Give, Save, Spend

Becky and I have recently started to teach Nathan (age 4) and Elise (age 2) about money. Of course I mean Biblical wisdom regarding the wise stewardship of this God-given resource, and also practical money-handling advice, like that offered by Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace, Jr.

Today was really the first time we brought Elise in on the teaching. I think she understands the most important part. Let's see if you agree... But first, I need to tell you about the our Three Envelope System.

1.) We are teaching the kids that all money comes form God and it ultimately belongs to him. So the first thing we do with any money is give some back to him. This goes into the Ramsey-provided "Give" envelope.

2.) The next envelope that we need to put a chunk of the money God gives us is "Save." At first we told the kids this could be for Big Ticket Item toys they want, but on second thought that is not really what I want them to learn about savings. So we have since said this is for "a car, or college, or something big we need in an emergency."

3.) Third chronologically (and I hope eventually the kids see that its chronology determines the priority) is the "Spend" envelope. We allow each child almost total freedom to decide how to spend this. Right now, from Christmas money, and helping me with mailings I do for work, each child has about $30.00 in "Spend".

The first time they got a big chunk of money, I started to explain the importance of the "first fruits" idea. And, being the Bible-steeped guy I am, I dutifully shared with the little ones that we thus needed to pull out 10%. But Becky then had a great idea. Since the dollar amount they typically get is small, and in whole dollars, the calculation of 10% looks small to Nathan and Elise's little eyes, that really see nickels as more important than dimes, because they are bigger (and dollar bills are not as exciting to them as are any coin, because somehow they don't see value in the paper as much as the metal. Maybe all the talk of investing in Gold is initiated by toddlers...?) I digress. Becky's great idea was to, each time a child gets any money, split up their total into the three envelopes in this way:

• 25% to "Give"
• 25% to "Save"
• 50% to "Spend"

Not only is this easier to show the kids where the money is going, it helps to underscore the point of priority. I pray they might, as long as possible, continue to live on a budget close to this...

So today we really got Elise started on this system for the first time. After I split up her dollars and coins into three envelopes, and after praying with her about where to give, what to save for, and how to spend it, we shared a need for a young boy at our church. There is a family whose three children all have varying degrees of a disease and they have financial needs the church is taking a collection for this Sunday. I barely got through the first sentence or two of explaining this and Elise announced:

"I will give all this to him!" as she pushed her Give envelope toward me. Inside was over $7.00. So at her very first opportunity to freely give, she made a gift worth 25% of her net worth.

Given that I myself am called to help others excel in the grace of giving, and to encourage generosity, it is hard to put into words the sense of pride and excitement I had at seeing her joy as she responded to the need. TGBTG!