Unexpected Teaching Moments: When life throws a 5 year old a financial curveball

As promised, I said I would update on our trip to the Toy Store, Credit Union and Church. On Sunday, we attended church and Ku got to fill out his tithing envelope and give his $3.00 tithe to the church. He was really excited about being able to drop his tithe into the box.

After church we took a trip to Toys R Us and quickly found the Game section where he found the Ninjago game he had chosen to save for. However, the price on the shelf was more than what was online. The price had previously been $24.99 on the Toys R Us website. In the store the price was $33.99. When I looked up the price online on my phone while at the store, the price was then $29.99 online. I asked a sales associate if they would honor the web price and she said that they would. However, Ku had only put aside $26.00 for his purchase so far and would still be short a little over $5.00.

I could have just told him that I would throw in the $5.00, but decided to turn this situation into a lesson. I asked him if he remembered how much he put aside for his game, and he knew that he only had $26.00 to spend. I showed him the price on the shelf and he knew that he didn't have enough to make the purchase. He said that he would just find something else that he could get right away, but I explained to him that if he worked really hard this next week at doing his chores and reading his books, that he would earn enough to be able to come back in a week to make his purchase of the Ninjago Game that he has been saving for all along. He wasn't disappointed, and surprisingly as we exited the store, he didn't ask for any toys or say that he wanted anything, he was content with just looking.

I wanted to teach him that even though he wasn't able to get what he really wanted at that moment, that it wasn't wise of him to just pick whatever he could get at the time to temporarily fulfil his urge to purchase something with his money. A lesson, that I think we can all try to remember from time to time.

We had a really busy weekend and with Monday being a holiday we weren't able to make it to the Credit Union for him to make his deposit. Unfortunately the Credit Union that he has his account at does not use deposit slips, therefore I cannot teach him how to deposit using one.

I am super proud of my son as we share in these experiences together. As adults, we sometimes underestimate the power in decisions that our children have the ability of making. I have confidence that the small lessons about being smart with his money that we are instilling in him now, will guide him in to being a responsible and prosperous adult.