Financial grounding

I think giving children a grounding in financial matters is definitely the parents job. Schools can only do so much, I believe home is where all the real lessons are learnt. School can teach numbers and writing but all the real values and principals come from the care givers and role models at home.

There is a fine line between just giving your children too much too easily and making things so hard they give up or could not be bothered.

In my experience, If things came too easy they just did not get valued, things would get broken, lost, forgotten or left out in the rain. If i was too hard my son would give up trying and just go to his mates place and play computer games.

It was always a challenge to get the balance right. The first photo is of my son mowing your back lawn, he used to get pocket money for doing jobs but this may have also been a day where if he mowed to lawn, while I cleaned out the house gutters we could then both work on the skate ramp which only looks half done.

Probably the biggest financial lesson I taught my son was with his first car, he looks pretty calm and quiet in the photos but he was a bit of a hand full during his schooling years. About a year before he was old enough to get his learners license, we talking about him getting a car. Of cause it had to be some sort of cool looking four wheel drive. I said "If he got a real part time job passed all his school exams, we would double what ever he could save".
It sort of worked for everyone because we really did not want him driving around in too much of a shit car for safety reasons.

Any way this conversation lit a fire. He got a job at one of the local super markets worked as many hours as he could, passed his schooling. He did way better than I was expecting and in the end I had to make sure I had done enough hours to keep my end of the bargain.

These other photos are of his first trip with his car to north Stradbroke. Still on this learners L plate. It was a great short holiday for him, his best mate and myself camping right next to the beach, but that another weekend experience post for another time.

The car was a manual Toyota Hilux 2012 from memory.