Project Ideas to Generate Cash
They discuss how these experiences can help foster responsibility, financial independence, and a solid work ethic, all while equipping young people with valuable life skills.
Key Points Discussed:
– No Paying for Chores: Charla shares why she’s firmly against paying children for chores, explaining that chores are essential household tasks that everyone must contribute to, not something to be seen as optional or something to be negotiated. By reframing the approach, chores are presented as a responsibility rather than a money-making opportunity.
– Allowance and Budgeting: The hosts discuss how to give kids an allowance, but with a twist. Instead of giving money for discretionary spending, the allowance is tied to necessities like school clothes, activities, or supplies. This method teaches kids how to manage a limited budget and make tough choices when they overspend or need to save for future purchases. It’s about giving them responsibility over their finances while learning from their mistakes.
– Project List for Earning Money: Charla introduces a curated list of 12 projects that kids can undertake to earn money, including tasks like organizing household spaces, yard work, or even pet care for neighbors. These projects not only help them earn extra cash but also reinforce the value of working hard for what they want, creating a sense of achievement and independence.
– Learning Through Consequences: The episode is full of personal anecdotes, such as Charla’s son Jack, who accidentally ruined his white shoes by mowing the lawn, turning them green. These stories highlight how kids can learn from real-life consequences and gain a deeper appreciation for their belongings and the cost of replacing them.
Call to Action:
- Download the full project list in the blog linked in the show notes.
- Start implementing a project system in your home when your kids have wants that fall outside of regular gift giving occasions.
- Reflect on how you’re teaching financial responsibility in your family—whether through allowances or entrepreneurial projects.
Connect With Us:
– Read Charla’s blog for more tips: [Beyond Personal Finance Blog](https://beyondpersonalfinance.com/our-blog)
– Subscribe to our weekly email with links to our podcast and blog: [Subscribe Here](https://beyondpersonalfinance.com/subscribe-1)
– Explore our financial literacy products for kids: [Beyond Personal Finance Products](https://beyondpersonalfinance.com)
The post Project Ideas to Generate Cash appeared first on Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network.
Welcome to "It's Not About Money" hosted by my parents, Matt and Charlie McKinley, and produced by the Ultimate Homeschool Podcast Network. This podcast is all about helping parents raise responsible and ready adults through insightful parenting advice that goes beyond financial matters. Join them as they explore practical strategies, share valuable insights, and provide meaningful tools to navigate the challenges of parenting in today's world. Whether you're looking to instill essential lifestyles, cultivate emotional intelligence or nurture a sense of purpose in your children, Matt and Charlie are here to support you every step of your life. And now for today's episode. Oh, and welcome to "It's Not About Money," the money podcast for intentional parents. Yes. I'm here with my wife, my inventive wife, Charla. Yes. Charla is the creator of an amazing financial literacy program for teens called Beyond Personal Finance. Yes. She was a class for her son in 2014, so 10 years ago, and this year that same son, Jack, helped her write a new program for younger kids. Yeah, it was really fun to work with him, but listen, I don't think you've said your name. It's Matt. These people know who I am. I'm just saying. It's interesting. For like 20 or 30 blogs. I know it's me. Well, what do you want to say, my name? Okay, it's Matt. Yes. Matt, can I say handsome? Sure. It's a stretch. But I'm going to go with handsome since I'm going to give an adjective for myself. Mine as well. All right. That's a funny topic, which shouldn't surprise any of you, with project ideas for your teens and tweens. That's right. I have 12 ideas for projects your kids can do to earn some money. 12. That sounds like a list. It's been a while, so we had a list. It's good to get back to the list program. It's ideas. They're 12. But these are not chores, correct? Correct. Because I know you were not a fan for paying kids for chores. I think we actually talked about that last week in the blog about gratitude. And over and over, right? That's right. I don't believe in paying kids for chores because then it makes the choice. It makes the choice feel optional to them as if they've got a choice on whether or not they clean the potty. Right. And this is, you're always talking about there being like a labor strike. In other words, if they decide they don't want to do the chores this week, yeah, it's okay. I don't want to clean the toilet. I don't need any money. I was just with grandma JJ, we played the money game. I'm cash rich. I'm not doing the toilet. That is right. There is no amount of money in the world that could motivate my daughter, who is a saver by nature, to clean the toilet. Money is not compelling for her. She's a saver. It's always got money sitting around. Right. Our kids need to clean the toilet because that is part of living in community with your family. Everyone is needed and essential to the flow of the household. Okay. So these chores or these projects, I should say, are outside of the traditional chores you might have as a family. That's