There are many four letter words that people use in the world today but most often, W-O-R-K is not one of them.  Growing up I watched my mom and dad work day and night to get the things that we had.  My dad is one the hardest workers I know.  When I was little, we didn’t see him much as he worked a minimum of sixteen hours a day.  When we did see him, he was at home resting on the couch, in bed, or eating dinner.  My mom is also a very hard worker.  She worked a full time job, took care of us while dad was working, and made sure there was a hot meal on the table every evening along with all the other household chores.  I feel blessed to have two parents who have worked as hard as they have to provide my sister and me with the knowledge that you must work in order to make money.

I remember when I was little my mom and dad working to save up enough money to brick the house (this was a big deal as our house for years was black tar paper).  One day our parents came to us and said “We have enough money to brick the house but what do you want to do with the money?  Would you rather buy a camper or brick the house?”  Of course we responded with “Buy a camper!”  So mom and dad went out and bought a camper with the money they saved.  This meant many memories that the family could build together in many ways.  However, it also meant that we had to wait longer to brick the house.  A few years later they came to us again with a similar scenario.  Again they had saved up enough money to brick the house.  “We have enough money to brick the house but what do you want to do with the money?  Would you rather buy a boat or brick the house?”  Of course we responded with “Buy a boat!”  So mom and dad went out and bought a boat with the money they saved.  Again this meant many more memories to form with our family.  With both of these we built so many memories; every weekend we went camping, fishing, and by the time I was three I was water skiing.  I can’t thank my parents enough for setting their dreams of a finished home aside to spend time with our family making memories that will be forever cherished.  Now dad and mom continued to work but this time it was for the house to get bricked.

Both my sister and I were so excited the third time they had saved enough money to brick the house because we actually bricked the house!  Our parents didn’t come to us with any questions this time.  I remember each and every row being laid and how beautiful it was becoming.  I even got to help a tiny bit in the process.  It was a lot of work and mom and dad had waited a very long time to get this done.  They were proud of themselves for all of the hard work that led up to this project being completed.  We were proud of them too.

As a child I was, as my dad put it, burning holes in my pockets when I was given birthday money.  I was the child who wanted to hurry up and spend my money because I could.  My mom would take me to the store to spend my money but it was not right away.  We would go when we needed to go to town anyway.  This way we didn’t spend as much gas money.  I didn’t understand it back then but I certainly do now.  My mom was pretty smart about not making unnecessary trips in order to save gas money…it just took me twenty years or so to realize it. 

Now it is my husband and my turn to make sure our children know the value of work and the relationship it has with money.  In Proverbs 12:11 it states “He who tills his land will be satisfied with bread, but he who follows frivolity is devoid of understand.”  This tells me that we must teach our children to work for what they have and also the value of contentment.  Our children watch us go to and come home from work daily.  Our seven year old understands that if we do not work we do not get paid.  Our three year old on the other hand isn’t quite there yet.  They will learn mostly by example so we have to make sure we are providing them with the example that we want them to lead with in their future.  We have to make sure they see us working to earn money, giving, saving, and spending (with cash) so that they will do the same as well. 

So, in order to teach our children the value of work and contentment, they each have chores that they are responsible for daily.  These chores include but are not limited to cleaning their rooms, vacuuming, putting clothes away, and feeding the pets.  For our seven year old she gets paid every Friday (we are also teaching her to wait as the real world will make her wait).  She also has three envelopes which she works with on a weekly bases (give, save, and spend from Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace Jr. Kit) http://www.daveramsey.com/store/prod112.html?ictid=store.prod.R2C2  As for our three year old he gets immediate gratification because if he does a chore he needs to understand that money comes from doing the chore.  If we made him wait he wouldn’t understand the relationship and value of work and money.  Even though he doesn’t have envelopes (he uses a clear plastic container so he can see his money growing each time he does a chore), he is very interested in his sisters envelope system and watches what she does with them each week.  We are planting the seeds to change our children’s future and future generations in our family tree.   It is very important to us that our children do not expect to be entitled to something if it has not been earned.

We are planning on paving the way for our children so that they will receive an education that is hands-on with finances.  We want them to be smart with their money so that it will take care of them each step of the way.   #smartmoneykids