In general, we want our kids to be better people than we are.
We insist they eat their vegetables and then break out the Capn Crunch after they go to bed.
We teach them to floss as we run a tongue over our many fillings.
I grew up in West Virginia in a financially chaotic household.
If money always evaporates tomorrow, you might as well enjoy the drinks/cigarettes/new dress/vacation today.
My grandmother bringing her own Scotch in a jelly jar to restaurants to keep the tab down?
Turns out, not normal.
We eat dinner at the same time every night.
I setlimits with screen time.
I put on shoes to pick them up at school.
But I havent been able to crack the finance problem.
Our monthly expenses caused me heart palpitations.
I knew I should startgiving my son an allowance, and I wanted to start instilling good money sense.
And it wasnt the kid.
(Or whatever.)
Now this was not an immediate, perfect solution.
The site offers video tutorials and live webinars, help documents, and support via email.
Theres aYNAB subredditthats very helpful for crowd-sourced answers.
But slowly, things are changing.
I watch a video or ask the help desk for support.
I took on some extra work to cover Januarysbinge-spending on disaster preparedness.
Like a good teacher, it presents the information and lets you draw your own conclusions.)
Budgeting has kind of a depressing ring to it, a sense of deprivation.
Everyone lives with limits, even very wealthy people.
A lot of peoplewilldie on the hill of sponge versus paper towel for countertops.Everyoneis weird about money.
A lot of people are ashamed.The Opposite of Spoiledhas three entries in the index for shame.)
Of course I wish we had moreeveryone wishes they had more.
Ive become rather evangelical about YNAB.
You need a budget, I said.
I think (I think!
Its been only four months) I have a better handle on how to manage my kids financial education.
My son gets $6 every Sunday, which he divides into aspendjar,savejar, andgivejar.
I confided I wished I had bought Netflix shares in 2002.
But regret is productive for learning; spiraling, free-floating shame is not.
This year, for the first time in my life, I think I can do it.
