It’s important for children to learn important money skills when they’re young in order to build good fiscal habits. You can instill good money skills in your children simply by encouraging them to make wise spending decisions and with a few other tips outlined here. Once your children understand the importance of handling money well, they can practice employing their new skills and grow up to exhibit good money habits as adults.
Cutting Coupons
Most kids love to cut things out so why not have them help you cut coupons? You can also have them help your search for digital coupons on coupon sites like http://sumocoupon.com. Have kids practice their search skills by helping you locate coupons for the things they need like new school supplies, clothing items, or even their favorite breakfast cereal. Help your child understand that coupons have a value. In fact, you can capitalize on this project by putting your coupon savings in a jar each time you use coupons and adding it up at the end of a month, a year. Then, plan a way to spend the savings you accumulated on something wonderful for the whole family.
Allowance
According to U.S. News and World Reports, it’s a good idea to give children an allowance to teach money management. When children understand that their allowance is their spending money for the week, they will have to learn to stretch it out or feel the sting of spending too freely all in one day! It’s better that children learn the ins and outs of managing their money when young so that it will be no surprise to them when they are older.
Setting Goals for a Big Purchase
Once children get good at managing their allowance, you can encourage them to leave a portion unspent in order to save up for a big or special purchase. You might even discover how they’re able to save a larger portion of their allowance than you thought once they begin to see how saving leads to a great accumulation. Talk to them about what they would like to save up for and then teach them how to calculate how much they will need to save each week in order to buy it in a month or longer.
Money-Based Games
Since kids love games, you can incorporate some fun money-based games into your children’s playtime. Of course, games like Life and Monopoly come to mind, but look for internet games about money management and fun activity books that support money-based facts. If you plan to play a game each week, your kids will build up their money skills quickly. As they age, you can incorporate more advanced games and projects into their routine like investment tutorials for young adults.
When you demonstrate how important it is to handle money responsibly, your children will have a solid start when it comes to their own money management. Try out these ideas; chances are your kids will enjoy the lessons and love feeling grown up because they know all about money!
Russell Matthews enjoys being thrifty. He loves writing about how families can teach kids better habits on parenting blogs.
