Young child saving money WWYD

[AZMermaid]

Like most kids, my 3.5 and 2 year olds have piggy banks. My 3.5 year old son probably has $50-75 in there (we put some money from returned Christmas and Birthday presents when he was younger in there, I would take a wild guess he has about $20 or so loose change) and my daughter probably has $20 or so (second child problems ).

My son got a hold of the idea a few months back that this money is being saved for our upcoming trip to Disneyland (which is 10+ months away). He knows we are going in a lot, a lot, a lot of days- when Sissy is almost 3. I realize he has no real concept of when we are going, but probably every two weeks or so, he mentions his bank and how he is saving for a toy in Disneyland. Sometimes he says he is saving it for the Mickey Boat, because I told him it costs a lot of money and we have to save our money to go again one day, but generally.... it's his Disneyland fund. He is super excited to add found change into it.

So, my question is- would you let him bring all the money in the bank- like $75 or so, or just pull out $20, or maybe what the change amounts to? He will be almost 4.5 when we go. Last time we went when he was 2y 3m, he picked out a remote control train that was about $20 and when we went on the cruise at 2y 10m, he picked out a Buzz Lightyear keychain and a Mickey watch. So, I can't imagine him really needing $75, but I want to encourage/reward his efforts. This is the first time he will be buying something with "his money."

I will buy each kid a shirt, a hat, a pin and a toy so it isn't like I am slave laboring my 3 year old for his souvenirs but I want to encourage that saving for something special mindset.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

I'd bring $20 and if there was something he really wanted and it cost more just lay out the difference (or give him a loan if you prefer till you get home).

 

[Kristina4109]

Our last trip, my daughter decided to save all the money in her piggy bank. I thought it was going to be sweet; she could buy a little toy or something. Kid managed to save $69!

I've been trying to get her to do the same for our upcoming trip but she's been distracted by other things (little trips to Disneyland, arts shows, school book fair, museums) so I don't know how much she has in there. But I think it's a GREAT idea to get kids to understand the power of saving for something special.

 

[nene0182]

Our last trip, my daughter decided to save all the money in her piggy bank. I thought it was going to be sweet; she could buy a little toy or something. Kid managed to save $69! I've been trying to get her to do the same for our upcoming trip but she's been distracted by other things (little trips to Disneyland, arts shows, school book fair, museums) so I don't know how much she has in there. But I think it's a GREAT idea to get kids to understand the power of saving for something special.

That's how my son was for our DCL trip last year. He ended up with over $100. I'm not quite sure where he's at for this year so far

 

[MrsPete]

Not a popular opinion, but we don't do souveniers. It seems that they can take over the trip. When the kids know they have money in their pocket, they want to rush through the experiences to get to the shop, then choosing is a lengthy experience.

When we said, "NO MORE", we found that our trips became more pleasant. We focus on the experience and the family interactions. And the kids don't care.

 

[kymom99]

I don't think it is ever too early to teach your child to save money in a bank. I would tell him he can spend x number on a toy and he has to put the same amount in the real bank. My son is 14 and he has over $3000 saved from putting some birthday money, etc. in the bank since he was very small.

 

[tinkerone]

my thought would be to take it all and use it as a learning game. 'you have xx dollars and that costs zz dollars. you can buy it and maybe you can put the rest back in your bank so next time you have money as well. that's a very big boy plan.'
if approached right this will teach a child the concept of money value as well as what you can get for your money. I have a banking back ground and started teaching these things the first time my oldest said 'just put your card in the machine and you can get all the money you want' after I had told him I had no money left. lol.
jmo. good luck with it all and have a great trip.

 

[chris31997]

Not a popular opinion, but we don't do souveniers. It seems that they can take over the trip. When the kids know they have money in their pocket, they want to rush through the experiences to get to the shop, then choosing is a lengthy experience.

When we said, "NO MORE", we found that our trips became more pleasant. We focus on the experience and the family interactions. And the kids don't care.

Which can be an issue, I like your idea.

We do a variation: we shop on one day only. The kids can look, but we/they won't buy until the souvenier day. It helps to minimize the "I want" and they have to carry their purchases


Back to what the OP asked, I would go with $20-30

 

[Gracie09]

When our girls empty their piggy banks a couple months ago, they had $140. Half went to a savings account. The other half they split and each bought a $35 gift cars for Disney. So when we go if they want something above the usual one item we get them they can purchase it. But we usually don't let them until we have been to every park. That way they see everything

 

[pryncess527]

my thought would be to take it all and use it as a learning game. 'you have xx dollars and that costs zz dollars. you can buy it and maybe you can put the rest back in your bank so next time you have money as well. that's a very big boy plan.'
if approached right this will teach a child the concept of money value as well as what you can get for your money. I have a banking back ground and started teaching these things the first time my oldest said 'just put your card in the machine and you can get all the money you want' after I had told him I had no money left. lol.
jmo. good luck with it all and have a great trip.

Ditto. I'd let him take it all, let him make some good and bad decisions, and then learn from those choices. It's a good opportunity while he's young enough to not suffer from those bad choices in a serious way.

 

[msmama]

I think 3.5 is still too young to REALLY get what he's saving for. In his mind, he may be paying for the whole trip with his money!!

That said, if it were me, I probably would take $20 or so with me and if there was something I didn't want to buy I'd tell him he could use his own money (my son suddenly decides he didn't want it that badly when it comes to spending his own money). If it's more than the $20 I'd pitch in (or loan) him the rest - if it's something I'm okay with him having.

