Christy (Professional Cuddler)

For sure. So Cole is 15. He has started driving. He has his permit. And so he is very active as well. And so he swims a lot. He has school activities. And so he's able to drive. And so we're working with him and have given him a debit card that he is able to use and utilize to get gas or fuel, potentially if he goes out to get food with friends or things of that nature. He is working.

He works part time. Occasionally throughout the year, he teaches swimming lessons. And so he does have an income that's coming in. Can I just stop you right there?

For sure. And when he got his first paycheck, kind of our rules with this, since he's got his own debit card, it's tied to my personal account, so I can kind of see what he's spending and purchasing and things of that nature. But when he got his first paycheck and he went to deposit it, I had shared with him that 80% of it has to go into his savings account and 20% can go into his spend account.

The spend is fair game. He can buy whatever he would like. I don't monitor. He doesn't have to ask ahead of time.

I did, yes. He didn't like that, as you can imagine, and he didn't understand for certain. I still think that's a hard concept to wrap his head around. We're able to supplement him a little bit each week with money as well. He gets a small allowance for those additional purchases, but we've been really trying to, again, push that.

You have money to spend and save and, again, have that balance between the two. My question is, so he has this part-time job, but it's very intermittent just based on activities and sports that he's in. I feel kids are pulled in so many different directions right now that there are times when he doesn't have the income coming in.

So what would you suggest for parents in those situations when they don't have the income, but yet they do have the expenses that they need to pay for? Okay.

So would you suggest then instead of balancing it in that respect, you know, as you suggested, you know, maybe give him 50 percent, 60 percent of it. supplementing maybe his savings as a parent just to help him kind of build up that savings? Or do you think that that's a totally separate topic?

Oh, my goodness. That's brilliant. I love that so much. Thank you.