Lessons to Learn About Kids" Finances
Teaching children about personal finance is not easy, but it's certainly do-able.
The first thing we must do is show them concrete examples.
For instance, do they understand the value of a dime, a dollar, fifty dollars? Can they make a distinction between the value of coins and the value of paper money? Specific monetary values constitute the core of personal finance lessons.
In the last few years, personal finance concepts have been integrated into math subjects taught in schools.
Think about the products created and designed for kids that proliferate in the market today.
Who buys them? We always like to say that we'd never let our kids spend money on things they don't need.
Yet, we're the ones who are sometimes the first to buy them stuff they ask for.
Kids' Finances: Don't Tell, Show! If we believe that we exert control over our kids' money, let's think twice about that.
Of course, there are families who can barely afford to make nice and extra purchases for their children because they have barely anything left after paying for household expenses.
When parents do an inventory of the things their children own, they are amazed to find that they have practically everything! This can only mean that when it comes to kids' finances, perhaps it's the other way around.
It's the kids who control their parents.
When they want something badly, they'll try every trick in the book to get it.
How? By crying, begging, putting on a temper tantrum or simply manipulating their parents the best way they know to get them to buy what they want.
Parents may be unaware, but these are precisely the things they teach their children.
Nothing has to be said.
But somehow, children get into learning mode for the "unlearned curriculum" phenomenon.
It means knowledge that is acquired through other means.
It is not taught.
Imagine what lessons go through a child's mind when they confront their parents in the store or supermarket, confronting them and pressuring them to buy stuff until their parents give in.
As parents, we don't like to teach our kids to be whiners.
We are, however, consciously reinforcing that kind of behavior when we give in and don't maintain a firm and consistent stance when it comes to kids' finances.
What Can We Do? A good strategy would be to give your kid a fixed amount every month.
The traditional $5.
00 a week no longer works.
When we let them handle $50.
00 or $100.
00, we're telling them this is a large sum of money and it is up to them to be responsible for it.
In fact we can even give them an amount as high as $200.
00, but this all depends on our budget and on the age of our child.
Have doubts about this strategy? You're actually spending that much on them anyway per month.
Give them responsibility, and they'll eventually appreciate what personal finance means.
A $5.
00 bill is easy to part with; let's see how easily they can part with $50.
00!
The first thing we must do is show them concrete examples.
For instance, do they understand the value of a dime, a dollar, fifty dollars? Can they make a distinction between the value of coins and the value of paper money? Specific monetary values constitute the core of personal finance lessons.
In the last few years, personal finance concepts have been integrated into math subjects taught in schools.
Think about the products created and designed for kids that proliferate in the market today.
Who buys them? We always like to say that we'd never let our kids spend money on things they don't need.
Yet, we're the ones who are sometimes the first to buy them stuff they ask for.
Kids' Finances: Don't Tell, Show! If we believe that we exert control over our kids' money, let's think twice about that.
Of course, there are families who can barely afford to make nice and extra purchases for their children because they have barely anything left after paying for household expenses.
When parents do an inventory of the things their children own, they are amazed to find that they have practically everything! This can only mean that when it comes to kids' finances, perhaps it's the other way around.
It's the kids who control their parents.
When they want something badly, they'll try every trick in the book to get it.
How? By crying, begging, putting on a temper tantrum or simply manipulating their parents the best way they know to get them to buy what they want.
Parents may be unaware, but these are precisely the things they teach their children.
Nothing has to be said.
But somehow, children get into learning mode for the "unlearned curriculum" phenomenon.
It means knowledge that is acquired through other means.
It is not taught.
Imagine what lessons go through a child's mind when they confront their parents in the store or supermarket, confronting them and pressuring them to buy stuff until their parents give in.
As parents, we don't like to teach our kids to be whiners.
We are, however, consciously reinforcing that kind of behavior when we give in and don't maintain a firm and consistent stance when it comes to kids' finances.
What Can We Do? A good strategy would be to give your kid a fixed amount every month.
The traditional $5.
00 a week no longer works.
When we let them handle $50.
00 or $100.
00, we're telling them this is a large sum of money and it is up to them to be responsible for it.
In fact we can even give them an amount as high as $200.
00, but this all depends on our budget and on the age of our child.
Have doubts about this strategy? You're actually spending that much on them anyway per month.
Give them responsibility, and they'll eventually appreciate what personal finance means.
A $5.
00 bill is easy to part with; let's see how easily they can part with $50.
00!
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