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you remember what it was like being a kid and really, really something? To feel like your whole future happiness depended on your ability to get their hands on something that, whether it’s a pony, a bicycle or a comic? To look forward to the next holiday gifts of hope and anxiety? To empty your wallet, count, recount and calculate how many months of allowance you still need? You can of course. And you probably can not remember exactly what it was that you were saving for. For me it was a horse. And I’m sure you can remember if you never managed to get it. Me? I did not.

But whatever the details of your memories, happy or sad, you’ve learned something from them. In a word, you learned about money – what it can and can not buy it, how it grows on trees, and why you should pay attention to when and where you spend it. Simple lessons learned in a simple way a simple moment in life.

Sometimes I wonder if the emotions people attach to their memories of the allowance does not submerge lessons. Very often, what we remember most is the disappointment of dreams, or weeks, months or years, we had to feel like the poor. These negative feelings we try to forget the valuable lessons associated with them, and it seems that too many people succumb to their temptations, turning their eyes to the lessons they once knew, and vowing that their children will certainly no anything.

Not all lessons of life are fun to learn, but that does not change the fact that it is always better to live through them when you have time to learn from them. Do not get this horse as a kid, in the long run, made me a lot happier than I would have been if my parents had spent far beyond their means to see my dream. On the one hand, our already tight family budget have broken and I’m sure my parents have broken too. I would not have learned to because I would not have to draw $ 8 in my wallet – two weeks allowance – for each riding lesson. Later, when I was old enough, I would learn a little more about the work, helping a horse farm in exchange for free lessons. And finally, after years of farm work and riding, I realized that horses are living longer and that my dream was that I was having the same experience, or perhaps even better, that my horse owner friends who are now faced with a very expensive pet that they could not take to college with them.

Two summer camp experiences stick in my mind. The first was when I was about 10 years at a day camp for Scouts. I remember explaining the agreement of my parents and I had my riding lessons at a camp counselor curious. In fact, I think it was the camp director. She was surprised that I was ready to give up all my pocket money (and all candy, toys and anything that children spend their money on) for a half-hour ride twice a month. I was surprised she was so astonished, amazed enough that I still remember the conversation. I thought it was just how things were, everyone had to give priority to their desires and needs and make sacrifices, you can not have it all.

In retrospect, I still think this is the way things are – we must set priorities and make sacrifices – but I am not so surprised that my camp director was so shocked that I, at the age of 10 years, seem to know this. Ten years later, I’d be shocked by the employee camp that children do and do not know about the money. I spent a few summers working at an academic summer program, a cross between a summer school and summer camp. I was the “Office Supply” manager, responsible for the complete inventory program and the purchase of classroom supplies. I know it does not look like much, but the program was home to 700 children six weeks in a row and the number of classes was somewhere around 300, each with its own budget, and many with titles like “kitchen chemistry” or “Fashion Design – Make your own clothes” that requires a great number of supplies. If an instructor needs a box of paper clips or a lemon, they came to me so that I could check through their budget to see if they had enough money to make the purchase . If so, I put their request on the shopping list for my staff to buy. There were many boxes of paper clips and a lot of lemons. . . And rocket engines and pink laces and whiffle ball bats and clown noses and frozen turkeys.

And then there were fictitious applications. One of my favorites is a demand for liquid nitrogen and no, it was not a joke, someone was really waiting for it for their class. But most applications came from false teachers (all students), who obviously never had an allowance as a child and does not pay their tuition, meals, books or toothpaste. Once the architecture of an instructor asked me to do something like 75 million worth of foam board for an activity when it had a budget of $ 100 for all 6 weeks! I remember fighting with him, trying to convince him that even if the tag board using plain would not work equally well for the activity that was still better than no money or supplies left for the rest of the summer. Shortly after, my staff and I have adopted the Rolling Stones “You Can not Always Get What You Want” as our official theme song office.

Too many children attending the summer program was a kind of spoiled, I never could have imagined. They drive in the first day with a range of authentic Louis Vuitton luggage and turn their noses in college dorm rooms, they had to sleep, which led me to wonder how they would spend the summer. The thing about children is that they are very good at adapting. The first days were always difficult, but most of them through fine without their mobile phones Starbucks or dinner favorite. But I think the speed of light to those same children back to their appropriate mode of ancient life to return home.

So the moral of the story is as follows: the benefit is good, not bad! Remember the lessons you learned from him and if you have children of your own, they do the same for your parents and you have to be tough on the allocation. Once your children are mature enough to understand the cause and effect relationships of money (probably somewhere between the ages of 8 and 10), set a weekly amount, specific requirements for “winning” the allocation and the limits of what kind of things your children are expected to buy themselves. And then, stick to these limits.

This is the hardest part. For example, if your son is saving up for something, he will probably have to forgo other things he wants, you must be willing to watch him go. Do not “reward” him by giving him extra money or buy him things he gives up. To do so would completely undermine the lessons of the allocations. It is supposed to realize that if he spends all his money on a pair of fancy sneakers, he has no money to go to the movies this weekend and show the snazzy new shoes. Instead, the reward for good behavior budgeting by giving them extra privileges and freedoms in respect of money (perhaps leave buy these concert tickets, etc.) In doing so, you also give him additional opportunities to learn to be responsible with your money.

It will not be easy, especially if your family’s finances allow room for occasional Splurge, but when you are tempted to deviate from your rules, remember, you’re probably in this position because you have learned on money as a kid. And if you do not fool you additional cash, then establish a budget for your kids (and yourself about what you’ll spend on luxury items for them) can help you balance your household budget and adopt frugality as a whole family involvement.

I was not a genius at the age of 10 (some things never change) just because I knew I had to give priority to my desires and needs, I was just lucky – lucky that my parents had held out and taught me the lessons of the allocations.