One thing that is very important to my husband and I is teaching our children about money. We do not want them to grow up thinking that money grows on trees and life is easy. Of course, we aren’t going to make them pay for their supper, but we do want them to know a little about money and how things must be earned.
The first thing I want to note is that when things are just given to you often times you don’t have the same appreciation and respect for them as you would had you worked for those things. Now with that being said, do we give our children things? Yes, we do. However, there are times when our children want something and they do have to work for it. Not only are we teaching them that things are not just handed to everyone when they ask for them, but we are teaching them to work for what they want and be proud of it.
Believe it or not, our boys enjoy working for things. They will ask what they can do to earn a dollar, or how they can work for a new toy they are interested in. Sometimes they spend a week working for a new toy and decide to save the money instead of buying the toy.
Responsibility is important to teach our children and you can actually start teaching them while they are quite young. We like to start with teaching them about being responsible with their toys. They are required to take care of their toys and keep them picked up.
When our boys were very young we started a savings account for them. When they get their allowance or money for any reason, they are not required to save it, however they are encouraged to put a portion of their money into the savings account. They typically get excited about depositing money and enjoy doing so. They love watching the money grow and take great pride in it.
There are so many different accounts to choose from that I have actually spent quite a bit of time online researching savings accounts and the return on our money. (I research everything online!) Comparison sites like MoneySupermarket.com offer free comparison tables for all savings accounts. I recommend searching the internet, learn what your options are, and then go to your local bank and talk to them about what you have in mind.
Our children are our future, and it is our job to teach them these valuable life lessons.
How do you teach your children about money?
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i have been making sure that my children understand that mostly we only get what we need and save what we can. every once in a while we will do a special toy or something but as you said money doesn’t grow on trees :)) I really enjoyed this. Thank you
I think that everyone should teach this to their children. It’s something that everyone needs to know.