All tagged Saving
There has been quite an increase in questions over the last couple of weeks, which is not at all surprising given how much uncertainty is out there. And this week, having answered so many emails, plus I was finishing writing and recording my final podcast episode of this series, I’ve not quite gotten around to a new blog post. So this week I’ve decided to republish a post I wrote back in 2017 because I feel that it’s still very relevant today.
A few weekends ago a young guy was scanning my groceries and he was chatting away about his final exam and his finish date. When I asked him what he had planned for the summer, he said he will be working for about 35 hours a week. Although I was desperate to ask him the finer details of his financial life, I didn’t want to freak this young guy out so I kept my questions to myself. But my absolute main one was “what is a 16-year-old proposing to do with all the money they will make this summer?
There are no two ways about it. Overseas travel ain’t cheap. It’s awesome. But it sure ain’t cheap. We said to ourselves that 2019 would be a ‘stay at home’ year because we have bills coming up, there is not enough in our travel fund and we can’t afford a trip this year. But how have we managed to do it, despite saying we couldn’t afford it this year?
Those of you who have read my blog for a long time have been on a journey with me as I teach my daughter, now 11 years old, about how money works. Like every parent, I’m just making it up as I go along and I’m slowly working on her education around how money and life interact. So far, I’m pleased with how things are going and the time has come for her very first bank account.
My 16 year old nephew needed a bank account, so I said I would help him out if he wanted me to. An aunt who loves anything personal finance related could not bear leaving a 16 year old in charge because I knew that absolutely NOTHING would happen. So I devised him his very own “master banking plan”.
KiwiSaver is one of many investment tools you can put in your little kiddies tool box. I have a daughter who is now ten and I signed her up when she was born. It was darn hard holding her little cute pudgy hand and getting her to sign the paperwork I can tell you, but we got there in the end!
I’ve blogged before about ways I teach my daughter to be good with money and it remains a regular topic in our house. I’m always looking for opportunities to teach her more and I thought if you have children of your own then you might like to see how I go about it?
Tracking every cent makes me calculate each and every time whether we made a good decision with our money. Money is hard to earn and easy to spend so I want to know that I use it as wisely as possible and not look at my bank account and wonder where the hell it all went.
