My Son Wants a Blue Sky AmEx | I've Paid For This Twice Already... http://www.paidtwice.com/2008/03/31/my-son-wants-a-blue-sky-amex/#comment-21343 Shuchong Mon, 31 Mar 2008 16:38:14 +0000 http://www.paidtwice.com/2008/03/31/my-son-wants-a-blue-sky-amex/#comment-21343 My younger sister had an old wallet of my mother's, and used to fill it with fake cards. She's in high school now, and saves 90% of her money, so I guess it didn't hurt her. I can actually see this being an effective (if somewhat cruel) allowance alternative. Once your kids are old enough, (8-13?)give them a fake card. Keep an excel sheet with their allowance. When they want something, they can give you the card, and you'll take out your real card and pay for it. If they go over their allowance balance, make them do chores for a set rate an hour until they've paid it back. (Cue evil laughter.) Then, once they're teenagers/responsible enough, give them their own credit/debit card, one of the student ones with the set limits. That way, they'd learn how to handle money the way most of us use it, instead of just learning how to handle cash. My younger sister had an old wallet of my mother’s, and used to fill it with fake cards. She’s in high school now, and saves 90% of her money, so I guess it didn’t hurt her.

I can actually see this being an effective (if somewhat cruel) allowance alternative. Once your kids are old enough, (8-13?)give them a fake card. Keep an excel sheet with their allowance. When they want something, they can give you the card, and you’ll take out your real card and pay for it. If they go over their allowance balance, make them do chores for a set rate an hour until they’ve paid it back. (Cue evil laughter.)

Then, once they’re teenagers/responsible enough, give them their own credit/debit card, one of the student ones with the set limits. That way, they’d learn how to handle money the way most of us use it, instead of just learning how to handle cash.

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