The Hundredaires Count Their Coins
…part deux of this post.
The next morning, it occurred to me that I had just handed my kids over a hundred dollars. Yes, it was all in change, but that didn’t mean that it wasn’t money. I could have taken those coin to the bank and changed them into cash, and put it in my own bank account. I will admit that I had a little bit of giver’s remorse. But I also knew that the money had blown their minds, and that was sort of cool too. Was it worth a hundred dollars? Probably not. But I couldn’t unring the bell so… onward!
We went to the bank with the extremely heavy Tupperware container where we encountered a second set of twins who were already using the coin machine to convert the money that THEY found. It felt like a great comedy set-up: two sets of twins with containers of coins too heavy for their stick arms needing the same coin machine.
When it was our turn, I gently shook in each bag of coins, moving from quarters to nickels to dimes and finally pennies. In the end, the machine spat out a ticket telling us that there were over $120 in coins in the container, and we brought that money to a banker to set up their own savings account.
They informed the banker that they were unexpectedly very rich while he typed in their information. I don’t think he fully appreciated just how unexpectedly and fabulously rich they were. He did not properly respond to the news that they had found all these coins due to a treasure map, so he had to listen to the story until he gave them an enthusiastic enough “wow!”
The Wolvog informed me the night before that he was counting this money as the first capital he would amass to open his own computer company. I was proud that we had made the first contribution. But while we were at the bank, dollar signs started dancing in his eyes and he started listing other items he wanted to purchase with the money until we dragged them back to our hopes when we exited the bank clutching their new bank book.
Josh and I had used our own savings accounts for experiences: Josh went on a trip to China during high school, and I went on a trip to Israel. We had drained our savings accounts paying for said trips, and it was money well spent because we still had the memories of those trips years later. Any tangible item would most likely be gone by this point. We loved the idea that they would save up for something that they couldn’t imagine at this point in time: a trip or a class or — yes — a computer company. Something where the money spent would last long beyond the actual purchase.
Perhaps not as fun, but they seemed happy enough to get in the car, still talking about how they had so much money now that they were Hundredaires. And how cool it was to be rich. I hope they keep that value of money; that sense that a hundred dollars is nothing to sneeze at, a penny saved is a penny earned. Oh and that being a Hundredaire is the most incredible thing to ever happen on this earth.
11 comments
You make me smile. Now I just need to amass a huge container of spare change to give to my kids in a few years’ time. Except that I’m very good at using up my spare change, so I never have any.
I love what the Wolvog said about using this to start his own computer company, what a great thing to save for!
And so true about being a hundredaire…it is easy to forget in adult life how truly cool that is. It’s good to be reminded, and the twin’s enthusiasm about that is a wonderful thing.
I love this story. I used to do something like this with my younger brother (without the money because I was 12) and I can’t wait till my daughter is old enough for treasure maps and the like.
I need to put that into my daughter’s head – saving her money for some sort of future experience. She enjoys saving her money and planning on spending it…and then scamming me into spending my money instead. She owes me $11 for her book order, come to think of it! She’s actually quite good (for 7) at the delayed gratification thing. And, she recently cleaned her room and gathered up some toys in anticipation of being able to get new stuff for Christmas. Well, if nothing else, we’re teaching her to be thrifty and not too much of a hoarder.
Surprisingly, she’s also very understanding about what I’m willing to spend my money on. She really wants an American Girl doll, but I feel that $100 is way too much to spend on a doll. She (sort of) agrees, and so has set her sights on the more reasonably priced Target or ToysRUs knock-offs. There are a few other things that we’ve agreed are way too expensive for what they are. I’m glad to see that she’s getting some idea of value vs price.
You are the BEST mom. I need to steal some of your fun ideas, because I”ve got nothin’
I love that you did this with them – it’s such a cool thing to do, and such a good lesson for them to learn the value of a dollar.
Simply awesome.
So…I love to read you when I’ve got little snippets of time to myself. Van pool waiting to get the kids, eating my lunch as work, or curled up on the couch watching important tv dealing with housewives. You usually make me laugh, cry, think, etc…these last two posts have just been simply lovely. Your writing is a great comfort and the storyline on these two posts has been some of your best posts. I even loved the “to be continued.” Great work. Really a nice break during my day.
I can’t believe that all I wanted was a million dollars when I was growing up as that was the highest amount of money I could ever dream of that would surely make my life perfect and secure. Now, I couldn’t even buy my dream house with it, never mind pay the taxes on it and the heating bill and all that. Say, what DID you do with all those Canadian coins? Ahem.
I can imagine their faces as they looked at that container, all aghast and amazed!
So, so great!
I don’t play the lottery…but a lot of people I know, work with etc, do. Whenever it comes up, I always ask, “If you win, will you give me $100?” The response varies…but for the most part people easily agree that they would give me the $100. Some offer more & I always refuse saying, “No $100 is enough” because the way I see it, $100 would be more than enough to make my day. Heck, I got excited the other day because I found $2 in my purse I didn’t know I had!!