This past weekend was Mother’s Day and there’s no other place we would rather have spent it than surrounded by family and friends at the arena. Our youngest son, Carter and his spring hockey team won the gold medal in the Niagara Battle Hockey tournament. They worked hard and gave all the moms a nice little present that day! Oliver’s team was not so fortunate, but he had four really good games on defence.

We have found with our own boys, ages 9 and 7, that they are very interested in what mom and dad do for a living and how they can start earning and saving their own money. Carter received some money for his birthday this week and handed it straight to dad. When asked what he wants to do with it he said “save it for a house when I am older”. Being in the financial industry, this of course made us very proud but also sparked a conversation around money – spending it, saving it and donating it. It is interesting to hear how the kids view money. Once Jaime was using the bank machine to take out some money and one of the boys asked if he could have some from the money “vending” machine. We used it as a time to talk about how the money gets there. We have so many stories about them saving money and donating money!

It is important for all of us to teach kids about the value of a dollar. No matter if they will be paying with cash, credit, or apple pay (when they are older,) you tailor the conversation to their age and experience. Teach them what things cost and how to save money by turning off the lights when they leave a room and things like that. You want to make sure that they can be financially independent when they are ready to leave the proverbial “nest.”