Seeding Your First COR Day

By Alec Lindenauer, Chief Allowance Officer

Our member, Robbie S., asked a great question about all that money laying around his daughters' rooms. Do they use it as part of the first COR Day? Start from scratch? Something that's a hybrid?

Here's Robbie's exact question regarding his two elementary-aged daughters:

I’ve watched all of the videos from the Allowance chapter, and I’m getting ready to introduce COR Day to my kids. But they each have accumulated some money in a piggy bank … probably about $100 each from gifts, the tooth fairly, etc. What should I do with that money? Do I bring that into my first COR Day?

For you COR members, I posted my video answer to this question in my COR Community Coaching Corner on your Dashboard. You can click here to jump right to it. As an alternative, here's a transcription:

A new COR dad with two daughters is super excited to get going with his first COR Day and the four slotted system, so he’s trying to think through all of the set up details. 

Each daughter has around $100 spread across a couple of piggy banks and some drawers. Hence, one of the reasons he’s looking forward to implementing a true money strategy for his kids. The money they have lying around was accumulated from a variety of sources … gifts from grandparents, the tooth fairy, change “borrowed” from Mommy’s big change bucket, etc. 

So, how should new COR parents treat this money? I call it Seed Money, and it’s a great problem to have. 

Like this dad, you should be planning out your first COR Day before it happens. And before that first COR Day, you should be introducing your new plan to your kids. Even if it’s a five minute conversation over dinner, just describe that you’re going to have a new allowance routine, and why you’re doing it. Tell them they’ll have their own money, and freedom to use it. Most likely, they’ll be very interested.

You should also be ready for your Seed Money plan in advance of that first COR Day. In this case, $100 is a great number to start with, and there are a few ways to go.

For one, you could seed each of the four slots with $25, and then begin your new COR Day. 

Another idea would be to seed $75 in the investment bucket, but start with a lower interest rate than the 10% I used in my house. You could then spread the remaining $25 between spend, save and donate. 

One final idea would be to have a conversation around the first item your child wants to save for. If it’s an expensive item, maybe more of the seed money goes in that slot.

Basically, there are a number of ways you can go here, but all utilize their current money stash as Seed Money.