Coins Aren’t For Buying Stuff, They’re For Stuffing Pigs (duh)

It seems some kids grasp the value of money very early. My mom tells the tale of me trying to trade a construction worker a dime in exchange for a quarter when I was only six years old. Apparently I understood the value but assumed that other people wouldn’t realize these pieces of metal were worth something. Oh, I thought I was soooo smart.

Other parents of preschoolers are already dealing with the “I want!” cries and the “Buy it for me!” wails. I’m lucky that, so far, my nearly-four year old has yet to be caught up in the tangle of consumerism. She loves TV characters, but rarely asks for any toys at all. I asked her today – if she could have anything at all for her birthday, what did she want the most? She answered a cake and balloons. I prodded her to think of something else, since those were part of the party anyway, and she finally answered, “A ball.” Nothing big, just a ball – perhaps a soccer ball.

Just because she’s my little anti-capitalist doesn’t mean that I should wait to teach her about money, though. I don’t want her to think that money grows on trees, or in our case, comes from little plastic cards.

Of course, it’s hard to teach a four year old about money. For now, our financial lessons are limited to the “money is how we buy stuff” quality. (We’ll save economic principles and the factors affecting inflation for next year.) I’ve explained that anytime we bring something new into the house, it’s because we used money to pay for it, and that we have a limited amount of money, so we have to choose what we buy carefully.

I wish I could say that it’s sinking in. She is the best coin hunter in the house, turning over couch cushions to find stray change and snatching pennies off the sidewalk. When her grandmother gives her a few coins, Cordy holds them as if they are made out of gold. So you’d think she has the concept of money figured out.

But the little bit of money she possesses will likely not see a storefront for a long time to come. Because all of her money goes into her ceramic piggy bank. This little piggy (a gift from Aunt Dot, of course) has been around since she was a baby, and once she learned that coins could go in the top to “feed the piggy” she began putting every coin she could find into it. Her ceramic porker apparently has quite an appetite, because she wants to feed it every day.

Cordy’s well-fed piggy on the left, Mira’s half-starved pig on the right

I once tried to open her piggy bank in front of her, thinking she would be proud to see all the money she’s saved. Instead, she gasped in horror, urging me to put all the coins back in as fast as possible: “Mommy, we have to feed the piggy! Hurry! He needs coins!” She’s actually filled her piggy bank up once already – I partially emptied it when she was asleep one night, adding the money to her savings account, but left some coins in it so she didn’t think that someone was trying to starve her pig.

So far, I’d call this a success in financial education. She saves more money than I do, and if she keeps this obsession going, she’ll be paying her own way through college. If she ever opens the pig, that is.

I think we’re going to need a bigger pig.

This post is part of what could possibly be one of the coolest Parent Bloggers Network blog blasts ever, sponsored by Capital One. Check out their Moneywi$e eLearning tool for tips on budgeting, saving money, and talking to your kids about money.

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