Teaching My Kids About Savings for College with an Allowance! #BabySteps

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This post was sponsored by State Farm®. For more information on the best financial services for your family, please visit or call a State Farm agent.

I’ve been sharing with all of you about our journey as we’re preparing for our kids’ college savings. I’ve learned so much over the last several weeks about the different ways we can prepare for our kids to attend college, and sitting down with our State Farm agent, Diana Delija-Munoz, was also a really big help. Diana was able to explain how State Farm can help us prepare for such a big and important journey, in a way that fit our family.

I’ve been learning a lot about saving for future college costs, but I want to incorporate my kids as well. I want them to learn about the importance of saving for college and teach them about savings in general. Growing up, my Grandpa would always talk about his 1/3 savings rule. ⅓ into savings, ⅓ to bills, and ⅓ to spend. Other than listening to him talk about how he saved while growing up, I didn’t have anyone else teaching me about the importance of saving or the importance of preparing for college. It’s all something I learned a little about in high school and on my own throughout my adult years. It’s really important to me to teach my kids the importance of saving for a rainy day, saving for college, and being responsible with their money. The kids love finding change on the floor, or in my purse, and putting it into their piggy banks, but I want to step it up a notch. Now is the perfect time since they’re starting to understand money a little more.

Our littlest 2 are a bit young to teach about savings, but our 5 year old is at the perfect age to start learning. To teach her the importance of saving for college, and savings in general, I’m going to give her a chore chart where she can keep track of the chores she does. (Chores included are: taking out the trash, picking up dirty laundry, putting clean laundry away, sweeping the floor, clearing the table, using a small vacuum, dusting, picking up toys and books, and making her bed.) When she reaches her weekly goal, she’ll get an allowance and from there I’ll teach her about savings and spending. I’ll give her 3 jars labeled Spend, Save, and College. Since she doesn’t have any household expenses, we will use the household jar as her college savings jar and the goal is for her to use that until she starts college. Then she can turn that into her household jar. Once her jars are full, we will deposit them into their proper accounts, i.e.: savings account and college account. This method can also be used for any extra money she gets from birthdays and holidays.

So far our daughter is eager to save money and loves watching her jars get a little fuller each week. She can use her spend money on little things like candy, blind baskets for toys she likes, and other little things she asks for when we’re at the store. Since she tends to ask for stuff a lot while we’re out, it’s been a great teaching lesson on not being able to always get something, and whether that candy bar is really worth spending the money on, or not. I love being able to teach her some of the things I learned from my State Farm agent, like the importance of starting to save while young.

To create your own savings jars, you’ll need mason jars, labels, and stickers (all found at my local craft store). I applied the wording with scrapbook stickers, placed them on the mason jars, and removed the lids. Simple, easy, and cute! For a chore chart, I’m using one I found on Pinterest.

I highly encourage you to visit your local State Farm agent so you can learn about all the different ways to save for college. Thanks State Farm for sponsoring this post.