Financial Literacy for Children -- A Crash Course for Daniel

Daniel LOVES credit cards! Each night Will gives Daniel the junk mail. This is probably Daniel's favorite part of the day. On super lucky days, the junk mail contains a "credit card" and Daniel squeals with DELIGHT, "I got a credit card." On the days that the mail does not include a credit card, Daniel repeatedly asks, "Can I see yo' credit cards?" Will is much nicer than I am about showing Daniel his credit cards.

The other day I decided to buy Daniel a wallet of his own for his credit cards. Daniel carries it around and rearranges its contents regularly. Last night, he even took the wallet to bed with him.

Yesterday's mail brought Daniel a Valentine from Grandma and Grandpa Engelhardt. I thought he would be excited to put the $5 that was included in the card in his wallet. Daniel wasn't particularly interested in the money, but I didn't think much of it and put the money in his wallet.

This morning for some reason I decided to look in Daniel's wallet and discovered that the money was gone (the credit cards were still there). I asked Daniel what he did with his money and he said, "I crumpled it up." I followed up with, "Where did you put it, Daniel?" And he replied, "I put it in the garbage can for the garbage man."

Luckily, Abby found the money in Daniel's waste basket. She tried to explain the value of money to him, "Daniel, if you save your money you can buy a milk truck!" But, to be quite honest, I just don't think Daniel cares about cash at this point. For him, it's all about the credit! So, for now, the money is safely tucked away for Daniel until he learns that you should never throw your money away.