Training yourself to save by carrying huge amounts of money?

Question

If you train yourself to carry lots of money without spending it, will it make your a better saver in the future? I know most people cant do this and if they did, its probobly suicide for their money. My main point here is to tell parents to train their children not to fall into any dept problems when they grow up. I've read too much "How can I pay my $10000 dept?" questions today so I'm concerned about these people as role models for children.

If you deprive children the money they're given, and save X% to a back account, wouldn't the person ( child who grew up ) go on a spending spree when he/she gets money on his/her hands? Saving for the child trains him/her to spend the money on hand because someone else is doing the financing for him/her. I've seen this about 3 times already... Oh yeah, I don't think that getting into dept with your debit card is a nice lesson for beginners...

Answer 1

i think there is too much talk about 'teaching' and 'training' children how to save money; they learn by observing so we as adults can't be hypocrites; we have to lead by example... if we are carrying huge credit card debts and living outside of our means; our children will learn this and the cycle will churn... i've seen parents dig deeper into credit card debt so that their children can have outrageous christmas/birthday presents, this splurging is picked up by young children and when they get their hands on credit cards etc., they will follow the same path... i like how everyone blames tv and society at large on personal financial woes; truthfully if you manage your finances well and set a good example (don't eat out all the time, don't by things outside your means, etc.) then your children will have this 'good' foundation from where they can build... for those individuals w/ large credit card debt and are still out there drinking at the bars, paying hundreds of dollars for cable and cell phone bills; you're just plain stupid and your children will likely have the same issues...

Answer 2

If you walk around carrying huge amounts of money, you're just waiting for a mugger. To teach children to be better savers, they should put X% into a bank account that the child doesn't have direct access to and the rest can be used for spending money. If the child doesn't see the money, they very well can't spend it. Later on, if they start out with a debit card (which takes money out of the bank), they'll learn that they can only spend the money they have (and if they go "over the limit" they're slapped with overdraft charges; an expensive, but valuable lesson). I'd hope this would teach people not to go hog-wild and max out a credit card... for some it may, for some it may not.

Part of the reason so many people are in credit card debt is because they don't know what it's like to live within their means. (These people have no business using credit cards because they allow them to get into a hole that is so difficult to climb out of.) But there are other reasons -- such as medical bills or unemployment -- that take out more money than is in an emergency fund. (There are people out there without an emergency fund at all... some because they think they're invincible and others because they don't think they have enough money to put away because they're next to $0 at the bank... eating fast food, going to a restaurant, going to the movies, drinking soft drinks and hard drinks, etc. aren't necessities. A few months of frugality could really help, but people seem to be all-or-nothing and will burn out. They don't seem to understand that someone can act like this, say, once every three months to help create an emergency fund.)

If people can't pay off credit cards in full at the end of the month and there wasn't an emergency (such as "the car needed repair" not "I'm having a wardrobe emergency... I only have THREE little red dresses!"), they need to switch to debit cards.

The more people make, the more they spend... few who get a raise end up maintaining the same standard of living and the money goes through their fingers. If someone could maintain that same lifestyle and put the money into, say, a Roth IRA or a 401(k) plan, it'd do them a lot better in the long-run.

Answer 3

I think that carrying the money around all the time isn't good, but having money and choosing not to spend it is. Clear plastic "piggy banks" or other containers that you can see into are good. My husband and I have a 5-gallon jug that we put useless coins into (quarters are useful, those get spent, anything else is saved) and it's cool seeing it grow.

When I was a kid and we had piggy banks shaped like pigs, where you wouldn't know how much money you had in it until you broke it, there wasn't really any incentive to put money into the black box. Putting it in somewhere that you can see it and count it, and then realizing that you have x amount that you can now spend on something is cool.

Answer 4

Better to teach children the finacial facts of life. We make so much money and it has to go to pay all the bills. Do we want it or really need it? How many hours of my life did I have to work to pay for this item, is it worth that much of my life? Do you have to have that brand of product or will something a less expensive do? No, you don't need to upgrade every time you can. Make due with what you have. No, you don't need a cell phone.

Besides, if you're carrying all that cash around, apart from the fact of potential robbery or loss, you aren't making any interest on it.

Answer 5

how does carrying around lots of money get you robbed? How does someone know what you have in your purse unless he is superman and has xray vision?

Answer 6

carrying lots of money will get you robbed where i live.