A Small Encouragement
Kids listen to everything. And just so you don’t think this post is about kids, I’m referring to how my daughter picked up on something regarding saving.
Just recently, we decided to open a savings account for my four-year old. A few days after I did, a packet with kid-friendly marketing material came that we shared with her. We didn’t really get into it, but we just explained that we’d opened an account for her and why. As these things tend to go, she seemed at best marginally interested.
That’s why it brought a smile to my face a couple of days ago when I picked her up from daycare. She showed me a dime she’d found.
Daughter: “Daddy, look what I found. A quarter!” [She’s too little to know which coin is which.]
Me: “That’s great!”
Daughter: “Can I put it in my savings account?”
Can you believe it?
We’d mentioned the account maybe twice. I fully realize that, for those without little kids, this story will likely lose some of its impact, but I thought this was a tremendous breakthrough. She’d gotten the idea about saving just through our family’s everyday discussions. I was so proud. Not because she understood saving so much as because she learned something important on her own without being formally ‘taught.’
It was a small encouragement.
December 12th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
I wouldn’t call such an overt confirmation of how you’re teaching your child your values a “small encouragement.” It seems to me that you’re doing a wonderful job and that she’ll most likely be financially far ahead of most of her friends as she grows older.
Congratulations!
December 12th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I wouldn’t call that a small encouragement, I would call it huge! Bravo!
December 12th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
That’s great! To her it’s probably a little fortune.
December 12th, 2007 at 5:59 pm
No matter what the “experts” say…
Parents still are their children’s most important role models!
Good job setting up the savings account for her, who knows what’s possible? A future little investor, maybe?
December 13th, 2007 at 5:21 am
Thanks for your kind words everybody! We appreciate them.
December 16th, 2007 at 11:29 pm
[…] it’s never too soon to start saving early! Just read:
A Small Encouragement from Advanced Personal Finance…his daughter is already getting a head start! […]
December 16th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
I agree with GeekMan that she’ll be far ahead of the rest of the pack as she gets older! That’s just too cute and amazing for her to have said and done that!
December 17th, 2007 at 7:32 am
December 27th, 2007 at 5:06 am
[…] KMC is encouraged that his daughter sees the value of small change. […]
January 11th, 2008 at 5:32 am
[…] you remember the excitement of seeing a shiny penny lying on the ground? Did a quarter seem like a fortune to you? My littlest brother in law may be past the penny counting stage. After all, he’s a […]