Three Jars Helping Manage Your Child’s Money

In the past when I have written about chores I always get questions about allowances and paying for chores too. Whether you pay for chores or give your kids allowances or not, all kids must learn to manage their money wisely-as soon as they start getting money. When my kids were babies we got them divided banks that had 4 sections long term savings, short term savings, spend and tithes & offerings. Every time they got money we went to the bank and divided it up 15% in tithes and offerings 35% in long term savings, 30% in short term savings and 20% in spending. This made it easy for my kids to learn at an early age to set financial goals and contribute to them regularly as well as managing their weekly spending.

That was16 years ago now there is Three Jars, a financial website for families. The concept is similar to our old divided banks; you have 3 jars-spend, save and share. Parents organize the jars and how much goes into each jar. You can set up chores and special projects for payments too. There is a secure website for the kids to use to manage their money and every change or transaction must be approved by the parent.

My one caution with Three Jars is to make sure you are setting the money aside for each child. Whether you have a separate bank account to keep the money in or if it is in an envelope in your family safe, make sure the money is available. When your child wants to withdraw some of their money, the answer can never be…”We don’t have that much right now.” I have seen this happen time and again with parents who promise allowance or payment for chores and then when payday arrives they can’t pay their kids. Please don’t do this to your kids, you need to be fiscally responsible too.

You can start a FREE 2 week trial of Three Jars by clicking the link. Will this be handy for your family??