I'm lucky that my son is a fantastic window shopper. He LOVES the gift shops (like it's his favorite part) but rarely asks for anything. That way, if he does ask I know it's something he REALLY wants. Even then it's not hard to convince him to take another day to think things over.

 

[sk!mom]

He's so young. I would open an actual savings account as soon as he has enough. Maybe online for a better interest rate. Then I would tell him that he gets one toy at Disney and I would pay for it.

 

[sk!mom]

Not a popular opinion, but we don't do souveniers. It seems that they can take over the trip. When the kids know they have money in their pocket, they want to rush through the experiences to get to the shop, then choosing is a lengthy experience.

When we said, "NO MORE", we found that our trips became more pleasant. We focus on the experience and the family interactions. And the kids don't care.

This is how we vacation as well. The trip, the experiences, the photos is what we focus on.

The being said, if we run across something truly unique, special, perfect we might buy it. In Hawaii last summer, for example, on the way down from the top of Diamond Head there was a guy selling "I climbed Diamond Head" shirts. I joked back and forth with him about price and when he dropped it to $10 each my DS29 bought all 4 of us one. We weren't shopping just resting and enjoying a conversation with a friendly local. We all also bought another shirt at the International Market and then DD bought a beautiful Koa bracelet. I think that was it and the bracelet was the only thing that DD17 actually looked for every time we saw any.

At Disney there isn't much to fit that criteria so we rarely buy anything at this point.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

I don't think it is ever too early to teach your child to save money in a bank. I would tell him he can spend x number on a toy and he has to put the same amount in the real bank. My son is 14 and he has over $3000 saved from putting some birthday money, etc. in the bank since he was very small.

I agree with this. My parents did this with me and I'm doing it with my kids too. Whenever we got birthday money we kept some out to buy something fun and then banked the rest. Most times it was a 50/50 split, sometimes 25/75 - spend/save. When I grew up I had quite nice savings account. It went towards the down payment on my first house.

I worked for a bank when I got out of college and saw teens buy cars with their birthday money savings accounts, others use it to help pay for college expenses. It is never too early to teach kids to save for something big!

 

[Pesky]

I'd just pull out some but not all. He still doesn't "get" the idea of spending probably. I tell mine that there are 3 buckets and each should have something in there -- long-term saving (like buying their own car when they are older or a really expensive item), spending (short-term saving) and giving (which can be to charities or gifts for others). I will say DS doesn't quite get it but DD understands totally.

 

[ruadisneyfan2]

He's so young. I would open an actual savings account as soon as he has enough. Maybe online for a better interest rate. Then I would tell him that he gets one toy at Disney and I would pay for it.

I agree. Our kids have a kids savings acct with Capital One 360, formerly ING. Ds17 also has a checking account with debit card. He can log in and transfer $ back and forth and when I log in, I can see all of his transactions. Once he's 18, I'm out of his account.
I don't think ds13 is quite ready for the debit card and would probably empty his savings account if he had one.

 

[queenbetsey]

way back when like the early 90's Disney channel had a show called Under The Umbrella Tree. They had a great episode on kids saving. My older kids used that for years and now that they are adults they use the same idea. It went like this, three jars, one for long term goal one for short term goals and one for immediate wants. they had the kid use a pict of what they wanted on the long term and mid term goals. they don't really have to be big things like we adults would pick. for my one daughter she wanted doll that was like 30 dollars that she saw in the Disney store catalog so that was her long term, and then a video for the mid term and the immediate one was for when the ice cream man came down the road or a small treat or toy, now she and her husband are saving for a down payment for a house in one account, and a reliable used car in the other mid term account. so far so good

 

[uccats97]

way back when like the early 90's Disney channel had a show called Under The Umbrella Tree. They had a great episode on kids saving. My older kids used that for years and now that they are adults they use the same idea. It went like this, three jars, one for long term goal one for short term goals and one for immediate wants. they had the kid use a pict of what they wanted on the long term and mid term goals. they don't really have to be big things like we adults would pick. for my one daughter she wanted doll that was like 30 dollars that she saw in the Disney store catalog so that was her long term, and then a video for the mid term and the immediate one was for when the ice cream man came down the road or a small treat or toy, now she and her husband are saving for a down payment for a house in one account, and a reliable used car in the other mid term account. so far so good

PNC bank uses a similar plan for student accounts. One spend, one reserve and one save. My son uses this and really likes it.

 

[Disney Khaleesi]

I consider myself a very conscious person when it comes to money spending. I save a lot, but only spend it for big things like comic conventions or trips. I think this had to do a lot with my parents really letting me learn from a very young age what money could or could not do. I would save and save and save, and we'd always bring the full amount that I saved (or whatever I decided to bring.) My parents always held onto the money, but they let me pick out what I wanted. I eventually learned that way what was worth my money and what wasn't. Now, I rarely spend my money on anything. I actually surprised myself by having over $300 saved for my upcoming trip, and I doubt I'll spend even half of that. But I'll still bring all of it. So I say bring all the money, and dole it out. Let him make the choices, but be a firm hand.

 

[rdevine10]

On our trips we usually let the kids buy one souvie the last day of the trip. That way they have seen "all" the stuff all week and make a choice what the favorite item was. (Budget is around $20- $30). Then they dont come home with too much and it doesnt cost a fortune and they arent scouring every gift shop thinking they will get something.