Five Ways You Can Encourage Your Family to Save Money
Soaring gas prices and worries about the economy make most financial matters anything but fun right now. But it still helps to take a lighter approach to money issues when you can.
Dow Jones business writer Jennifer Openshaw has come up with five enjoyable ways to get your family into the habit of saving money.
Hand out gift cards. Make a pact that if, say, by year's end, your savings goal is achieved, everyone in the family gets the gift card of their choice for a predetermined amount.
Holiday payback. Holidays can be a time for rewards, too. If you achieve a savings goal, then expand the size of this year's holiday budget. That motivates savings but also provides the gift-giving funds that are otherwise hard to come by.
Travel treasure chest. One family stuffed $10 or $20 a week into a lockbox and kept it in a desk. Come May, the family opened the box to see what was inside: a good pile of currency, and vacation fun to follow.
Sell unwanted stuff on eBay. Similar to the gift-card idea, achieve a goal and everyone gets a PayPal deposit to spend on something really cool – and second- hand to stretch the reward a little further.
Home improvement one square foot at a time. Maybe the house would look so much better with new carpet or hardwood or some other feature everyone could enjoy. Set the savings plan and mark off the square feet you've achieved as a team.
Openshaw advises families not to spend all of their hard-earned savings on rewards. But with a little effort, she says these ideas could help family members to get what they want, and learn the true value of money.
– By Ed Coury, senior editor and Midwest bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal Radio Network, Dow Jones & Co., and a reporter for WWJ Newsradio 950. Portions of this reports were published by Dow Jones Newswires.
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