Sounds cute

Well, not exactly today. This started back in June, but it's only just now that I realize how deep I am and the evil little mogul I have created.

I'm a single dad from México. And every opportunity I get to teach my daughters (5 and 3) something I try to take it. And it works amazing if you put a fun little twist into it, which usually means sugar or pepperoni pizza.

Now, my daughters get an allowance from me. It's a small amount, enough to get a little something from the school's cafeteria (Privately owned) and then some to "save", which they never do of course. One night I was doing some shopping since they were staying with me for the whole month of June, and being the awesome dad that I am I needed to get the cutest Unicorn pajamas I could find, marshmallows and whatever bag that contained the word "Candy" on it in the whole store. That's when I saw Chocolate Coins, you know These ones. So I immediately thought I could turn this into a learning experience while at the same time being their hero for giving them chocolate.

Here's my thought. I'll give each of them 5 chocolate coins every Monday. They can either eat them or save them as they wish. But whatever amount of coins they had remaining by next Monday morning I'd take as "savings" and I'd give them their 5 new ones for the week plus 50% of the total amount as a bonus. So if one of them had 2 coins remaining then she'd get 5 more on Monday morning, making it 7, I'd take that and add 50% more (3.5, rounds up to 4) so that girl would then have 2 + 5 + 4 = 11 coins. By just saving 2! But they wouldn't get any bonus if they saved just 1 or none. Here's where people who are good at math are starting to get where this is going... But it's even worse.

The little one ate all of her coins that very first Monday. I don't think she even took the wrapper off. The big one lasted until Friday. Weekends are rough man, you need your chocolate coins to relax. Next Monday I give them their 5 coins but this time they only got to eat 2 maximum a day (I needed to step in with some regulations, sue me!). By Tuesday my parents come visit and the kids want to go with them and spend the night, so of course I said yes and off they went, leaving their coins behind. One night turned into 5 actually, and they came back on Sunday to their 4 and 3 coins each.

"Thank God my parents helped me or this would've never even worked", I thought. They'll finally reap some rewards and maybe learn the lesson here. The big one eats only 1 coin and keeps 3. The little one eats her maximum amount allowed, of course, and keeps 1. Next morning they get a big surprise.

Big one gets 5 coins, saved 2, gets 4 as a bonus, so ends up with 11.

Little one gets her 5 coins, saved 1, no bonus. Ends up with 6.

I then saw it. My older daughter's eyes turned black and I swear I could see sweatshops filled with 5 year olds working for her while she laughs maniacally. She's up to something, I just know! And boy was I right.

That Monday they started a bit of summer school. They get to see their classmates for 2 hours a day and do some random activity, the big one brings her coins for some reason, and at some point I swear I saw her smirk at me on the mirror, as if she was warning me I'd get stabbed 20 times from behind with a plastic retractile knife to cut fake vegetables with.

We get there, dropped them off and left to do some shopping. When I came back for them I noticed my daughter's coin bag was empty (Remember, 2 a day max) so I asked her what happened. She smiles and says "I sold them", "What do you mean you sold them?", "Yup, they gave me real coins for them". I was proud. I have an entrepreneur! (Or the reincarnation of Genghis Khan, not sure yet). I asked how much she got and it comes out exactly at $44 pesos, $4 for every coin. Which is about $2.2 US dollars. She actually made a profit. I buy the coins bags at the candy shop and they cost me almost exactly $1 peso per coin, she got $4 each!. Here's where it all goes down hill.

We get home and she asks if we can go to the store. Little convenience store owned by the neighborhood's grandpa. I agree and we go. She gives the old man her whole $44 pesos and asks for nothing but chocolate coins. Grandpa has to make a profit off the damn things of course, so he sells them at $2 pesos each. That means my daughter sold 11 coins and with that money she's getting 22, double the amount! I just hope she doesn't find out I outsource my product or I'll be in trouble.

I'm so proud of her, she's making a profit and she's even outsmarting me. By Friday she has already sold 96 coins, all the while eating her 2 coins a day and even keeping some money since she's only investing on 20 coins a day at grandpa's store (Parents noticed and some didn't like the little shits buying 400% price inflated chocolate from her, but she kept some regulars).

Yesterday was a Monday. My daughter had 274 coins. I gave her 5. And 50% of that total was 140 more. She has 419 now. She doesn't even need to buy coins anymore, I'm her provider and I'm doing it for free... I need a bailout.

TL;DR - I thought about teaching my daughters the importance of savings, but I instead learned some people will take advantage of everybody, and some are happy just eating some chocolate.

Edit: Mogul not muggle

Edit 2: ITT IRS aficionados