right. In order to teach responsibility, I encourage parents to give kids money and a budget and let them manage their own decisions like snacks, clothes, entertainment, et cetera. Like we talked about this in past podcasts and blogs, right? But I also teach parents to teach responsibility by having kids pay to replace what they lost or broke. So now I've talked a lot about giving money to your kids, but the next logical question is, well, I did that. And what if they spent all the money and they need a new pair of shoes or they need to replace the coat they lost or like they need money, but they've spent it all? I love that. That's a great problem for kids to wrestle with. I agree. As adults, who are with all the time, to teach how to wrestle with that for kids is really important. And Tarla, I think this is where your project list comes up. Right. So with the allowance, you're giving them money, right? You're giving them money on an allowance and you're telling them they're responsible for spending it on school clothes for the year, for example. What they spend too much money and don't get all that they need, this is great because it will teach them in a safe environment about the power of sticking to a budget, right? Because, you know, when you give them that money, presumably you have spoken with them regarding kind of, you know, outlines or expectations and, you know, I've actually got a list back to school shopping list and, you know, how much to budget for around that. So if they blow it and they might, and that's good because they're in your home and it's a teaching opportunity, they will need the other clothes, right? So how do they pay for them with their own money if they, sorry, they'll need to pay for them, right? If they, you cannot loan them money because then that teaches about credit, right, in loans and that's a whole other topic, right? You need to say to them you're out of money and you need to spend money from your own job or you need to do some projects and that's where this list comes in, right? So again, let me reiterate because I feel like I wasn't clear. I was actually paying attention to the dog. Hey, thank you, Charlotte. I know. I know. So let's assume you're going to give them money for back to school shopping, okay? So people when, when they, when I say give your kids money and let them pay for their own things, I am not saying that they have to pay for their own things with a job, right, where they go get a job and they have to pay for their things. That is okay for them to do, no problem there, but what I'm saying is like if you, you aren't as a parent thinking it's your responsibility to put clothes on their backs, sure, but instead of buying the clothes, I suggest you give them the money that you would use to buy the clothes, give them a framework and then let them go and spend the money themselves and make choices. Back to school time, you're going to spend $400 on the clothes, you get the kids $100 and when it's gone. Now when it's gone, this is where the list comes in because when it's gone or when they spend more money, my son loves shoes, when he had his kind of wide of money that I gave him, he spent too much a disproportionate amount on shoes because he loved them. So in order to supplement the budget, he had to use his own personal money from his job or his grandmother or whatever it was, or he could do a project from the project list. So that's where this cash comes in. This is what happens to adults, right, when we overspend and we need to generate income, we can get another job, we can do over time at the office, there's ways for us to get other money when we overspend and we're teaching our children that same level of responsibility and helping to understand when we overspend, there's a consequence to that. That's why it's really, really, really important that if they overspend on a school budget or on if you've given the money for their extracurricular activities and like sports equipment or whatever it is that you've given the money for, it's important you don't bail them out, right, because we're raising adults and this is a great way to model real life for them. They will never learn to manage money if they have all their purchases made for them or if they make the purchases and then they spend too much and they get a loan from mom or dad, right, because yes in the real world there are loans but the interest rates are way more than you would charge for them. Right, I remember the first time we did this like with our kids on vacation, instead of just buying souvenirs, you told them hey there's a set amount you can spend and you can spend however you want to spend it. That's right. So you said all right you know Kate, you're the saver, you've got very different responsibilities or very different expectations but Kate and Jack got the same amount of money, we said do it that however you will, it each learned kind of the power of saving and spending and how money was constrained, they couldn't buy everything they wanted or they could save it for later. That's right, yeah that's exactly right and when you do that, it takes the pressure off us so you know Jack is my spender so he was all the time asking for stuff throughout the trip but by giving him the money I could relax because you know the money is its own constraint so if he wanted something he had to decide how bad he wanted it and if he wanted more money than we were budgeting for the trip and he knew about this trip in advance then he could work to earn money in advance before everyone went on the trip doing things like from the projects on the last. That's