Читать книгу Money Sense for Kids! - Hollis Page Harman - Страница 9

CHAPTER ONE

Money

What is money? Why do we need it? How do we get it? What do we do with it? What do you ask your parents for? What do you want or need that they won’t buy for you? What do you want or need that they can’t buy for you?

Have you made your wish list? Good. Read this book and follow the steps. Do something from this book each day. You’re young. You’ve got time. Money adds up. With the right choices, you may have as much as you need and want, plus more. However, if you decide you have no needs and wants, you can give your dimes and dollars to someone who does.

The Money Circle

Let’s make it simple. Follow a dollar today and watch where the same dollar goes.

$ You’re lucky enough to have a dollar burning a hole in your pocket.

$ You go to your favorite trading card store and buy baseball cards with the dollar.

$ The young sales clerk from the trading card store uses the dollar to buy an ice cream cone.

$ The ice cream vendor goes to the drugstore to buy a pack of chewing gum.

The dollar keeps changing hands, over and over until it wears out. Money moves in a big circle, from buyer to seller to another buyer, and on and on. In banks and electronic accounts, it moves from one account to another.

It’s a Law

Congress passed into law the dollar money system in 1792. If you want to see where Congress was granted this power, open an encyclopedia to the United States Constitution. After the Preamble, “We the people,” which you may have had to memorize in school, find

$ Article I, The Legislative Department, then find

$ Section 8, Powers Vested in Congress, then find

$ Part 5, “The Congress shall have power: … To coin money …”

At first, our currency was gold and silver dollars. After the Civil War, the government issued paper money. Finally, in 1913, Congress established a central banking system, the Federal Reserve System, often known as the Fed. The Fed’s job is to regulate the supply of money so that the country can grow economically.

In the United States, our money is made up of bills and coins. We have seven different bills worth various amounts. All are the same size. We have five coins, each with a different value and size. Coins last much, much longer than bills because they are made of metal. You might get a penny that’s 100 years old as change from the store, but you’ll never get a dollar bill that old. Look at the dates on your change the next time you go to the store.

Old Money, New Money

Bills are made of special paper, and they wear out moving from wallet to pocket, cash register to bank, and back again. The Fed keeps track of how long bills usually last. Here’s their report: The $1 lasts about 18 months; the $5 lasts about 15 months; the $10 lasts about 18 months; the $20 lasts two years; the $50 lasts about five years; and the $100, eight and a half years. When bills wear out, our banks exchange them for new ones.

The bank sends them back to the Treasury Department, which burns them, millions of old dollars every day. Their ashes are packaged as bricks and used as roofing material or sold as insulation. Your roof could be made of money, and the insulation in your walls keeping you toasty could once have been wrinkled, old money.