Teach kids value of saving money while they're young

It's been a few weeks since I shared your comments on kids and money, but the feedback keeps rolling in.

A few months ago, I wrote several columns dealing with the debate over whether parents or children should pay for the children's college education. As you may recall, I received mixed responses.

One I didn't mention at the time came from Lex, who sent an e-mail saying "lack of financial acumen is one of my beefs with loans and grants for college students."

"I put myself through a master's degree, without grants, and with two small loans. The thing is, the loan money was spent less wisely than any of the money I earned working. ... Earning one's way through college is a good way to learn about finances. Loans put students into a debt hole many have no realistic understanding of how to get out of."

Lex goes on to say that all students — serious or party-prone, good credit risks or bad — can receive "government-guaranteed" loans. "We're not doing them a favor. We're shackling them and increasing the national debt at the same time."

I guess it's safe to say that's a vote for making children work to pay for college.

On teaching children about money, I received tips from a reader named Robert. He wrote in an e-mail that his family was not wealthy while he was growing up, but he can remember studying money at school.

"We were taught that gold was one medium of exchange, and so were other things deemed valuable at the time they were used as money, including tulip bulbs, chocolate, tea and other precious items no longer considered useful as cash," Robert wrote. "We also studied about bartering services for other services or opportunities and the difficulty of determining the value to make a proper exchange."

That's more than many children are taught about money in school today, Robert!

He goes on to write that he could pay for a movie on Saturday with a quarter from his folks, and 16 cents would buy a large loaf of bread from the grocery store.

"We started saving nickels, dimes and quarters at a young age," Robert wrote. "For a birthday we might get some cash as well as a couple of things we really wanted and a couple of necessities and of course a few small cash gifts, which we would save up in Mom's special accounting system.