Mr. Moneybags…
I did the Monopoly money conversation with my daughter today. You know the one I mean; gave her a stack of seemingly vast amounts of play money representing the family’s income, deducting for everything from dance lessons to car and house payments to groceries and utilities.
It was an eye-opening experience for her. She was excited about the prospect of holding the large sums of money, even though they were fakes. I orchestrated the “lesson” so that a bunch of little expenses were first (vet bills, gas, etc), followed by large expenses that chewed up a large amount of the rest (house payment, car payment, car and health insurance, etc.), leaving her with about $600. Then I nickel and dimed her with utilities, dance lessons, and video rentals. When she had $21 left, I hit her with some other biggies: property taxes and the like, and optional activities such as vacations, amusement parks and other big entertainment.
Her comment when it was all over: “Money isn’t everything… Well, it is… Well, you know…”