right and I've got on this list, I've got projects like organizing cabinets and drawers in bathrooms or the kitchen, washing cars or doing projects outside. Yes and most of those projects actually can then be even advertised in the neighborhood once they get the hang of it right. So if one of your projects is money yard they can start a little small business or washing cars, they can start a little small business. Yeah so I've got some customers whose kids formed a business they called we haul with the we a play on words indicating they're young kids, WEE we haul and these were a couple of boys and they hauled junk out of people's houses, they hauled limbs and stuff like that and then her sister when she got a little bit older she did we organize, that was really smart, very cute. It's really cute and this is how we kind of teach our kids not just to take care of themselves, they're being entrepreneurial so learning what it looks like to earn money and save money for a bigger project. We don't always have to give things to kids but we can encourage them to work to earn the things that they want or that they need. That's right and you know I remember when Jack spent you know the when Jack spent a disproportionate amount of money on his shoes, not only did he have to pay a little bit out of his own money to supplement getting those expensive shoes, he wouldn't take those shoes off. Ever. Right. I don't even know because I looked out the window and he was mowing the lawn which was his responsibility and his chore and it wasn't paid for it, it wasn't a special project or anything. He just, he was mowing the lawn because that's what he did and those new shoes y'all and he learned so the thing of it was those were his shoes for you know six months or you know whatever timeframe I had put out there at the time but it was a long time and his white shoes went to green and he didn't love them nearly as much but he had to make a decision. Now does he spend, because he's already spent the money I gave him, does he spend his own money getting new shoes, does he do projects to get new shoes or does he just cope and just kind of work it out you know and then figure out like wait for a gift opportunity to come around. And I think he chose to wait. I think he wore those green shoes. He did, he waited. Like the first you know three or four months and then kind of around Christmas time he was super excited to find shoes on the Christmas time. That is correct. I remember honestly when I was a kid when I got into like high school and gifts went from being cool like toys or sports equipment and I started getting like practical stuff and I remember getting like shirts and shoes for Christmas and I thought man this is a really crummy Christmas. I was not grateful because every pair of shoes I had ever had before then was always like my mom and dad just went to the shoe store and they just bought them. It was never a gift it was just it became almost kind of I looked at it as their responsibility but when the responsibility was transitioned to me and they handed me those shoes for Christmas I was disappointed but Jack who understood the value of shoes really valued and was grateful for those shoes. That's right because he understood the cost to him of having to replace them. And this is back to the gratitude podcast from last week. Their kids will be grateful for what they receive if they're not constantly receiving things. And if some of those responsibilities are responsibilities they're carrying today when you carry that for them they will really recognize the gift you give them. That is correct. And so Jack the next pair of shoes he bought he never mowed the lawn in his new shoes he put on his old shoes which was what we told him the first time you know we're like hey you know we have some yard shoes he refused to do it until he ruined his first shoes. The second pair of shoes he was much more responsible for and y'all should see today he's so fun. I mean he comes home from college and he will take his shoes out of his luggage and line them up nice and neat like he's just he's so much more responsible keeps a pair of spare shoes in our garage if he needs to help me out in the yard he doesn't have to trash his current shoes. That is correct. And so it's just the it is very very important to recognize that when they are home in living in your house these lessons yes that that pair of shoes was wasted right the one he bought it was wasted but that lesson and those pair of shoes were probably 150 bucks but that one hundred and fifty dollar lesson will pay dividends for the rest of his life like he learned responsibility he learned gratitude he learned take care of his stuff. Alright we're gonna wrap it up here today charlotte but everyone you guys can get this list this project ideas in this week's blog you can link to the blog in the show notes if you would like the link sent to you weekly then you can just sign up and subscribe with the link in the show notes and you'll be all set yep alright have a good one guys go be great parents have a great week. Thanks for tuning in today's episode if it's not about money we hope you found our parenting insights valuable and empowering if you've enjoyed the episode and want to continue exploring strategies for raising responsible and ready adults I invite you to subscribe to my weekly blog at beyondpersonalfinance.com/subscribe and also if you have a friend or family member that would find our show helpful or entertaining please share it with them thanks again for spending some time with us we'll see you right back here next week. (upbeat music)
