Children Banking
Yesterday I took my son out to lunch then over to one of our local banks to open up his very first checking account. To my complete suprise we get there and find out that because of the Patriot Act my son can’t have a checking account until he’s 18.
He can have a savings account but not a bank debit/credit card with it and he’s pretty much limited to only 2 withdrawls a month.
My son can get a job in 1 year when he’s 13 but he can’t have a checking account. When he turns 16 he can have a liscence to drive and I”ll expect him to make his own car payments and insurance payments, but he can’t have a checking account. He can join the military with my permission at 17 but he can’t have a checking account.
What on earth are we teaching our children about financial responsibility? By the time he’s 18 and can open his own account I won’t be there at his side to teach him how to balance his accounts. You don’t have to learn how to use Quicken to reconcile the sock drawer account.
I want him to learn the things about a checking account that you only learn from experience. Forgetting to enter a check, getting dangerously low and close to overdrawn, managing his funds so that won’t happen but all with the security of me there in case the worst happens. I want him to feel the pride of making his first deposit with money he’s earned.
It saddens me that as a society we are looking at the forest and forgetting the trees that make it up.