It seems pretty universally accepted among parents that kids are good at spending money while saving it is almost a pillar of Hercules. Lets remember that our kids are only as good at these kind of things as we teach them to be. In other words, as parents we must create an environment that will facilitate desired behaviors while precluding the undesired.

But how? I know I know, easier said than done, but it’s possible! On TPN’s Podcasting APB podcast, Cameron Reilly and Dave Nelsen have a fruitful divergence from their interview to discuss instilling financial responsibility and entrepreneurship in their children. From the podcast and some exchanges with Cameron, I’ve prepared a guide how you can do the same with your kids.

Read the background below and then download the free PDF file that outlines the steps you’ll need to take to emulate the same results with your own children.

How Your Kids Can Buy a Laptop with Their Own Money

One day, 5 year old Tay came to his dad, Cameron, and declared that he wanted a laptop. Instead of saying “Santa will get you one” or “maybe on your birthday,” Cameron challenged his son to save up and get one with his own allowance money, a whopping $5 per week (Australian dollars, mind you).

Cameron took Tay to the local computer store and they picked one out together. They calculated that it would take Tay four to five years at his current savings rate to get enough money to buy his laptop, but this suited him just fine because having a laptop as a 9 or 10 year old sounded a pretty good. Then, Cameron made a fundraising-style thermometer poster and hung it in a place where his son could see it. At the top of it, there was a picture of the laptop. As his son saved his allowance, he would give it to Cameron who functioned as a “daddy bank” and the proper amount would be colored into the thermometer to show his son’s progress.

At first, Cameron wasn’t sure what to expect. Would Tay’s enthusiasm last? Would he really save his money or just start buying sweets and forget about the laptop? Much to Cameron surprise, it worked better than he expected! For one, after the first few weeks had passed, Tay was not satisfied with just saving money; he wanted to know how he could accelerate this whole process. The chart stimulated an entrepreneurial vain in his son, one that made Cameron, as an entrepreneur himself, explode with pride!

Impressed with what he saw, Cameron tried to encourage it even more by helping his son along. For example, for every dollar Tay put toward the laptop, his parents would match it. Relatives also got involved and instead of presents for Christmas and birthdays, Tay asked to get a donation to the “laptop fund” and the family obliged.

There were moments, however, where Tay got a little off course and spend money from “Daddy Bank” on things like Yu-gi-Oh cards, but he always refocused back on the laptop.

I recently wrote Cameron to see how his experiment ended. He shared that it went very well and that Tay, at the age of 7, got his laptop. In addition, there was another unforeseen positive side effects: Tay’s twin brother also got interested in getting a laptop once Tay got his. It seemed that the success of one child motivated the other to do the same. Today both of Cameron’s sons have laptops and purchased them using this method!

I’ve compiled a step-by-step guide on how to implement this practice with your own kids and Cameron has approved it!

Click to download - If you like it, please subscribe to the blog!

If you decide to implement it, please leave a post on the blog and write me an email saying how it went. I would be really interested in hearing about it!

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