All About the Money

My children have reached the age where it is all about the money. They want money. They need money. They have discovered the power of money.

It begins with my 10-year-old. For his birthday in January, he received a Nintendo DS. It was all he wanted for months and months. It was the perfect gift. But just months after receiving his gift, Nintendo in all of its superior wisdom released an updated version and now the young boy covets the Nintendo DSi. He is all about saving money to buy a new Nintendo DSi. He has discussed getting a job and earning enough money that along with the trade-in value of his current game, he would have enough to buy it.

Earlier this month, the two youngest received forms to sell Krispy Kreme doughnuts to friends and family. Both children came home with dreams of selling enough doughnuts to imagine spending the $50 that would go to the top seller. The girl took her form everywhere, and there were times I even nixed her bringing the form. She ended up selling a respectable amount of doughnuts, but she isn’t going to be the top winner.

The boy sold doughnuts the very first day to his grandma, his mother and the next door neighbor. And then his form sat forgotten for weeks.

The girl pedaled her bike down the road to every neighbor she knew. The boy played videogames.

In the last few days, the boy panicked. He wanted to win the $50. He needs it to buy his new DSi. But there isn’t anyone to sell too. The girl sold doughnuts to the neighbors. He never went beyond those initial sells the very first day, and today, the day the forms are due, he is sad about the missed possibility $50 could bring him.

For the older children, the goal is a bit more expensive. Amanda, at 13, is dreaming about having a real (not prepaid) cell phone. She wants to earn enough money to pay the $10 a month it would cost to add another phone to her parents’ contract. She applied for and received a job, and she starts working tomorrow. She’ll be working with a friend just down the road from us, and she is pretty pleased.

The oldest is also dreaming big. She initially wanted to raise enough money to pay for driver’s training, which was about $300. Secretly, she was hoping her parents would cough up the dough. And then she learned about the $165 in cell phone charges she racked up while in Florida during a 7-hour middle-of-the-night phone call on her little cousin’s cell phone. Her goal suddenly increased to $165 plus the $300.

Luckily, the phone company managed to waive the $165 in unexpected charges, so her goal was back down to $300. She has started filling out a couple of job applications, but she hasn’t turned them in anywhere yet. There was a job that I thought would have been perfect for her. The camp she attended as a camper for three years was looking for wranglers. This was a job taking care of and working with horses. The job required people who had previously attended the camp as a camper. She started filling out the forms, but she never finished. I quit reminding her.

But in the mail this week, the oldest found a new want/need to aim for, and she has set her sights high this time. Both the oldest and the second oldest have been nominated to be a part of the Michigan Ambassadors of Music in 2010. As part of a concert band, the pair have been invited to travel to Europe in the summer of 2010. The oldest really wants to go even more than she wants to take driver’s training.

We do not know yet how much the trip will cost. The second-oldest, by the way, has no desire to go. She claims she is afraid of flying.

Last night the oldest and I discussed possible numbers. The actual informational meeting is next Tuesday, but the oldest knows other people who have gone, and she believes the trip will cost around $5,000.

I am a realist. I know that I have no desire to pay $5,000 to send the oldest to Europe. With $5,000, the entire family could have a very good vacation. But the oldest child seems determined, and so she started crunching numbers. Specifically, she looked into how much she would have to work to pay for something like this trip. She realized it would take her more than 25 months to save enough money to do it if she worked 8 hours a week. This is based on the goal of setting aside $200 a month.

This trip is offered to select band members every two years. If she didn’t go in 2010, she could go in 2012, but she is already claiming that she does not want to go the summer after her senior year.

I am in “wait and see” mode. We’ll go to the informational meeting and listen to what they have to say about how much she will need and when. And then it will be up to her to raise the money. It’ll be good for her to learn that some things take more than her opening her mouth and saying, “Mom….”