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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