Teaching Children About Money

Want a child who will succeed? They need to know how to use money, it is a life skill and so important to the growth of a young adult. Once teens are starting to make their own money it’s the perfect chance to get them to create a budget, learn about bills, interest, and investments. This will take them way further than their peers who spend their money on things they don’t NEED, and then have no money for when they actually need it.

Then they come back to the parents to ask for more as if you’re an endless pit of cash, nope, that’s not happening here.

From an early age, you can start to foster a responsible way for kids to use their money so that they will build lifelong skills.

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Tips for Teaching Children About Money

Stop paying for their wants

When I go to the store, I don’t want to hear my kids ask for everything off of the shelf. The kids know that outside of birthdays, Christmas and special events, I’m not buying toys. If they really want something they’ll need to use their own money to purchase the things they want. Sometimes, they’d rather have candy or a treat and that’s perfectly fine.

The grocery budget is for groceries and does not factor in treats for each of the kids. If they want something their own money can be saved up to use for their “wants” rather than mom’s.

Give them an allowance

You can’t expect a child to learn how to use the money, if they never have any. Kids can get a small allowance and I mean it can be very small depending on their age. We’re not talking big bucks here. But it’s proportional to their age and the amount of help that they provide around the house.

Let them earn their money

Is there a particular game or toy that is more costly than they really want? Well, this is a great opportunity to have them save up for it and possibly do some bigger jobs to earn more money so they can use it to purchase it themselves.

This will teach them to work hard and to save up for what they really want.

Pay for big tasks

Offer big jobs around the house that your kids can help with to earn more money. This also gives you the added benefit of having extra helpers for big projects. Things like cleaning out the garage, repainting the basement, and organizing the pantry.

They’re not regular tasks that need to be done but if you have more helpers, it can go more smoothly. It also offers them the opportunity to help, to problems solve and to do hard work.

Open a savings account

As your child begins to make money and not to mention all of those birthday gifts from grandparents and relatives, kids can start to build a small cash pile. Open up a savings account for them so that they can learn to balance their budget and keep track of their balance. Student savings account usually come with no to low fees and are easy for them to manage with online banking.

You can also pay them their allowance this way, have the calculate it and then have them help you transfer the money over correctly for practice.

Teaching your child about money doesn’t have to be stressful but you do have to be consistent. Add your kids into your monthly budgeting and bill payments so they see that money isn’t coming from an endless source.

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Monique shares kids printables, activities and homeschooling tips at Living Life and Learning. She has a ton of resources from preschool to early elementary. You can find her on Facebook, Instagram or Pinterest. Join the Printables for Homeschool Moms Facebook group for more resources.