Teach Children to Save Day

Caroline

Today is National Teach Children to Save Day .

I could use this day. My stepdaughter, a college sophomore, recently asked if she could close her savings account. "All I do is transfer money out of it," she reasoned.

Funny. Sad. So true.

To her credit, my stepdaughter is a fairly frugal person . She doesn't shop a lot or have an expensive coffee habit . She's simply a college kid struggling along on a limited income. And with online banking, it's harder to consider a savings account untouchable. A couple clicks and the money is out of savings and into checking.

So how do I help her learn to better manage her money? She's definitely got savings goals in mind—she dreams of taking a trip to Europe  and going on a warm spring break vacation.

It's probably a matter of making her savings goals more concrete—helping her determine how much she'll actually need for one of those trips, and then working with her to set up a specific plan to reach that goal. Once she knows exactly how much she needs to put into savings each week, she might think twice before transferring money out. Hopefully this plan will kick in over the summer when she can work more hours.

Teaching college kids to save can be tough—most of them are really only earning enough to get by. My 2-year-old, on the other hand, is great at saving. He considers it his v. important job to collect loose change around the house and drop it into the family piggy bank.

Hmmm. I wonder how long before he learns how fun it is to take money OUT of a piggy bank?