Sometimes life throws you a curveball, and you have to adapt as much as possible!

  

My son is in debt to me for a whole $36 dollars, and won’t be debt free until the beginning of the month of April.  At that point, the idea was that he would save around $20 a month for a Pokemon Game (Pokemon Gold?) that he wants desperately.  So I was hoping that he would save his money up after pay off his debt, to buy the game.  The entire process would take about 4 months?  I was even going to take him to get is favorite desert (peanut butter chocolate pie, yum)! 

So he would experience 3 lessons (which I posted about: Financial Lessons Learned By My Son Today!). 

In addition to these lessons, I was planning on teaching him about:

1. How to get out of debt.
2. How to plan and save up for things (I was even going to create a very simple tracking spreadsheet).

As for #1, that is already in motion, and he’s doing extra work to pay off the debt (He’s a good kid, and apparently doesn’t like being in debt… much like his proud dad). 

As for #2…, Well, that’s been sabatoged by my parents!  They already bought him the Pokemon game, and it’s going to be a present for Easter.  Since they are my elders (not to mention my parents), I’m not going to steal their thunder on something so trivial (I’m flexible)… 

So what am I going to do? 

Well, continue with the debt repayment, because their actions does not really affect that.  As long as he doesn’t know about the gift… 

Then continue with the saving plan, at least the creation of the spreadsheet!  The spreadsheet could be a good lesson in itself. Plus, we’ll use it for the next big thing… 

Has good intentions by family ever thrown you a curveballs like this?  And if they did…, did you still make the best of it and hit a homerun or even just a base hit, like I did? 

– MR