Q: How do you teach your children about spending money—especially around the holidays?

Amy Wagner SVP, Investor Relations and Global Communications Burger King Corp. Children: Enzo, 12, Paolo, 10 (pictured)

A: Teaching our children fiscal responsibility is more than just teaching them about money and budgets. To our family, it’s about understanding the value of the dollar, as well as being responsible and positive contributors to our community. My husband and I have always worked very hard to set good examples for our children, and to ensure that our family is well-cared for while being fiscally responsible. It’s especially important to me as a working mother to set a good example for my sons, so they understand that I am providing for my family and contributing to our collective future. It is essential for our children to appreciate that money is not easy to come by – you have to work hard for what you have. We’ve established household chores for our children so that they have the opportunity to earn an allowance, which enables them to purchase the things they want. Whether they take out the garbage, make their beds or bathe the dog, these tasks teach them responsibility and help them contribute to the betterment of our household. This way, they tangibly recognize that the things they want are not free and they must work hard to attain them. We instill in them the discipline and importance of saving their money versus the instant gratification of spending it right away. We have taught our sons to save their allowance for things or activities that are really “worth it” and important to them. We also believe that by helping those less fortunate, we get back so much more than what we give. So it’s very important to our family to give back to our community – especially now given current economic times. We make it a priority in our family to volunteer and donate to worthwhile organizations, particularly during the holiday season. Our sons give a portion of their saved allowance to our church and contribute to our family’s purchase of bicycles for needy children each December. By doing chores, earning an allowance and being positive contributors within our family and our community, we teach our boys discipline, responsibility as well as compassion and respect for others. And, I truly believe that the best way I can teach my boys about fiscal responsibility is through my own actions. After all, it’s not what you say, but what you do that your children will remember and emulate in their own lives.

Amy Marentic Planning Manager for North American Cars and Crossovers Ford Children: Chloe, 15, Nate, 14, Jack, 12 A: I was raised by a certified management accountant and bank manager who taught me lessons that my husband and I use today with our children. Every family member has a job. My job doing marketing for Ford. Chloe, Nate and Jack's job is to learn, contribute to the household and volunteer in the community. When they are doing their jobs, they earn privileges and spending money. One third of the money they earn goes into a savings account for college.  Money and things are earned. We have juggled between carpools, nannies and babysitters to transport our children to extracurricular activities for years. Now that Chloe is 16, we purchased a third car and she has taken over the nanny's responsibilities. The car came with a contract that detailed Chloe's duties and our expectations. We are actually spending less money, and as a working couple, this has significantly reduced our stress. You can't have everything. Prioritization and decision-making are important life skills. We use budgeting to help teach our children to master both. Back-to-school shopping is done with a budget for each child. The kids can make decisions to prioritize what is important to them.  Both Chloe and Nate decided to use their backpack from last year to allow them to spend more on clothes and stay within budget.  Kids can earn bonuses, too! Now that my children are teenagers, my husband and I tried an incentive as an experiment. About a year ago, we told all three that if they delivered a 4.0 GPA for a full semester, that they would earn a netbook. One of the three earned his laptop this summer after bringing home a 4.0 GPA. This is a win-win; Nate gets his computer, and hopefully a scholarship to go with it.  Nothing feels better than finding a great value. The Marentic's are all about value—getting more than we expected for a great price. In order to do this, we shop off-season (snowboard jackets in the summer, bathing suits in the fall), do outlet shopping and frequent Marshall's and TJ Maxx.  Give back. We work hard, but consider ourselves very blessed and I think it’s important for the kids to learn early on that they can make a difference in their community.  As a family, we participate in various charitable organizations, including spending time together volunteering, donating items to help families around the holidays and any other opportunities where our kids can have an active role in giving back to our community.      

Lesli Rotenberg SVP, Children’s Media PBS Children: Danielle, 13, Eva, 11    A: I’m not a psychologist, but I believe our attitudes about finances are greatly influenced by our parents’ attitudes and behavior. When I was growing up, my siblings and I dreaded Sunday nights because that was when our divorced, financially-strapped mom stressed out over paying the bills. My husband and I wanted our daughters’ experience to be different, so we’ve tried to make finances enjoyable, part of our everyday routine and meaningful for them.   In my line of work, I've been fortunate to have access to lots of child development research. One of the things I learned was how board games can play a big role in helping children develop their math, counting and finance skills. As a family, we love playing board games that use money and require decision-making. Monopoly is a favorite because it teaches about managing your money, investing in properties, paying rent and the art of negotiating with someone more powerful—like Mom.  We also like Life, where there is more emphasis on career and education choices. For many years, Zoo Tycoon was our kids’ favorite computer game. Kids can build their own zoo with exhibits and animals, and learn what it’s like to run a business. For games on the go, my children love playing cards.  Playing card games can help further math skills and we take them wherever we go— on vacation, to the airport, to restaurants.    

To apply this learning to their everyday lives, our kids started earning allowance when they were 7 years old. We have great conversations about the pros and cons of how they spend their money, but I’ve found it’s best to let them make mistakes they can learn from. When my youngest daughter Eva spent all her money on candy, she discovered it disappeared too quickly and she had nothing left (except a tummy ache).  At first, they kept their money in electronic toy ATM banks we gave them for Chanukah one year. Now they both have real bank accounts so they can learn about how to keep track of their finances and how interest works.   We try to involve the girls in decision-making and find it works best when the decisions are ones they care most about, where the consequences matter. For Dani’s bat mitzvah, we traveled to Israel (foreign travel is great for learning about currencies and exchange rates) so she knew the celebration with her friends back home would be modest. She decided to focus on a great DJ and cut costs on things like invitations and food. She is putting so much of herself into every decision that the outcome is much more meaningful than a costly event could ever be. I hope these positive experiences will pave the way for healthy finance attitudes as our daughters mature.