St. Martha’s Apron Strings – Part 7, Personal Accounts and Money Management Skills

The managing of money is a vital skill for a young lady to learn and learn early. Whether God will call her into a vocation in the married life, or the religious life, the skill of managing money is a valuable one.

You can teach based on your own tried and true strategies, or if you are uncomfortable with your own experiences with handling money, a financial strategy curriculum can be used. A quick recommendation if you feel you need the backup help of a good curriculum…

I’m a fan of Dave Ramsey. His principles are straight forward and common sense. You earn money and then you save, give, and spend in appropriate amounts. His principles and philosophy are to nurture a mindset early on to avoid debt like the plague and know how to be a good steward of financial treasure. The statistics on his site are illustrative of the number of young people struggling financially as well as those declaring bankruptcy. I don’t own either of these products for children, but I do own several of his other publications. For your consideration:

Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Jr.

Foundations in Personal Finance Homeschool Pack

If you choose to instruct in the area of money management yourself, you might consider helping your daughter generate a simple budget that allows her to spend and track earnings on paper.

Give:
Traditionally, we are called to give 10% of our treasures back to God. Without getting into a discussion of how much is given back and where it goes, I’ll just say…give!

“Intense love does not measure, it just gives.” Mother Theresa

Save:
You can open a bank account at most banks in order to set up a savings account. Or, there’s the ole’ peanut butter jar 🙂 for saving. Not quite the picture of elegance…and doesn’t earn any interest either. Sort of smacks of hiding the wad of cash under the mattress, which may have its place, but lets face it, that’s not the smartest way to save money. Each family can set up their own percentages for saving earnings. The important thing is to emphasize the importance of saving for a rainy day. This money can be saved for a dowry, or for a college education, or another important and worthy cause – just teach her to save a portion of her earnings.

Spend:
What’s left is hers to spend.

Needs versus Wants:
I think it is important to begin to introduce these two words into the everyday vocabulary. This past September 5 was the 11th anniversary of Blessed Mother Theresa‘s death. We read about her life, her vocation, her calling within a calling. For the culmination, we watched the 2003 DVD starring Olivia Hussey – Mother Theresa. If you have difficulty distinguishing between need and want, I would encourage you to watch this movie and study a little about Mother – all will be made clear. Regardless, it is important to have this discussion.