4 ms·
Revealing the salary is one thing but i think revealing the monthly expenses is even more important for kids to realize how much money actually just "disappears
by Too 12y ago
Revealing the salary is one thing but i think revealing the monthly expenses is even more important for kids to realize how much money actually just "disappears", into recurring bills like rent, for one to live a comfortable life.
There's a reality TV show in Sweden, called the teenage boss(tonårsbossen), where in each episode the teenager of a family get's to control the whole budget for his family for one month. Surely there's selection bias on what type of family they put on the show but it's quite revealing to see how kids think when they get that much money because they don't understand how much or how little it is. Even when the hosts help them lay out a budget they always always end up overspending. First they go buy tons of clothes the first week, they give their parents less pocket money than what they themselves normally got before, the food bill is always double because they don't know what's normal price for grocery items, there's always some recurring monthly expense that's easy to forget like gas for the car, they don't take into account unexpected events like the fridge breaking down, nothing goes into savings etc etc.
I think every kid would benefit greatly from doing this kind of exercise at least once, at least letting them join the budgeting and let them see where the money goes.