Handling Money and Your Kids

Cha-Ching!

We were in Brussels, Belgium and my then 19-year-old son walked up to an ATM. He slid in his card and out came a pile of cash!

We were in Brugge, Belgium and he repeated the scene. I asked my wife, "how?" He had only been working short stints at jobs like a few weeks at a Smart and Final grocery store among other places. She didn't know.

Cha-Ching!

He kept at it, though, taking money out in Belgium and then in London.

A short time after we arrived home, his bank statement came in the mail. He owed over $700 to Wells Fargo Bank. They were letting him withdraw money even though he had a negative balance and he had no history of having a checking account for more than a few months. I couldn't believe it.

Now, we have other kids in the home - and we've tried teaching them money and investing. But they've made foolish mistakes and each had a Wells Fargo checking account. Wells Fargo dinged each of them $32 for overdrafts!

So we explained to Wells Fargo that our son is developmentally delayed and he's a client with Regional Center (we did tell him numerous times to stop). But they just shrugged and said it's his responsibility.

Finally, his Regional Center worker spoke to the district manager and they forgave him a third of the money owed.

So the lesson here . . . by all means teach your kids to be careful where they open a checking account. And pray they'll understand the seriousness of not spending money that doesn't exist.