money.

Isaiah has become very, very interested in money lately.  He loves having money and he now really wants to spend it on new toys.  This is so opposite of what he was at his birthday time in September.  He received some money as gifts in September and did NOT want to spend it.  We went and looked around the toy department for a l.o.n.g. time and he finally decided to purchase a toy that was about 1/3 of the amount of money that he had.  He now thinks he needs to go to Target and buy a new toy just about every day.  After several days of this we had along talk about how we don't simply spend all of the money we get and that it is much, much more important to use our money wisely.  We talked about how God calls us to give back to Him some of our money - which can be done by giving to the church or helping those who need it, that we need to save our money for bigger things and then we can also enjoy our money and spend some of it too.  We decided to divide our money into separate banks rather than keep it all together to help understand.  We did a "give" jar together and then each of the boys have a "save" and a "spend" bank.  The boys both understood this and even seemed to really like the idea of giving more and saving some, but unfortunately this is such a hard, hard thing for most people to do - especially when you are 5 years old.  

Isaiah did take some of his money to Target with me and he did buy all on his own a Cars 2 matchbox sized car and has since asked to go again to spend more of his money, but it's been decided he needs to wait a bit longer.   

Hopefully we can continue to have these conversations with our boys so that when they are older they will make sound financial choices all on their own.  From what I see in my job, I have a very clear picture of how hard and stressful life can be if you don't understand the importance of managing your finances responsibly!