Rolling Coins Can Teach Your Kids The Value Of Saving Money
photo credit: °Florian
Rolling coins with your kids is a great way to deposit loose change into your savings account and it can be an opportunity to teach kids about managing money. Take the time to involve your children in this simple process and discuss what money represents and how it can be used to build savings. If you are looking for a great rainy day project, you can bring out a coin jar and get the entire family working together for a common savings goal. Many families have “vacation jars”, “pizza jars”, “clothes jar”, or even an “new furnace jar” for long term savings goals. Next time you have some loose change, get a jar and start a savings fund with your family. Once the coins are spilling over the jar, roll the coins and deposit them at your local bank branch.
Some reasons rolling coins can be valuable for yourself and your family:
1. Saving the 10% fee that Coinstar charges is another huge incentive. I made the mistake once of using a Coinstar at Safeway and the machine stopped working. I estimated I had deposited over $50 in coins and Safeway wanted me to prove that amount. How do I prove that the machine ate my coins? I had to deal with 2 managers before I was finally given credit.
2. Teach your kids to sort and count. Help your children sort the coins based on color and shape and educate them on the different coin values.
3. Treasure hunt. Finding Canadian Pennies or old silver coins can be exciting. Find a silver nickel or dime and you can take your kids to the local coin shop to find out the value.
4. Compound interest. Deposit those coins in your local bank and educate your children on the power of compound interest. Those coins aren’t earning anything when they are stuck in a jar. Deposit them in the bank and your money starts working for you. Compound interest is a source of passive income.
5. Saving money. Use this time you are rolling coins with your family as an opportunity to talk about saving money. Why do you need to save these coins and what can you purchase with them? Get your children involved in the savings process and start a family “savings jar” that will be for a common goal. Maybe you want to save for a family vacation or start a college 529 savings account for you kids.
Have you started a savings jar with your family?
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MacNessa Said:
Yep – and it’s full to capacity, keep meaning to open it up and sort it, here, they get ‘bagged’ not rolled but I keep forgetting! Must do that this weekend. It’s going into the kids accounts.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
Greener Pastures Said:
I bet the younger kids, especially, love this! When I was a kid, I remember how fascinated I was with saving and rolling my own coins, then bringing them to the bank and depositing them into my own bank account with my parents. I had a paper route, so there were lots of coins to roll.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
SuburbanDollar Said:
I do this with my son as well, but where do you get the coin rolls? We have a ton of change and no rolls, it almost seems counter intuitive to buy rolls, but then I don’t know how much they would cost.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
Miranda Said:
This is great! Just yesterday I got some coin roll papers, and my son and I are going to add up what he has in his savings jar and his spending money jar. He wants to see if his spending money jar has enough to buy the Transformer he has his eye on. If not, we’ll get the calendar down and see how many more weeks he needs to save his allowance to get what he wants.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
John Said:
Coins also give kids a physical representation of money instead of the “magic” credit card that parents use. They can actually see the process of saving money and spending it and it teaches them to spend what they have.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
Craig Said:
I always would save loose change in a zip lock bag, and just let it build up still I thought it got too heavy. Then would cash it in, a nice way to make a quick $30-$50 one random day. I have found some banks have this service for a small $1 or so fee, for me it’s worth it. The problem with rolling coins is if you can’t fill the roll, you can’t exchange the money. But saving the coins is a very solid tip for kids.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
Scott Said:
@ Suburban Dollar
Your local bank will give them to you for free. If you only bank online, you could ask a friend if they have some or can get some from a bank. I’ve priced the rolls at Staples and you don’t want to buy them. Like you said, you would be paying for something that should be free from a bank.
Posted on March 5th, 2009
Manshu Said:
Very good, simple, honest and straightforward advice.
Posted on March 5th, 2009