Yes, my 8 year old son has his own budget! Why is it that most adults don't have one? 😬

So, I was recently pondering when I should start teaching my 8 year old son to start budgeting… At 12? 15 maybe?

Well, I came across this article by the amazing guys at YNAB (You Need A Budget).

I’ve been a huge fan (and user) of YNAB for quite a few years now!! In my opinion - they have the best budgeting app available on the market 😁 I have tried many budgeting apps in the past few years but just keep coming back to YNAB - they just are the best!!

So, getting back to the article, they suggested a good age to start is 8.

We’ve landed on eight. Eight is the perfect age to start budgeting with your kids.

They are old enough to understand, to learn from mistakes, to benefit from good choices. You can’t just throw them to the wolves, of course, you have to work with them on it quite a bit, but eight has been the magic number for us.

And what do you know - my son is 8! Perfect time to start 😁

So we created a new budget for him on our existing YNAB subscription (fortunately they allow this).

We've kept it really simple for now - so he's currently getting R10 a week (thought breaking this down weekly might be easier for him than monthly). We've budgeted his money as follows:

• R1 to tithing.
• R1 to retirement.
  (Trying to teach him from day 1 that he needs to put away for retirement.)
• R5 to savings.
  (He uses this to save for a few weeks to buy a specific toy he wants. Hoping this will help with the "instant gratification" challenge most people experience.)
• R3 to spending money.
  (He does whatever he pleases with this - usually ends up buying a chocolate.)
• Technically, he currently has a 5th category where he's saving up some money (extra cash he gets from his granny and grandpa) for our upcoming Cape Town holiday 😎

It's actually quite amazing how well this has been running...
We sit every Sunday evening and do his budget for the next week. He really loves seeing his savings grow and thus counts down the weeks before he can purchase a new toy 😎
He's so into it that he even remembers what's in his savings and his spending money! When he buys something at the mall, I basically just check the app to double-check his balances 😉

Most adults I know don’t budget properly. Yes, they have an idea what goes into their bank account each month and what they need to cover the debit orders that go off their account. But that’s about where it ends…
Do they actually have a system to follow how much they’ve spent on food, entertainment etc. and how much is left for each of these categories? More than often - NO!!

I really hope my 8 year old learns from this and does not become one of these "unbudgeting" adults...

Check YNAB out and sign up for a free 34-day trial (with an extra month free if you join after the trial).