I’m becoming one of those people. It’s not even Halloween and I’m already thinking about Christmas shopping. I used to be the person who lectured about how pre-marketing makes us spend more money, no matter how much we convince ourselves that planning ahead reduces stress and can save money because you have time to comparison shop.

But now I’m sitting here telling myself that nothing is on sale right before Christmas, but it is now as every retailer in America tries to boost pre winter earnings. Besides, it’s a tough year, and if I don’t start thinking about it now, I won’t be able to afford Christmas.

A-ha! And that’s where the thought crept in: I could create a family challenge game for the kids: Whoever saves the biggest percentage of their earnings for Christmas by December 15th wins. The percentage levels the playing field if you have kids of significantly different ages and revenue streams. An allowance-only 13 year old doesn’t stand a chance against a babysitting 17-year-old if they go dollar to dollar in a competition.

The prize is to have those savings matched. And your teens, or college students, get to keep the prize money. The savings they actually save goes to either buying presents for the family, or, depending on your family traditions, to a charity.

The game will teach them about the stock market and pacing themselves.

Now, here’s the interesting part of the game: Understanding what a fiscal quarter is. As you teach kids about the economy and investing, this concept needs to be clear. There is a lot of expectation in the real world for companies to produce on quarterly basis, and report on a quarterly basis. It helps people keep track, keeps people honest.

It’s a good habit to put fiscal quarter thinking into your kids’ lives. And this is a great quarter to do it. If you’ve been following our posts on investing in the stock market, you may know that the end of September (end of the 3rd quarter) and the beginning of October (start of the 4th quarter) are very important times in the stock market. After 3rd quarter earnings reports–what corporations have actually earned, versus what they predicted they’d earn–the stock market traditionally rises in October. Those reports are happening right now. Turn on the financial news and let your kids watch the stock market reaction.

The reason the 3rd quarter earnings are so significant is that economists begin to see what the entire year will look like. After all, there’s only one quarter left. Kids tend to think of the year in school year terms, and understanding how the calendar year is broken up will help them understand investing.

Now, they do have a natural, built-in basis for understanding fiscal quarters: seasons. Fall is the season for back-to-school, getting down to business. Same is true in the business world. So it should be a great time for savings.

To track their savings, and show them how to make most of the fiscal quarter, have them do the following three steps.

1. Keep a monthly ledger of income and expenses and savings).

2. Have them evaluate how much they’ve saved at the end of October, and come up with ideas how to save more. Another odd job? Less spending?

3. At the end of November, have them compare their saving performance from month one to month two. Then have them set an accelerated goal for the last two weeks.

4. Have them compare their last two weeks to the rest of their fiscal quarter. Did they save more at the end than at any other time? Chances are yes, and you can explain that businesses tend to have the same patterns toward the end of a quarter, often because they’ve spent their budgets. Or, because they want to make their numbers look good.

The point of this exercise is like the point of sports team drills: how pacing yourself, and then examining performance, can actually enhance performance. Fiscal quarter thinking can translate to a lot of life issues.

They can play this game with school work, for instance. If they take their worst subject, say math, and decide they’re going to make an effort to improve their performance in one fiscal quarter, what would they do? Spend an extra hour a week working on it? Getting a tutor? Joining a study group? Going to teachers’ office hours?

They can try something for the first month, see if the grades they’re getting improve. The next month, they can add more effort, see what the yield is. Like long distance running, at first it’s pacing, and by the end it’s pulling out all the stops and going for whatever your goal is.

Most teens procrastinate and then cram. That would be like doing nothing to boost earnings–or savings–until December 1, and then gunning for the last two weeks.

That’s what I did in school, and many adults have those habits. If kids think like businesses have to, they will plan their time better for everything in their lives.

I would love to hear back in December if anyone tries this Q4 Savings Plan.

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