An age-by-age guideline to teaching kids about money will help you and your child understand both what it is and why it is important. There are many lessons that can be learned by parents about their children’s financial awareness and responsibility. This guideline will provide some guidance. It will show you the best way to approach money, helping you to explain its value and how to encourage your children to learn about it. Teaching kids about money is really one of the most valuable things that you can do as a parent and teacher.
Being a good example to your kids about financial education is important but what they see out of you is even more important. Learning about money and how you spend it is just as important as what you teach them about it. Make sure that your teaching kids about spending and saving will not only help them with their own personal finances but will also help you with yours. Some tips to keep in mind when teaching kids about money are to avoid making any large purchases then make a list of things that are necessary instead of buying things that you think they might use.
You can start teaching kids about personal finance by drawing a “money tree”. This is a graph that represents money in various shapes and colors. You will start with just one money tree and as they grow older multiple trees will emerge. As your children grow and get more sophisticated, a real-life example or two of their own personal finance will probably be helpful to them in understanding how all this works. You can use these examples in conjunction with your graph to teach kids even more about personal finance.
You can take lessons two and continue it by showing your children the balance between their income and their spending. You can do this by drawing a line from their income to their spending. Then take another portion of their income and show them how they are spending it. In lesson three, you can expand on the previous lesson and discuss borrowing and saving. Finally, you can conclude your lessons by showing your kids what type of debt they should be keeping track of.
If you feel comfortable teaching about budgeting and money, you might want to start teaching kids about personal finance even sooner. There are many age appropriate lessons available for kids that teach basic money management skills. For instance, you can pick up some “How To” books at your local library or find lesson plans in bookshelves at your local bookstore. A lot of younger children also love watching TV shows like “American Idol” and “Dancing With The Stars.” Both of these programs teach money management skills and it can help your child be better behaved around money and feel more confident with their own personal finances. Your child may even find them to be more responsible and self-reliant if they watch “Idol.”
Another important thing to teach kids is saving money for a rainy day. Saving can be done in many different ways, but saving is really important. You can buy Christmas decorations for the holidays that won’t cost you a lot of money if you do your Christmas shopping early in the year. You can also save money for a vacation, if you know where you are going to be spending most of your time. The most important thing, though, is to set aside a certain amount of money for a rainy day.
As your children get older, teaching kids about balancing spending and saving is still very important. This will allow them to develop a good budget. At a young age, it is a good idea to have them help with budgeting. They can ask their parents for a weekly spending allowance or they can use a paper and pencil they have lying around. It is a great idea to let them have a say in where the money goes and how they can spend it.
Teaching your kids about saving and spending can help them learn how to budget their money at a young age. You can teach them about saving by having them help you shop at the grocery store. It is a good idea to teach kids early on that they shouldn’t put all of their food on their plate or that they should only eat what they need. Teaching your kids about money education early on will help them maintain healthy habits as they grow up.