7 Ways To Teach Kids To Be Good With Money
Can you remember your first experiences of money? Perhaps it was playing with toy tills and coins? Or maybe when you lost your first tooth and the tooth fairy paid you a visit?
For me I remember being given coins to pay for ice cream on the way home from school.
Our learning and experiences with money usually start at really young age. In fact, studies have shown that our money habits can actually already be formed by the time we’re just seven years old!
So how can we make sure we help our kids develop great money habits?
1. Don’t wait
Given children are able to understand the basics of money from an early age, there’s no reason to wait. Start teaching kids the basic concepts as soon as possible. This is easily done through play. Using coins is a good way to start as it helps kids to understand different values, as well as being a great way to help with basic maths skills.
2. You have to earn it
Understanding that money is earned rather than just given is a great way to help kids understand how the world works in regards to money.
One way of doing this is to give children age appropriate chores to do in exchange for pocket money.
3. Show how to budget
Once kids have money of their own, you can then teach them how to budget. They can choose whether to spend their money, save up for something, or share it.
This can help them learn patience and about the value of saving for something more expensive they really want and also the opportunity to learn about giving and develop a broader worldview.
4. Goal setting
Being able to manage their own money can also help children learn about goal setting and delayed gratification.
Kids naturally want things immediately, so being able to sit down with them and work out how long it will take them to be able to afford what they’d like can be really important when it comes to shaping good relationships with money in the future.
5. Getting good value
A good way to help kids learn to use money responsibly is to teach them how to be a savvy spender.
When you take them shopping, show them how you search and work out what is a good deal or not. Show them how you look for discounts and deals to make money stretch further and how to get the best value.
This will help them learn how to use money wisely when spending.
6. Give them autonomy
As humans we tend to learn best from experience, and this is particularly true for kids as they develop.
Letting them make their own decisions with their money is a great way to help them learn. Give them advice and guidance, but ultimately, letting them decide can be really helpful as they learn.
One of the best ways we learn is from experience, and that’s especially true for children as they grow and learn everyday.
7. Be a good rolemodel
Finally, children learn so much just from watching us as parents, so the best way we can help them to be good with money is by demonstrating with how we are with money ourselves.
