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By Jack Beresford
Senior Reporter
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An Iowa mom-of-two has admitted she keeps all of the money her kids get given on birthdays and Christmas.
Courtney Colombo from Mason City took to social media to explain how she was preparing her kids for the future and "ain't sorry" it had to be this way.
However, Colombo soon revealed the true nature of her cash-skimming operation and while some were still unsure, others were quick to applaud her inspired approach to frugal parenting.
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By the time Colombo reached adulthood, she had "zero savings" and was totally unprepared for the challenges posed by effectively managing her personal finances.
"I wanted my kids to have a little better start than me," Colombo told Newsweek. "When my daughter got her first birthday card with money in it, I decided I'd put it in a savings account so that she could use that money for something meaningful one day."
At the time, keeping the money made total sense.
"She was just a one year old with no concept of money and wasn't going to miss it at that moment," Colombo said.
But as the years rolled on and the money continued coming in, Colombo saw no reason to stop holding it back.
"As she got older, and started to receive money for other holidays, random dollars from grandpa, I continued to put that money in her savings account," she said.
In next to no time, her daughter had accumulated well over $500. That was money that would have otherwise been spent on random toys or candy that Colombo admits would have been "long gone" by then. So, when Colombo's son arrived a few years after, she decided to repeat the process.
Now her daughter is six and it's second nature to keep birthday and Christmas money behind.
"She loves putting her money into her savings," Colombo said. "She says she is saving up for a trip to Paris one day."
Colombo said that so far she has faced little in the way of challenges from either of her kids when it comes to taking the money and putting it in savings.
"I imagine as they get older and have more 'wants' it may get harder to have them save their money," she said. "But, I'm hoping because we've instilled this in them at a young age, that they will want to continue to save."
At the time of writing, she estimates her daughter has saved around $1,000 while her four-year-old son has already accumulated roughly $450 adopting her approach.
Colombo acknowledges every family is different. When she posted a video to her TikTok courtneykcolombo outlining her approach to savings it drew criticism in some quarters.
"Many commented that I should let my kids be kids, and that I'm stealing precious memories by not letting them spend their own money," Colombo acknowledged. "But we don't need to spend $10 at Target to make memories. Not to mention, we make many Target trips where they do pick something out, I just choose to buy it myself and let them save their money for when they are older and will hopefully be more mindful with their decisions."
Colombo certainly has no regrets about posting the clip to TikTok where the video has been watched over 3.2 million times.
"I definitely got a lot of backlash, but I also received SO many comments and private messages from people thanking me, telling me my kids will thank me, and asking more questions on how they can start saving for themselves or their own kids," she said.
When it comes to saving better, Colombo's advice is simple: "Treat your savings account like it's a monthly bill.
"Set up an automatic transfer, budget for it, don't think of it as an inconvenience. Once it's a part of your monthly budget, you will never miss it and one day you'll be thankful to have money set aside for an emergency."
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