The Great Piggy Bank Adventure

I started my girlie early with learning to be smart with money. She was only a few months old when she sat with me at a desk to open her savings account! I have taken her once a month ever since opening that account to make a deposit. She has a bear bank that we put coins in all month long and we add to that money from chores, us and gift money. Over the past two years (she just turned five) every time she receives gift money I ask her what she wants to do with it. Girlie looks at me and says with excitement "Put it in my bank!" She even points to her bank and says "That's my bank!" when we drive past.

I haven't held back on telling her when I think something is too expensive or that we need to save and budget for buying something that is a bit pricey either. Of course, sometimes she uses her own words and understanding on how we will shop and did I mention she talks loud? The other day we were walking through Kohl's, I had told her before getting there that I was looking for photo albums on clearance since I had found them there several times before for only $3.99...beautiful albums too! So as we walked through the center of the store she announces to my hubby that we are looking for cheap stuff and will only buy cheap stuff that is less than $10! An employee got a good chuckle!

I like her learning about money management through other sources too...not just me. You know, I am hoping when she reaches the age where mom knows nothing she will at least remember and believe what she learned elsewhere as well. I posted before about us having annual passes to Disney, and how much I love Epcot for the educational attractions. We tried out The Great Piggy Bank Adventure a few weeks ago...leave it to Disney to make saving, inflation and diversification fun! You can try out an online version here.

You start out The Great Piggy Bank Adventure by selecting a goal that you want to achieve:

• Extreme Bedroom Makeover
• College
• Dream Vacation
• Retirement

My girlie choose to save for the Extreme Bedroom Makeover complete with a water slide! Once you choose your goal on the touch screen you open a drawer and take your piggy bank and the adventure begins! It was such a cute piggy bank too!

The first game you play teaches you that money comes from several places...odd jobs, allowance, gifts...and that you can choose to either save it or spend it! Coins fall from the top of the screen and you need to adjust your ramps to make as much money as possible fall into the savings buckets...but the big bad wolf is sneaky and switches your buckets so some falls into candy or toy buckets and is spent!

As you go to each game your piggy bank hopefully gets fuller and closer to your goal! There is a game that teaches you to ride the currents of inflation and another to learn the importance of not putting all your eggs in one basket...diversification! The diversification game was my favorite...you hide money in different parts of your room, each hiding space has a different rate of return! Then the big bad wolf comes in once your time to hide is up and he takes your money from one spot...hopefully you didn't put too much there!

At the end you take your piggy to the final counting spot and he tells you if you saved enough to reach your goal! We did...yay!

Teaching my girlie how to earn, save and spend where it's fun and she loves learning and earning works for me!

This post is linked with We Are THAT Family for Works For Me Wednesday. Check out the other helpful ideas over there too!