Yep, both of them got roughly £30 from my mom. I created a separate account in Bomad called “Granny Xmas” to keep track of it.

Here’s what happened to Michelle’s money:

As you can see, I credited the £31 in December 2023. We never got around to discussing it, so it lay there for a while until she slowly began to nibble away at it by requesting transfers to her debit cards (see here for how to use Bomad with debit cards).

Andrew asked for his to be transferred to his debit card in one fell swoop:

He probably bought a game on Steam with it.

Of course Granny intended for them to spend the money and enjoy it, much like this. And the nice thing about doing it this way is that they were reminded of her every time they spent the money. If I had just put it in their spending accounts with their other money, they would have forgotten.

However, I realized afterwards that I’d missed an opportunity to help them develop the habit of saving and investing. They should have put some of the money aside, even if it was only £5. I had this idea vaguely in the back of my mind, but I didn’t act. Before I knew it, the money was spent and the opportunity was lost.

This year I’m going to encourage both of them to move some of the money into their savings and investment sub-accounts. Granny has given them a similar amount. They both have existing saving and investment accounts, so the stage is set:

(see here for how to save up for investments)

I’ve always told them that it’s their money, so I’ll only be offering suggestions. If they insist on spending it all, then so be it. I don’t think it would help to force them to save. If I did, they’d probably resent it and wouldn’t learn anything. Worse still, when they grow up and have their own money, they’ll probably spend it all, just because they can!

I did, however, stop Michelle from nibbling at her Christmas money a few days ago. She wanted a bubble tea on top of the ice cream I’d already bought her. I said she’d have to pay for that herself. Noticing that her spending balance was low, she wanted to dip into the Christmas money.

I refused and told her that we should first sit down and have a discussion about what to do with that money. She relented and paid for the bubble tea out of her spending account 💪

I think she’ll take my advice about saving and investing some of the Christmas money, but she’ll probably opt to spend most of it. That’s okay. I’ll keep reminding her when she gets money again in the future. I think she’ll eventually learn the lesson - that’s the best I can do.

I’m not so sure about Andrew. Like many 16-year-olds, he likes to do the opposite of what I suggest. And he already has a fair amount of assets (stocks, Bitcoin, gold, etc), so I think he feels he doesn’t need to save or invest any more. I’ll explain to him that I think it’s important to build the habit of putting a little bit away every time something comes in - he’s not doing that right now. Let’s see how it goes.

So if your kids get money for Christmas, try managing it separately in Bomad like this. Now every time you hear 🎵 Last Christmas 🎵, you’ll be reminded. You’re welcome 😉

Merry Christmas everyone, see you in the new year!