Big Day . . . .

Friday was a big day for me and my just turned 15 year old son Chaz.

I picked Chaz up after school and we headed over to JP Morgan Chase bank. For his 15th birthday, I helped Chaz open up a checking account complete with a debit card. He's more excited about the money his mom and I deposited into the account for his birthday than the checking account but I'm more excited about the money lessons he's already learning. Here's some of the money / life lessons he's learning already.

1. How to fill out a deposit slip and record this in his checkbook.
2. The first check he wrote was his tithe check.
3. How to record his tithe check in his checkbook.
4. How cool it is to see his balance increase with depositing his other birthday money and this weeks mowing money. (He's mowing 4 yards this year.)
   
5. Trying to decide whether an Xbox is really worth taking his new checkbook balance down to zero. (No final decision yet.)
   
   

Best lessons here for me.

1. Knowing and trusting my son enough at 15 year young to manage his own money and put a checkbook and debit card in his hand.
   
2. Seeing his mental wheels turn with all the "firsts" in using his checkbook.
3. Watching him go back and forth in trying to decided "do I or don't I" buy an Xbox or save the funds towards' his first car. (There's another great blog post here.)
4. Knowing that I showing and teaching him good money habits that's he'll be using long after he's moved out of our house. (Sooner than I think his mom or me will be ready for.)

This is one of these life moments for me where I think to myself "Life is good." Thanks God!