delayed gratification.

The speaker has three children (9, 7, and 19 months) and focuses on deferred gratification with them.

The focus is on teaching deferred gratification rather than the concept of retirement.

The oldest child will soon learn about interest and savings accounts.

The youngest child used piggy banks, and they counted the money ($636) and put it in a custodial account.

Lessons learned from the custodial account experience

The child had to understand that the money was working even though it wasn't physically accessible.

Analogy to managing assets: the firm manages billions but doesn't physically hold that money.

The speaker suggests a lesson about saving not always being about tangible things.

Conclusion on teaching children about saving

There's a teachable concept about saving not always being about what you can touch.