If I remember correctly, my sister got a piggy bank for her fourth birthday. She is the youngest in our family, so it’s never been quite clear as to why my younger brother and myself were passed up on the piggy gifting. It was a cute little pig — fat-bellied and pink, just like she was when she was little. She’s thin as a whip now (smart, too…) and no longer has her piggy bank (thanks to the bottom-dwelling loser who crawled through her bedroom window and broke it, stealing her money…), but I’m thinking that owning one while she was growing up must have put the idea of saving into her brain in a fierce kind of way. By the time she was 20, she had a nice little nest egg in the bank, a flashy sports car, and her own condominium.
Yes, she did.
My brother and I have never been as thrilled as she has been to save money, and I’m thinking it’s because we didn’t have piggy banks. You know, tainted at an early age? Marked and doomed to be spend thrifts? We must have thought that money grew on trees, or that we’d make excellent tax payers when we grew up. You know, sort of simulate the economy single handedly? I know Uncle Sam probably has a special place reserved for each of us some day…
…AFTER we all survive the financial doom and gloom that continues to unfold before us all.
I recently bought a very cute piggy for one of my nieces who turned two, thinking not only that it was the cutest thing I’d ever seen, but that maybe I could accomplish a few thing with my purchase (since I never bought one for my three sons or any of my nieces or nephews except the youngest…):
1. Say Happy Birthday to a real cutie pie (and give her the gift that will pay big rewards later in life…SAVINGS, a sense of self-worth, independence, moo-lah — wait, that would be a cow bank…)
2. Stimulate the economy by doing more than just clicking ads…(I’m extremely good at this…Ask me how to S.P.E.N.D.)
3. Support the talented blogger, Lynn of Korff Ceramic Originals who makes these incredibly cute and well-made banks (plus a whole lot more…)
4. Out class those who are burying their savings in Folger’s coffee cans in their back yards (which is what my mother would have done if she still had a back yard to dig in…)
Think about it.
Piggy banks can be excellent for those of us well beyond toddlerhood, too, right? It’s never too late to save. They can be used for incentive: money for every mile you run, or sit up you complete, or pound you lose. You can save loose change from the washer or your teen aged son’s bedroom floor — your husband’s pockets. Set a goal and insert the coinage or paper. It works. Little by little.
Hell, if I used one to deposit the money I saved for each glass of wine I didn’t drink, I’d have a nice little nest egg in about a week. But I worry about the future of all those wineries I stimulate.
Ask Warren Buffet. He knows. I’ll bet he had a piggy bank when he was growing up, too. Think about it. The holidays are around the corner, and Lynn personalizes…How cool is that?
I’m thinking I just may need more piggy banks…