19. Managing your money
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Working with real money, and being in control of you OWN money, is exciting. But, please make sure you don’t get carried away and click ‘Buy now’ on everything you see.
Think about it, carefully, check your eWallet to see how much money you have to spend. This is a great opportunity to practice your adding and taking away… addition and subtraction come in handy after all!
Never spend more than what you have in your eWallet… you don’t want to go into debt (debt is when you have spent more than you have and therefore it has been borrowed from somewhere/someone else and needs to be paid back).
If you want to buy something you cannot afford, then make a plan to save up the money. Saving is when you don’t spend your money as soon as you have any… saving is when you watch it add up to a larger amount over the course of time. You might be saving for a more expensive item, you might be saving to invest your money to use when you are a bit older… saving is a great way to feel financially secure.
People use bank accounts and building societies to save their money in. You can earn ‘interest’ on this money without doing anything to it. Interest is money paid to you by the bank for saving your money with them.
Your parent or responsible adult will be able to help with this, so do discuss with them what you should or shouldn’t be spending.
If your pocket money goes into your Tradem account once a week or month, then make sure you keep an eye on the total value as it goes down (or up if you are busy selling!).