25 Sep 2020
Lockdown can be the perfect time to teach your kids new skills, such as teaching them about money. As offices and schools are either closed or working remotely, both of you will get ample time to discuss financial management, rather than them playing all the time. If you think your kids are too young to learn about money, you couldn’t be more wrong.
Things About Money that Your Children Should Know
Children at a much younger age start to understand that you can buy things using money because they see you do that. What they don’t see is your saving, budgeting, or managing money. Let’s look at three crucial money lessons you must teach your children.
1. Save
First things first, teach your kids the concept of saving. Make them understand why it is vital to save money and how it will help them in the future.
To help them understand this better, give them pocket money each month, but make them work for it. They can help you around the house and ‘earn’ by completing chores.
When it’s their money, they will feel more responsible. Give them a goal to save at the end of each month and teach them how to achieve it by applying various saving techniques like tracking spending, saving incentives, and acting as their creditor.
2. Budget
Next comes budgeting. This activity can be quite a challenge for adults, but you must teach your kids about budgeting from a young age.
Involve them when you are budgeting your home finances and ask them to help. For example, suppose you plan to buy an electric bike, encourage them to help you find the best possible deal, or look for a bike whose features are relevant for his/her need and make sense financially. Ask for their opinion about where to allocate money.
They will be eager to be a part of a grown-up activity and end up learning an important tool in the process.
3. Spend
Kids understand that you need to spend money to buy something. What you need to teach them is the practice of evaluating whether they need it or not.
Encourage your kids to spend their pocket money on things they need. They will learn to identify where they should spend and what they can avoid spending on. This skill will help them immensely as they grow.
Moreover, they will feel a sense of pride in buying something with their money.
Bonus Tip: Playing games is one of the easiest ways to get your kids interested in money. Games like Monopoly will help them understand all the concepts mentioned above in a fun manner. So, go ahead and host family game nights, your kids will learn and enjoy at the same time, a win-win situation.
Next Steps
This is a good start for your kids in the lockdown. Make sure the lessons don’t stop as time passes. They will thank you one day for teaching them good money habits at a young age. Besides the financial lessons, the one thing that can help your children stand out is quality education. With Child Education Calculator below, you can easily plan out your child’s education expenses for his/her bright future.