Today we’re going to have a little drawing lesson. Don’t worry, even my 2-year-old can do this! For the purposes of this lesson, color=money!
*Special thanks to Mr. T for drawing our awesome moose-piggy bank for this demonstration!*
Coloring Your Spending
When you spend money, you should “stay within the lines.” Only spend money that is actually in your moose bank. Think about this picture.
If you wanted to get the money out, you would have to break the moose bank (awwww… but he’s so cute!). Think of this cute moose every time you go to spend money. Does that mean you should never spend money? NO! But before you spend money from your cute moose bank, you need to get into the habit of pausing and thinking about it first.
Is this purchase worth breaking this cute little moose face? Ask yourself does this spending align with my goals? If it does, break that little moose face and go for it, but don’t spend more than is in there… looking at the picture, that isn’t possible, right? There’s no other money anywhere. Remember this. It’s really that simple. If the money isn’t in the moose, you can’t spend it!
Coloring Your Savings
Savings breaks all conventional rules. There’s no need to “stay in the lines.” The most important thing is to save. You want lots of color!
Imagine just dumping the color all over. Will some of it end up in your moose bank? Yes! Will some of it end up in emergency funds, retirement funds, brokerage funds, etc. Yes! We can argue about the nitty gritty details about which moose bank needs which colors, but that’s not important. Pour that color!
Until you increase the amount of color on your savings picture, you don’t need to worry about the details. If you’re pouring color, you’re moving in the right direction.
Mr. Moose Bank Says: “Stay in the lines for your spending, go crazy on your savings!”
Mr. SSC
Love the simplicity! Mrs. SSC was just talking last night about posting on how I have been “overdrawn” on my allowance the last few months. She was joking about raising the allowance interest rate from zero to any other number. I suggested a negative number, lol.
Staying in the lines can be difficult, but using money you don’t have just sets up an even worse spending cycle. It hit me hard in college when I was shelling out $400/mo or so just towards paying down credit cards. Yes, plural, of course. What I failed to realize was that I needed to change my habits, not just focus on “paying off” my credit cards. You know, learn to color IN the lines. 🙂 Some habits are still hard to break I guess.
MaggieBanks
Ha ha ha. You and me both, man! My Cambodian lessons and then my new snow coat (my zipper broke on the other one) put me over my allowance! Mr. T actually loves when this happens because then he doesn’t feel so guilty that he goes over. 🙂
Ms. Montana
I actually just started coloring saving art with glitter glue! And you are right, the more the better. =) http://www.montanamoneyadventures.com/smart-goals-with-savings-art/
MaggieBanks
Beautiful!
Financial Panther
This is a good point about just getting started! A lot of us get so worried and overanalyze how to save our money. This is a good way to think about it. Just get some money saved, then you can deal with where it should go within the lines.
MaggieBanks
I think we overcomplicate things a lot. And then we cause stagnation because we’re not optimizing 100%. Who cares? If the color is coming in, you’re doing something right!
ChooseBetterLife
This is adorable! “Is this purchase worth breaking this cute little moose face?”
Thanks for the smile this morning. Do you make a version with a saguaro?!?
MaggieBanks
Ha ha ha. This “cute little saguaro face” just doesn’t have the same effect. 🙂
Harmony Smith (@CMK_Harmony)
I love your analogies – always easy to understand, but so true. As of right now, our mindset is more focused on paying off the debt. We avoid purchases if at all possible, so we can keep paying down the credit cards and loans. However, we are putting small amounts in our own little moose bank, and we certainly won’t be breaking his cute face 🙂
MaggieBanks
Mainly, I wanted an excuse to make Mr. T draw a cute little moose bank! 🙂 And every little coloring helps!
RetirementManifesto (@RetireManifesto)
Coloring inside the lines. Not being able to smash the moose. Man, this financial stuff is NOT any fun. Great way to illustrate a powerful concept. (For the record, I still want to smash the moose).
MaggieBanks
You’re the worst! 🙂
Gary @ Super Saving Tips
Cute and simple. Great way to teach kids as well as adults!
MaggieBanks
Thanks, Gary!
T @TheTirelessWorker.com
Hi Maggie, so happy that I found the site. What a cute post! I believe financial education should be kept as simple and as fun as possible. This is the perfect example!
MaggieBanks
Thanks so much! Sometimes I think we forget the basics and get stuck in the weeds. 🙂