One of these things is not like the other

I'm not good at thinking about money.  None of us are that great at it, except Mark.  We started paying our kids an allowance years ago at our bishop's suggestion because they had no money to pay tithing.  I always forgot to pay them and they forgot to ask me about it, except Mark.  Once the other kids graduated from high school, I stopped paying them the allowance (that we all usually forgot about anyway.)  But, on the first day of every month, Mark wants to know where his money is.

I told Emma I'd pay her an hourly wage for some odd jobs I have as well as piano lessons for Mark and helping him with his math, which is impossible to me.  I told her she has to keep track of the hours though.  I'm not going to remember to do that.

Yesterday, she helped Mark with some of his math homework.  I said, "Did you keep track of the time?"

She said, "Oh, no, I didn't.  I forgot.  It was only about 5 minutes though."

Mark (naturally) had his own opinion and gave me the amount the help was worth to him and therefore the amount I should pay her.

He's the child who checks the stock market like it's his job and sends Adam and me unsolicited texts like this "in case we want to diversify."

Adam said if he wasn't convinced Mark would become a day trader and spend all the money on fees, he'd give Mark some money to invest on our behalf.

Mark's eyes gleamed at the prospect, but he said, "Yeah, I would probably become a day trader."

Who knows where that kid came from.