Teach Your Children To Be Good With Money

You’ve got plenty of roles to play in your job as a parent, and one of these is to prepare your child for the real world. And of course, one of the biggest factors in the real world is money: getting it, spending it, saving it. Very few people are naturally good with money: that’s part of the reason why so many people are in debt. To save your child from having future money problems, the best thing you can do for them is to teach them how to have a financial sense as early as possible. Here are seven ways to get you started.

Speak About Money

When you’re a child, you think everything just appears from thin air. You don’t see the hard work, the money, and the purchase that allowed you to have a new toy or food. From an early age, make sure your children can see that there is a process to getting what you want. Try to establish the link between receiving a product or service and parting with your hard earned money. The sooner they grasp this, the better they’ll understand money when they’re older.

Fixing Broken Goods

Children will learn good money practices from their what they see in their home. If their parents are throwing away perfectly good food, clothes, or other belongings, then that child will grow up to not appreciate that if you’ve paid for something, you should value it. If you have something that has a mild issue with it, don’t throw it in the bin – fix it. You’ll save money and be teaching your children to be responsible with their belongings at the same time.

Being Money Smart

Like repairing our damaged goods, children will learn how to be money smart from their parents. There are many ways to save money; just not everybody uses them. If you make the most of the sales and other promotions – and explain the benefits of such to your children – then you’ll instill in them the value of getting the best deal possible. If you’re shopping for gifts with your child, use sites like DontPayFull.com: they’ll be able to see that you can still buy what you want without paying full price. If you’re going out for lunch, choose places that have early bird specials or special prices. Being money smart is all about living life to the full, but within your means, and they’ll see this.

Show You’re Saving

There isn’t enough taught in schools about the art of saving money, so you’ll have to the teacher in this case. If you’re saving up for a special surprise or purchase, make sure your child doesn’t only see the end the result, when the thing has been paid for, but also the process of saving that made it possible. When the present or experience arrives, they’ll understand that hard work has gone it to make it happen.

Around the House

You can have a comfortable lifestyle without going too hard on the luxuries. For example, not every dish has to be put into the dishwasher. Not every batch of clothes needs to go into the washing machine. If a child only ever grows up with luxuries, he or she will think that it’s completely normal. Instead, show them a blend of doing some tasks by hand to save money and letting the machines do the work. When they’re older, they’ll know there’s more than just one way to do the chores!

Showing Restraint When Buying

You would like to buy more than you actually do, but you can’t have everything in this world. The children who are given everything without question often find it difficult when they’re older to say “no” to a purchase, even when they can’t afford it. If you’re out shopping, explain to your children why you’re not buying a particular item. If you show restraint, they might be less demanding themselves, and even if they’re not, they’ll understand when they grow up that sometimes you have to an item back on the shelf if it’s too expensive.

When They’re Older

As your children become young adults, you’ll need to teach about the boring financial things: like saving, how to make ends meet, and so on. If you do this, you’ll be preparing your child for a life that isn’t blighted by financial worries due to their mistakes. All you can do is teach them about money and then let them walk out into the world, fully prepared to deal with one of the most important aspects of life.