Teaching and empowering kids about the important lessons of responsible money management combined with being in business for themselves and making a difference is probably one of the best gifts we can give them.

My daughter, Emily, is 7 1/2 and wants to earn money. She’s not quite old enough to push a lawn mower, but she’s old enough to understand that money doesn’t “grow on trees” or that it doesn’t magically appear out of the little box called the ATM machine.

She’s been watching me send cards to people and building my business with Send Out Cards for the last year. Recently, she asked me if she could start sending cards of her own.

Wow! This was very exciting news. So, I spent about 1/2 hour with her showing her the Send Out Cards system, how it works and how easy it is to send a card. In no time, she sent her very first card all on her own.

She was thrilled and of course, had questions. “Mommy, how do I get paid for sending cards?” We worked out an arrangement where I said that her job was to just think of one person everyday that she wanted to send an unexpected card, too. Pretty simple, right? For each day that she does this, I will pay her $x amount of money. At the end of the month, she has to put 1/3 of it in the bank, give 1/3 to church and she gets to spend the remaining third.

She’s already received her first week’s pay and her eyes lit up like the 4th of July. She’s only 7 and she “gets it.” She understands that she’s in business with her mom and not only making money, but more importantly, sending smiles through the mail with every card she sends.

As she gets older and understands more, I will give her more responsibilities and probably her own account, too. She doesn’t realize it now, but someday she will know that responsible money management and making a difference starts when you’re a kid and it’s something she’ll be able to pass on to her own children someday.

It doesn’t get much better than that.