What do you think? Leave the money to your kids or nah?
Yes and no. I have 7 kids of varying ages and I know right now that some of them are getting money and some of them are not! They all have different abilities, responsibility levels, initiative levels, etc. But they’ve all had the same upbringing, training, and skills imparted about using money as a tool, about helping people with your money, about growing money, about entrepreneurism. But a long study of your kids and what they do every day over their lifetime definitely provides a picture of what each individual kid needs in order to become responsible with money. For some of mine they take it and donate it. For some of them, they are careless and lose it. Don’t value it because it was given to them and they didn’t have to work for it or earn it. For those kids, they behave differently with the money that they have earned versus the money that they’ve been given. Some of them are stingy, not just with money, but other things as well. Some of them have taken money and started businesses and created value for other people in the world. So, as a mom, I’ve learned that like everything with kids, it’s not the best policy to have a one fits all policy when it comes to kid stuff. Every person is so different that you can’t serve all of your kids by treating them all the same. It’s unfortunate, because that would make things easier. But if the goal is to help them become responsible with money, learn how to use it, and do good with it in the world, they all need a custom approach. Just my take as a mom of many with a lot of years under my belt!