this wasn't in the plan |but life is still pretty good

After reading this article on Gather Little By Little about a chapter from the book Farmer Boy, I started to think about my son and what his thoughts on money are. I decided that he knows the following:

• He knows that people go to work in order to earn money.
• He knows that he can earn money by "being good" and doing his chores.
• He knows that money buys things.
• He knows that sometimes you have to save your money for awhile before you can buy what you want.
• He knows that you can't have everything you want.  Or does he?

Not too bad, I don't think, considering he's just shy of five years old.

My current dilemma is this - when he wants something he will ask me if I have enough money for it, and technically, yes, I do have enough money for whatever he is asking for. But to simplify matters, I'll often tell him that I don't (he has very little concept of greater than and less than).

Instead, I should probably impress upon him the fact that I have to choose which things I spend our money on, and while sometimes I can buy things that just he wants, most of the time I have to think of what the whole family would benefit from. Sometimes in this case, I point out a more inexpensive option. For example, during our last grocery store trip, he requested yogurt. Though he wanted to choose individual flavors, I showed him that if we bought the 8-pack, we would spend less money. Other times, I explain that if we buy item A, we won't be able to buy item B. But most often I resort to telling him that I just don't have enough money. It's not true, but it works.

What do your kids know about money? What do you wish they knew?