What your kids won’t learn in school, but should.
It’s September. The kids are back in school. It’s time to focus on education, but there’s some key lessons that your kids won’t learn in school, but they really should. One of the most basic skill sets we all need, are financial skills and money management skills.
Until these things become part of standard curriculum, here’s some things you should still teach your children about money.
- Money is finite: the saying “money doesn’t grow on trees”, is especially relevant to children. When they see you using a credit card or an ATM, they may not understand that money isn’t just readily available, that you have to work for it and that it’s earned.
- Budgets: start teaching kids young about budgets. If they receive money, allow them to assist you in breaking down what they can afford with that amount of money.
- Saving: try to combat the “spend now” mentality in kids by enforcing that putting money away allows them to purchase bigger items down the road. Use some relevant examples.
- Keeping track: develop a system to track where your child’s money is going, so that they can see how a budget really works and how to plan for the future. This will come especially in handy for them later in life when it comes to saving receipts, etc.
- Prioritize: help your kids make a list of what they want to spend their money on, and then prioritize that list. This helps open discussions about what’s really important and where money should go.
- Value of savings accounts: start a savings account for your child, preferably one that makes money over time. You can then show them how saving makes money and helps with investments.
- Sharing: educate on the benefit of sharing money with those less fortunate. For example, giving portions of money to charities or helping them find ways to give back on their own.
If you have other money teaching tips for kids you’d like to share, let me know about them on Twitter.
