Car money

My coworker has six kids who are teenagers through young adults.  He spent most of his career in the air force and raised his children with a military style that resulted in six responsible and hard working kids.  Every once in a while, he gives me tips and I'm listening.  So far they've included:
1. Before each kid received their own cell phone, they had to do a certain number of hours of community service.  I think it was 50 hours/kid, but I may have inflated the number.  That sounds awfully high.
2. Each kid is responsible for half of their college expenses.  It gives them incentive to find scholarships and teaches them to value their education.
3. He did not buy any child a car.  All of his college-aged children bought cars before they went to college, but they bought them on their own with no help from their parents.
4. Half of every dollar the kids received in gifts or paychecks went straight to the bank.  The other half was theirs to spend.  Upon high school graduation, the bank money was theirs to pay towards college.

As a parent, I know I'm not as tough as he is.  I like his ideas, but I need to tailor them a bit.  Jacob and I have already discussed that we're going to pay for the boys' college educations.  We've started saving and if all goes to plan, we should be ready by the time they graduate high school.  But I like idea #4 as it teaches the kids the concept of saving.  So tonight, Brody started his first savings account.

Brody is on a big Pokemon kick right now and came home with some information from Jack, his friend at school.  Jack told Brody that you can buy Pokemon cards at Target for $20.  Brody, who has a very full piggy bank, said "I have $20!" and asked Jacob to go to Target.  The saver in me cringed.  I know he should be free to spend his own money, but he also needs to learn how to save.  I decided to go with idea #4 and told Brody that for every dollar in his piggy bank, he needed to put one in a savings account to save for a car.

"A CAAARRRR...??" asked Brody.  The confusion in his face and voice was just what you'd expect from a six year old who's just been told that they need to save their dollars to buy a car.  I stuck with it and he obliged.  He ran upstairs, broke into his piggy bank and separated his dollars into two, even piles.  He had $27 to spend and handed me $27 stating "this is for my car."  Then he asked him much money he'd need for a car.  I guessed, "Four thousand".  His eyes widened and he said he needed a lot more dollars.  Yep.

Right now, his car money is in my "car jar", a tomato sauce jar that I cleaned and decoupaged with pictures of cars when I was in college to save money towards my future car.  Sometime soon, Brody and I will go to the bank and he'll get his own bank account.  My coworker said that each of his kids had around $4k saved by the time they went off to college.  I hope the same is true for Brody.  I think it would be cool for him to buy his own car as a teenager, from the money he started saving at age six.

Oh, and we went to get Pokemon cards tonight.  Of his $27 he was allowed to spend, he only spent $18.  He handed me the rest and told me to put it with the car money.  I couldn't do it.  He's six.  He deserves to have fun with his money too.  We put the remaining money back in his piggy bank for his next whim.