What to Do When Kids are Focused on Making Money

Can it ever be a good thing for kids to focus on making money?

In response to our post about kids wanting things NOW, a mom posted the following question about how to deal with a young child who is very focused on making money:

My son constantly is thinking about plans to make money. Whether it’s a lemonade stand or whatever the idea might be, I don’t know whether I should encourage him in it or not. He just turned 6 and without even earning any money, he seems quite worried about it. He wants to have it to get things that I won’t get for him. In these cases, would you still encourage a child to go forward with their plans?

Here is my response:

Your son sounds like a budding entrepreneur! Might you leverage his interest to help him think through Biblical values?

We know one family with 7-year-old twins who love selling stuff and earning money. The parents have worked with them by asking questions like these:

• Why did God wire you this way?
• How might you use the money to honor God?
• How will you decide how much to spend? How much to save? How much to give away?
• Do you know what God says about money?

These two kids recently sold slushies to earn money to donate to charity.

For more ideas, you can check out the section in our book, How to Grow a Connected Family (p.180-ish), about teaching kids about money.

That’s my “two cents” worth.

Jim