We’ve learnt to spoil our children in fear of keeping their needs unsatisfied or depriving them of must-have experiences and things. Now the summer’s over and children are back to school it’s the perfect time to teach them how these pieces of paper are hard-earned and powerful.
The concepts of saving, spending and budget
Saving
Show children that saving money is a responsible behavior for those times when money are needed (i.e illness, college education, trips).
Make your own home-bank, where kids can deposit their pocket money and watch it grow. Teaching them the value of interest will make it clear how investing rather than spending money is more valuable. Once you see they’ve understood the virtue of saving then they’re ready to open their first saving bank account!
Saving it to grow it: The value of investing money
Spending
Teach children that money have the power to give us necessary things like food, transportation, electricity, the Internet. Ensure that they realize that most things need money to get; it will keep them aware of how important they’re.
Earning Money
Never stop making the associations between work and money. Make it understood how the hours dad or mom is away, they work for bringing home money. Remind them how this will be their own responsibility in a few years time.
Don’t give them allowance freely anymore. Find age-appropriated chores they can perform around the house and the neighborhood and reward them when they successfully complete them.
Budgeting
Budget is not hard to teach. You just need to make a kid realize how money that one doesn’t simply choose how much money they will have. They get the money they worked for. This is the reason that their money is of a limited amount and if spend mindlessly they will soon end.
Make supermarket trips educational.
This is a situation where they can see in action how money go for food, for clothing, for fun. This will show them that for each aspect of life, we only have a limited amount of money we can spend on.
Buying groceries is also another way of showing how money can be exchanged. To better instill this concept of give and take, play this game at home. Each time a child wants to purchase something for themselves (to satisfy a desire that is), ask them to buy it themselves with their allowance or saving money.
Don’t get them a toy the moment they ask for it. Give them the money gradually. The sooner they save the money, the sooner they will get the toy.
Desires Vs Needs
Show them how the two are different; that desires are optional, needs aren’t. In other words, they will get a meal, but not another superhero game. Realizing the difference of the two will deter them from becoming materialistic and teach them to have priorities.