A cute incentive to save

With the current economic crisis riding the next king tide up onto our sandy shores it has never been more important to get a savings plan going. I for one do not want to be queueing up for food stamps and eating bread and dripping for dinner. Okay so it probably won't come to that in this day and age (I'm crossing my fingers) but it's always a good time to start a little stash of cash for the kids. Even if it's just $5 a week, that will be around $5000 by the time they are 18. Who knows what they could do with it come 2025 — perhaps get a loaf of bread, or if things keep going bottom-up maybe they will be able to buy their own island.
Saving is a great habit to teach young children. And there's so many life lessons linked to it. You can get them to identify a want and then have them earn coins for their money box to save up for their chosen treasure (a few big ones there — patience, determination and working hard for what you want). There's counting skills when the money box is full and kids of all ages get a kick out of taking their money to the bank, handing it over to the cheery cashier and discovering how much closer they are to having their first million.
Even if the current credit meltdown isn't encouraging you to put some of your hard-earned dollars into savings while you have them here's something that will:
How cute is this little money box the NAB are giving away when you open an account for your littles? For the boys there's even a choice — a soccer ball or an AFL ball. Happy saving!