Grasshopper New Media Presents...

Editor’s note: This is the third article of our new feature: Kid Concepts - These are essays written by kids, giving parents an opportunity to view the world as seen through the eyes of children, not adults. Please welcome Grey Gallagher to GNMParents. According to his mom, “Grey is a nine year old country bumpkin who likes to read, run, and raise chickens, but he is happiest when he is making other people laugh.” Today, he gives us a view on finances, and what’s important to a cross-section of American youth:

How a Nine Year Old Would Spend $50:

1. Go to an amu$ement park
2. Buy an XBox (ju$t kidding, you could never do that with fifty buck$)
3. Crui$e to Florida (not even close!)
4. $pend it at the arcade
5. Upgrade my little $i$ter for a big brother
6. Buy $ilver coin$ for my collection

My Mom probably wouldn’t really let me do any of those things except buy silver coins because they are another way I do savings.

What I really do with my money is this: On the first day of the month I get a salary. My Mom says I don’t really deserve it but she gives it to me because I’m cute. She really gives it to me so I can learn to start paying for things myself and save money which I already liked to do anyway. The first thing I do when I get the money is to give away 10% to charity. Then I put 20% into my savings account. The great thing about my savings account is that my parents made a promise that they would double anything I put into it but I can’t take the money out until I go to college. If I do then they get their half of it back. I’ve made a promise with myself that I won’t take any money out until I do go to college because I don’t like giving away free money!

So most of you probably know what a checkbook looks like. The rest of my salary goes into my checkbook but it’s not a checkbook from a regular bank. It’s from Mom First Credit Union, MFCU. My Mom started MFCU so that we wouldn’t lose our money or spend it all every chance we got. I keep track of all the money I get in my checkbook register. Then when I want to buy something I just ask my Mom. If she thinks it a good idea then she says, “Ok” and she pays for it while I subtract the money from my checkbook. She says when I’m twelve she will let me decide for myself how to budget and spend my money.

My Mom doesn’t give me a salary to spend on junk. I have to buy important things like new shoes, socks, a racquet (and I don’t mean making a racket), scouting events, birthday presents, books and all kinds of stuff. We like to go to garage sales where I spend some money so I guess I do spend my money on junk. Useful junk, my Mom calls it. But the truth is, I don’t really spend that much money. I put most of it in the bank so I can double it and get lots more money. I love money. It’s my favorite subject!

[tags]kids, parents, children, money, finances, financial, cash, budget, spending, allowance, salary[/tags]
Photo graciously provided by the author, through a Creative Commons license, some rights reserved