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My son has a small box devoted to all his special things.

It's an old check box and it's breaking at the seams.

I won't give away all his secret treasures, but inside that box are "jewels" he's found, coins he likes, some other random prizes and, most importantly, his money.

My children are lucky to have a great-grandmother who every Christmas gifts $100 bills to each of her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

The first two years of his life, his dad and I invested that money. But as soon as our son was old enough to realize the value of such a gift, he wanted to hang on to it.

So far, we've let him. He loves the fact that in that box he has actual paper money that is ALL his.

He's in kindergarten now, so I've started to talk to him about banks and saving money that way.

He insists he has no interest in giving his money to anyone else to keep for him. He's doing just fine on his own, thank you very much.

I've talked to him some about our family budget, about how I go to work to earn money that I then have to use to pay for our house, our food and our clothes. How I wish I could buy him that new video game or $50 G.I. Joe toy, but I can't because I don't have the extra money for it.

I'm pretty sure he understands that basic concept - that you can't just spend willy nilly, that you have to plan how to spend your money and that saving any extra for something you really want is a great idea.

I'm not sure what else is appropriate to teach him at this age, though. Pretty sure a 5-year-old won't grasp the stock market. (Heck, I barely grasp the stock market!).

Our Money section today has a story all about how to teach kids about money. I plan to check it out for any tips I can get.

What do you do in your family? Do your kids have savings accounts? What about allowances?

posted by Veronica on Thursday September 9, 2010