One of the reasons many of us may have struggled with finances at some point is that we just never learned the solid basics personal financial management. Please, if you have children, make a concerted effort to break the chain.

Here is one approach I am taking. For each child, I have set up four piggy-banks. Then, starting at the age of three, I give each child an allowance. They get $1 a week for every year of age. This then gets split into the following piggy-banks:

1st) Regular Spending (50% of allowance goes here)
2nd) College & House (40% of allowance goes here)
3rd) Charity (10%)

I actually have these broken out as three piggy-banks with labels on them.
This then lets them start saving from an early age.

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