Teaching Money Management With a Credit-Card-Free iTunes Account

It took my daughter about seven months to realize the importance of saving money.

For seven months after I set her up with an iTunes allowance, she blew the money on the first day of the month, and then had to wait for weeks to be able to buy anything else.

I told her, don't be in a hurry. I told her, you might see something mid-month that you'll want more than that impulse purchase on Day One. I told her, but some kids have to learn by doing. And doing. And doing.

Now, she's been saving for a couple of months. She knows some iTunes gift certificates will be coming her way on Christmas day, and she wants to have a big total to blow on her next spending spree.

That's not exactly the lesson I was going for. Still, the delayed gratification muscle is a good one to flex now and then, and hers is getting a nice workout. She may wind up succumbing to impulse spending on December 26, but I don't think it will take seven months for her to start saving again.

If you've resolved to work on money skills with your child in the New Year, I highly recommend an iTunes account funded by gift cards and/or allowance money as a way to do it. Without a credit card attached to the account, kids can spend right up to the end of their funds and then they're cut off cold. You can use gift cards as rewards for behavioral goals, and they can see the money go right into their own total rather than being lost in your account. Depending on where you live, they might get a good lesson on what sales tax does to your spending, too.

To get you going with setting up an account with an allowance or gift card, I've created a couple of illustrated tutorials, plus one on establishing an e-mail address to go with those accounts that copies you in on all messages, so you can peek at receipts and track where those limited funds are going:

• Setting Up an iTunes Account With a Gift Card
• Setting Up an iTunes Account With an Allowance
• Setting Up an E-mail Account for Your Child

Hey, it's better than those days when you had to spend all your holiday leisure time assembling toys or disassembling packaging.

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_{Photo courtesy of Apple}