(part 1) (part 2)

Teaching your children to be good stewards.

A simple and effective way to teach your children to be generous givers and purposeful stewards.

Be intentional–provided a routine and simple instructions.

Give an allowance in order to teach your children how to be good stewards.  Give the allowance in quarters to make it easy for your children to distribute the money into the right categories.

Go buy two piggy banks or small lock boxes for each child.  Mark one as “short-term savings” and the other as “long-term savings.”

Explain how the 4 quarters are to be used:

• The first quarter goes to the Lord.  We’re not teaching a percentage of giving here; a young child does not understand fractions.
• The second quarter goes into short-term savings.  This is for gifts, youth activities or upcoming events the child might participate in.
• The third quarter goes into long-term savings.  This is for college, graduation and marriage expenses.
• The last quarter is for discretionary spending.  Most young children cannot even say that word!  It is this money that they can spend, save or give away.

Each Sunday morning when you give your child their weekly allotment, have them bring out their banks and tell them how the money is to be divided up.  This constant teaching tool will provide many opportunities to reinforce the underlying concepts of financial priority and responsibility.  It also provides a simple method of accountability.  Remember; if you don’t inspect it, don’t expect it!

This materials was developed by The Life Group.  To download the fuller explanation The Four Quarters method.Training Up A Child.