As Family First Entrepreneurs, we have a duty to teach our children about money and everything that accompanies it. My children are young. Tucker is still a grub that smiles and drools a lot at seven months, and Jaken, who is four years old, is more ready and eager to learn. Sue, my wife, and I have been actively working with Jaken on this stuff for about a year now.

With Jaken, it has been more in the form of a game up to this point, but with him recently turning four, we are now embarking on the realm of an allowance. Our plan is to start easy by explaining to him that his allowance is the amount of money he gets each week to do with as he likes. We hope he makes lots of mistakes and has opportunities to learn things that will serve him later, such as saving, thriftiness, research consumption, saying no, and feeling abundant.

Our plan is to guide him only through saying things like, “Wow buddy, I can tell you’re bummed that you spent all of your money so quickly. Maybe next week you can do things differently.” Or, “Jaken I know you’re disappointed with the purchase you made, what do you think you would do differently next time?” Can you tell that I’m the kind of parent that hopes my child stumbles so I can be there to empathize and get him to think for himself?

As a family, we believe that chores are something that everyone does as a duty to the family and is not something that deserves payment. This comes with some small print that we will have to explain. I will let my kids know that if they want to do our chores, for us, they will get paid. But, more importantly, if we have to do their chores for them, they will have to pay us. Boy, I anticipate some tears on that one the first time it happens.

I know my readers have some real life experiences with older children that we may all benefit from, so please leave a comment with some incite into how you approach this issue. You will be able to read more on this topic in my book, ONO: Options Not Obligations. I will also blog more on this topic again soon, as it is a huge subject. As a final note, there is some good information on this in the books The Millionaire Next Door and Parenting with Love and Logic. You will find both of these books on my suggested reading list. Please leave any other book titles that have been insightful for you on this as well.