They don’t have to pay with their own money (though that’d be nice, wouldn’t it?). But one expert heartily endorses sitting down as a family to physically pay the bills—with kids doing the math, stuffing envelopes, balancing the checkbook, and all.
The expert is Pamela Yellen, author of Bank on Yourself: The Life-Changing Secret to Growing and Protecting Your Financial Future, who spoke recently with NPR about ways parents can help children to understand and become responsible with money and household finances.
Paying bills online may be easier, more efficient, and perhaps even safer than writing checks—e-payments are also cheaper because there’s no postage—but even so, Yellen says it’s worthwhile to go old-school as a family. She says:
Get the kids to write out the checks and help reconcile the bank accounts. That is a fabulous exercise that we have found really, really works…
So just as an experiment, just for fun, go ahead, get that checking account out. Write the check out, put it in an envelope, put a stamp on it and put it in the mail and you will get a very, very different feeling about money and the cost of things.