Kids don't need allowances! At eight years old, you're not paying a mortgage or filling the car up with gas, so your biggest decision is choosing between Frosted Flakes or Coco Pebbles. Children may not need allowances, but they do need a financial education.

Growing up we had chores. Lots and lots of chores. Anything from vacuuming the house, cleaning toilets, to feeding the chickens, mucking the barn, pulling weeds and mowing the lawns. My mom treated these daily tasks as our childhood occupation. An allowance was not part of our vocabulary. We were a component of a family and each member shared in the duties of enjoying a home. Mom was teaching us lessons in the value of work and self-sufficiency.

Now as I stated before, kids do not need money at this age, but chores are a great simulation for living in the real world. Our parents supplied all the necessities for school and daily living, but for the extras, we had to work. Instead of paying us for our chores, mom created a point system. We made a list of all the things we really wanted, then attached a number of points needed to attain each item. We listed prizes great and small- movie, backpack, rollerblades, bike, train set, skis, trip to Disneyland. When we saved enough points, we were able to "cash in" our booty for an item with that number of points. On a bulletin board in the pantry, our points were tallied each week. Mom was teaching us that if we worked diligently without complaint, we would earn our own money. And if we saved it, eventually we would be able to afford something grand.

I saved my hard earned points for five years, and then one day, I cashed in my investment for a giant professional trampoline. To a child, a full-scale trampoline is comparable to an adult buying a first car or house. It felt amazing! Though it took five years to save enough points, it was worth the wait. It had taught me invaluable money saving skills and, more importantly, the value of having a work ethic.

I took this knowledge into my teen years, and as soon as I was allowed a work permit, I got a job. I opened a savings account at the local bank where I deposited my bi-weekly paychecks. It felt really good not having to ask my parents for money when I wanted something. It also felt really good that I had ownership of certain items because I earned the money to make the purchases myself.

By the time I went to university, I had saved enough money to fund my college education almost independently. I applied for part time jobs and continued to work to supplement my simple lifestyle. Research suggests that students who work at least fifteen hours per week actually do better in school than peers who don't have a job. And even though it is tough at times to juggle both work and school, and the government seems to take a big chunk of my salary, I have always felt a sensation of significance knowing that I am capable of being self-supporting.

I budget and prioritize purchases. Making my own living teaches me responsibility and offers a sense of pride. Taking advantage of coupons and discounts stretches my meager wages. So many young people I know feel entitled to money and possessions and expect their parents to foot the bill. It may have begun with receiving an allowance for not having to do anything. To me, that is not a good model for success.

It would be great to think that money and all the challenges it brings is not that important, but most decisions we make are in fact centered on our finances. Not a day goes by when we are not called upon to understand basic math that should have been learned in high school. Are you learning the arithmetic you need to survive in the world? No one in high school ever explained in my classes how credit cards worked, or how a person made good credit or created bad credit. It's time to go back to basics to educate ourselves to become financially literate. Money matters.

My mom started working and saving when she was a child and she instilled the same kind of ethics in me. Although I still have much to learn, I am on my way to being financially independent because of the skills I garnered as a child working on a point system. Over the years, my brother and I earned everything on our list. Today we are grateful that the money we have accrued has arrived the old fashioned way-we earned it.