Educating Your Children On Money

The following is a guest post by Sam Peters. Consideration was received for the editing and publishing of this post.

Money is an important concept to learn so introducing it to your children can be beneficial in a number of ways. Here are 10 steps towards instilling good personal finance practices in your kids.

1. As early as you can introduce your children to money. Allow it to take a role in their lives and allow them to see you manage yours as well so they will learn the concept of saving over time.

2. Speak openly with your children and try to communicate with them about the value of money. Try to instill into them that making your money grow begins with saving it and handling carefully. Also show them how you spend it wisely.

3. Set goals for yourself and do it openly for your children to see. If your kids are progressing into their teen years they are likely to be handling money so setting fundamental goals will keep them focused instead of spending on unnecessary items. Setting goals will also show them the benefits of saving and the motivation to continue practicing those habits.

4. Teach your children about the difference between spending on wants or needs. Again, instilling these principles early will help them grow to make good, healthy financial decisions.

5. Explain the surface of your finances to your children so that you set an example for saving over spending. It is important that you tell them your savings can gain interest income. Also that as they grow older they will have reoccurring payments which requires a good credit rating and steady income flow. Just explain the financial duties they will have will get the concept across that the accumulation of money is top priority. For more information, look into tips given by the Financial Educators Council.

6. Give your children an allowance, which gives them more responsibility as well. Not too much but enough that they can practice good saving habits. Encourage that they save but don’t order them constantly, allow them to grow their own healthy behaviors. Consider increasing their pay if they are doing a good job managing their allowance and if they are working hard for it.

7. Have your kids open a savings account to a bank or credit union. Have them start with regular savings and help them stay updated on their bank account through online banking and regular check-ins. Don’t stop them from withdrawing money from savings just help them manage their money without imposing. Look into how banks work for the right home for your child’s finances

8. Investing is another skill that people of the younger generation should learn. Set up an internal system between you and your children so that they can deposit a certain amount of money each month from their savings to you until they can pay off the price for a product they want.

9. Take your children to the grocery store, taking them shopping is always a good experience. Let your children buy one item on their own such as a favorite candy or drink. Or show your children the prices that they may not have knowledge of before. Spend wisely, mostly using coupons to cut costs. Before taking the trip to the store, look online or in the newspaper for daily coupons. Coupons are used elsewhere too, if your kids like Razor scooters and outdoor exercise then take heed to Razorama coupons.

10. If you and your family are in the mood for summer shopping then use Nordstrom coupons to get discounts on a variety of clothes. Regardless of what you are shopping for, compare prices so that you are finding the best deal for your dollar. Shopping wisely consists of a persistence to find the best price on the market.

These ten tips are just some of the ways to help educate your children on finances. What other tips do you have?