Money Matters

Last weekend, Charlie and I are sitting at the dining room table, just chatting, and he happened to mention that he had some checks he needed to deposit. He has been tutoring someone in ASL off and on via videophone, and after every few sessions, he gets a check to cover a few sessions at a time. We had opened a savings account for him back in September with his first couple of checks. Now he's ready to deposit more.

I decided the time was ripe for a teaching moment. I had him get his quarterly statement, which had just recently come in. He brought it over to me, and I showed him the money we had initially deposited. Yup, he remembers that okay. There's $38 in there.

Then I showed him the entries for the next 3 months that each had 6 cents. He gets a perplexed look on his face and signs, "But I didn't put that in there!"

So I explained how interest works.

He gets a wise, understanding look on his face and says, "So I guess I should put that other $200 in there, huh?"

Now you must understand that we recently had a very serious misunderstanding, and I am no longer willing to trust that I have completely understood him perfectly. I'm quite willing to believe I did not really see him say $200. So I said, "You mean $20, right?"

"No, $200."

"You do not have $200."

"Yes, I do."

"Where?"

"Up in my room."

"Nuh-uh.....Show me!"

Off he goes to his room. He's up there a few minutes, and then he comes back with this HUGE wad of cash. It's about 3 inches thick. Mostly fives and ones.

Now, I knew the kids work for an hour each day at school. Some help out in the office, some work at cleaning, and Charlie works in the cafeteria during the little kids' lunch. For this, they get paid. I thought it was $5 per month. Occasionally I will see a candy wrapper in the kitchen trash can of a type of candy that I have never bought before, so I figured Charlie uses his $5 per month to get himself a special treat. And that's fine.

But no, it turns out they get paid WEEKLY, not monthly. And Mr. Charlie will occasionally buy himself a treat, but for the most part, he brings the money home and stuffs it in a drawer in his desk.

By the time we finished counting all the cash and the $15 in checks, the kid had $250 sitting there.

I told him it can't gain interest sitting in the desk drawer. And if someone steals it, it's gone. Safer in the bank. His answer? "Well, I didn't KNOW I should put it in the bank."

Yeah, well, I didn't know you had anything WORTH putting in the bank!

Next field trip: Drive-through teller, learn how to make a deposit and read the receipt.

I think he has more money in the bank than I do now.