Imagine having three teenage kids who all have jobs, but one of them likes to spend all of his money as fast as he makes it. Would you focus on helping him learn to save and invest his money, or would you let him spend his money however he wanted?

In this story, a dad is in this exact situation, and his wife thinks he’s being unfair to the child who doesn’t like to save his money.

Let’s read the whole story to see if she’s right or not.

AITA for treating my kids differently due to their own decisions?

Having disagreement with my wife.

Kid 1 – 19m saves money, and I’ve been teaching him about investing and he is very interested.

Kid 2 – 17m saves no money (from doing the exact same work, during the same time period), spends it all on his friends and despite my guidance cares little about saving or investing.

Kid 3 – 14f just started working this year, and has 7 times more money than Kid 2, which was a pleasant surprise to me the way she has taken responsibility, and has taken an interest in investing.

He helped Kid 1 get a car.

They have all held the exact same summer job, except Kid 1 is now old enough to legally work as an adult so he can work during the school year.

With Kid 1 I sold him a car for $5,000 which he paid for in cash (car was worth around $9k). I tried giving him my old stick shift, but he didn’t like it and wanted a bigger car.

I let them make their decisions, so I sold him our other car. Well, that car had a major break down within 6 months of him giving us $5k. So in an effort to make things right, I bought it back from him, and we agreed to use it to put a down payment down on a Rav4.

I also cover ½ the payment, but he pays insurance and 50% of the loan payment.

Here’s the situation with Kid 3 and Kid 2.

With Kid 3 we are looking to set up a child’s investment account, and I’ve also borrowed money from her and I am paying it back in interest, her bank account doesn’t have access to CDs or lightweight investments so I set up the Bank of Daddy and pay her interest.

With Kid 2 I’ve attempted to correct bad spending behaviors that he has.

He has next to no money.

I mean, they’ve all gotten the same talks, the same education, the same offer of help. But I don’t control what they actually do with their money. So he hangs out with friends and likes to throw money around. Which at his age isn’t a huge red flag for me, but it does limit what I can actually do with him right now, and at his age, Kid 1 had nearly $10k to his name.

His wife thinks he’s being unfair to Kid 2.

My wife has noticed the dealings I’ve had with each kid, and somehow thinks I need to “correct” the situation so Kid 2 can feel more included.

However, in my view I’m “doing” the exact same thing with them all. They’re all included, and only limited by their own decisions.

He’s upset he doesn’t have money, but he also gets upset when I try to tell him why ordering $60 worth of Wendy’s for 2 people through Door Dash is a terrible idea.

I know there’s things I could do to “make him happy”. But the most important part of financial education is teaching discipline. Which won’t be learned by bailing him out of his decisions.

You can’t invest money you don’t have. He can’t help Kid 2 if Kid 2 chooses to blow all his money on Door Dash.

Let’s see how Reddit reacted to this story.

This person thinks there’s a bigger problem.

He may need to work harder with kid 2 than the other kids.

This person thinks he should keep doing what he’s doing.

Another person says love is the most important thing.

But this person suggests making saving mandatory.

Learning to be responsible with money is important.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check this one out about a man who created a points system for his inheritance, and a family friend ends up getting almost all of it.