As you get older, you start to realise just how important money is and how difficult it can be to live a financially stable life. This is why many parents take steps to ensure that their kids understand more about money as well as how to handle responsibly.
Of course, teaching kids about money can be hard, especially when they have little experience saving money or don’t have a job.
To help you with this, we have put together some of our best tips that you can use to teach your kids about money. Keep reading to find out more.
Living on a Budget
When trying to set your kids up for success, you should aim to teach them to live on a budget. This can not only help you to remain financially stable, but it can also show your kids that you cannot afford to make impulse buys and that you are concerned about your money.
Living on a budget is more simple than you think, as long as you set yourself a realistic budget. Setting a budget that you cannot stick to is not going to teach your kids good lessons about money as they will see you go over your budget all of the time.
Try to set a budget and stick to it and then discuss this with your kids to really set them up for success.
Leading By Example
As a parent, you are told all of the time that you should be leading by example.
Your kids are very impressionable at a young age and so you need to show them that you are willing to follow your own rules.
This is why you need to practice what you preach when it comes to handling your money and show some self-discipline.
You might not realize just how much your kids pick up on and soon they will see you looking after your money and your family and this will leave a lasting impression.
Having your kids grow up in a home that allows them to buy whatever they want when they want will only leave them with bad habits in the future. Try to lead by example and this will help to set your kids up for success.
Savings Accounts
One of the great ways that you can teach your kids about money is to talk to them about the importance of savings. While they might be too young to have their own bank account that they can make withdrawals from, it might be a good idea to look at some savings accounts for kids.
With their own savings account, they can put away their money and begin the understanding of the importance of saving. Many of us struggle with saving as adults and so it is possible that learning saving strategies as a kid could have helped.
When setting up the savings account for your kids, you can put some of your own money away each month. They can also add any money that they receive as gifts and make sure that they are saving money over the years.
Make sure to find the right savings account for your kids and use it to teach them a little more about financial responsibility.
Teaching Them The Value of Things
Not all kids respond well to lectures on how much things cost. Trying to teach your kids the value of money in this way might not achieve the desired result. Therefore you should try to be creative when teaching children “the value of a dollar”.
By showing them that things cost money and some things cost more than others, you can really teach them some valuable life lessons. Make sure to consider this if you really want to set your kids up for the future.
Cash as a Payment
Finally, you should consider offering cash as a payment for your kids doing tasks around the house, rather than as an allowance. Many kids take their allowance for granted and even ask for more money once they have used it up, but this does not teach them much.
Try to reward your kids for doing small tasks such as chores or getting a good grade on their homework by giving them some cash.
Avoid giving a monthly allowance unless this is necessary as you can really teach them some good lessons about how money is made in this way.
Key Points
If you want to set your kids up for success, then you should make sure to try out some of the ideas that we have given you here. Think about the lessons that you could have done with as a kid and pass these on to your kids in a way that they can understand.
About the Author
Bernadine Racoma is a senior content writer at Day Translations, a human translation services company. After her long stint as an international civil servant and traveling the world for 22 years, she has aggressively pursued her interest in writing and research. Like her poetry, she writes everything from the heart, and she treats each written piece a work of art. She loves dogs! You can find Bernadine Racoma on Facebook and Twitter.