Start right now to teach your child/children about managing money. The best way to achieve this is through role modeling. It might just be an investment in their future.
How financially savvy will your child be as an adult? Your own financial behavior may play a significant role. Traditionally, the very early parenting years are also the ones where parents have the least amount of disposable income available. They are the most expensive and busiest years.
When you swipe a plastic card at the supermarket, what kind of message does your child/children get from that example? Your child may see a bottomless pit of money in the form of a plastic card.
Parents need to communicate to their school aged children exactly what happens when making a purchase. That the money either comes out of their savings account which is money earned from working at their job or business when purchasing with a debit card, or using the banks money as a loan with interest payable when purchasing with a credit card. Children must know that using a plastic card is not free money.
Paying children pocket money and teaching them to manage that amount of money will help them to understand the value of money. If children have the responsibility of their own pocket money, it will teach them financial cause and effect. As a parent, you are the single most significant influence of your child’s financial behavior.
Children usually inherit their parents financial sense just from watching and listening what happens – rolemodelling. So parents start flashing your cash rather than your cards. Seeing a cash transaction in action is a great mathematics lesson that can be talked about at home. Always stick within your budget when shopping, let the children watch the transaction take place with change given and then as a family discuss the budget, the transaction and the change.
When children are old enough to earn pocket money, help them to budget and make them responsible for making the choice on how they plan to spend that money. They will soon learn that they can’t have everything they want straight away and they will learn that they need to budget and save. Does your child have a special piggybank/money box for saving? School aged children may benefit from having a school savings account from a bank?
Last of all, teach your children to love money, after all money is just an energy that flows in and out of our lives. We want it to continually flow into our lives in great abundance. Happy savings.
A great affirmation to teach your children is “I love money, and money loves me!”