PROVO, Utah — Children growing up in Mormon households
should learn to give as well as pay their tithing, a speaker at the 2009 BYU Campus Education Week said on Wednesday, Aug. 19.
When they're dividing up their "commission" money
— Don L. Milne says children shouldn't get an allowance for existing but
rather a commission for work that's done — the money ought to be split among
giving, spending and savings money.
That way children learn to be aware of the needs of others
around him or her, Milne, who is a product manager for Zions Bank with an MBA
in financing and marketing, said, "Giving is a good skill to teach."
Milne suggested a 20-40-40 split.
Milne said every family should determine a workable money
management plan but it ought to be based on sound principles.
"Some things we don't pay for, like making their beds
or cleaning their rooms," he said.
He suggested dividing the home into zones with specific
tasks assigned to each zone and appropriate commissions for those tasks.
Every two weeks the children are paid in the family weekly
meeting. If the work was done, the child is paid. If it wasn't, he or she isn't
paid.
In the Milne household, the money is then put into envelopes
designated for the specific purpose.
The envelope system also works well for the family budget,
he said.
Milne said currently in America the average family has more than
$40,000 in consumer debt and 70 percent live paycheck to paycheck. Half have
less than $25,000 put away for retirement.
To make a significant difference in a typical budget, people
need to make saving a priority and stop using credit cards, he said.
They need to learn to budget. Milne recommended working with
an online spreadsheet program that tracks where money will be spent along with
what is actually spent.
"Nobody likes to do a budget; less than one percent of
Americans do one," Milne said.
But teaching children good financial management is much
easier if they're seeing mom and dad work well with money.
He quoted Proverbs 22:6-7: "Train up a child in the way
he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it," including the
verse that reads: "The rich ruleth over the poor, the borrower is servant
to the lender."
Milne said he believes that the Lord is saying avoid getting
into servitude of debt.
He said it's harder to teach children good spending and
saving habits when they're older but it's still possible.
"If he or she doesn't save his or her own money, you
can charge them rent and save it for them," he said.
E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com