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this week’s Leveled 
Let's agree on one thing right from the start. If you want to make your money grow, the worst place to keep it is in the pocket of your jeans. You know what happens . . . you either spend it right away or forget to take it out of your pocket. Eventually, your jeans end up on the floor, right there with the rest of the clothes you've worn all week, your schoolbooks, the blanket you kicked off your bed, and other assorted treasures. But what about keeping your money in your room—in a safe place, like a piggy bank?There are a lot of good reasons to keep your money safe in your room. For one thing, it's right there when you need it. You can get to it quickly and easily. Another good thing is that you always know exactly how much money you have. You can take it out at any time and count it.Of course, the very reason why keeping your money in your room is good can also be the reason why keeping your money in your room is bad. Let's suppose you are saving your money for something big, like a new bike. Your savings are growing nicely. You know you shouldn't touch your bike money. But there it is, right in your room, in that piggy bank. It's calling to you, "Come and get me. You know you want to spend me." Money in a piggy bank is money that is easy to spend.Another thing about keeping your money in a piggy bank is that the amount of money you have is never more than what you have put into the piggy bank. If you put in $5 every month, after a year you will have $60. After ten years, you will have $600. No more, no less.Money Word:INFLATION: the general increase in the cost of everything, from cars and houses to burgers and friesThat means that in ten years, $600 won't buy nearly as much stuff as it will now.Think about what has happened to the buying power of money. In 1960, a kid with a quarter could buy a slice of pizza for 15¢ and a soda for 10¢. Today, you'd probably need at least $2 to buy the same meal! In 1960, a kid who had saved $7 could buy a really great pair of sneakers. Today, you could use that $7 to buy some very cool sneaker laces.Many adults love to talk about the good old days and how low prices were back then. They sometimes forget that incomes were pretty low then too. In 1960, the average income per person in this country was $2,219 per year! By 2000, the average income per person was $29,676.Aside from the fact that a specific amount of money loses some of its buyingcontinued on page TR1
