Auckland (or "Sydney for Beginners," as someone, who shall remain nameless, called it)

( A long entry summarizing the two days we spent in Auckland, New Zealand )

Today's financial lesson

Over the last year or so, my wife has been rewarding our older daughter for helping clean the house by giving her small amounts of cash. Our daughter has carefully saved this cash, and my wife has been talking about opening a savings account for her to keep her money in. Earlier this week, a friend told her that Cardinal Bank offers special accounts for children, with no minimum balance, no fees, and a 5% interest rate! They don't even require the parents to have accounts. So, this afternoon, we took the our daughters to the bank and opened accounts for both of them. We added a little extra to our older daughter's cash, so her account was opened with $50, and we put $10 in an account for our younger daughter.

When we got home, we created account records in MS Money for both. When the statements come in, we'll sit down with our older daughter and show her how to enter the interest and other transactions and balance the account. Eventually, we'll do the same with our younger daughter as well. Hopefully, this can lay a good foundation for their future financial habits. Our daughters are certainly excited about having their own savings accounts!