It’s All About the Children
“Teach the Children so it will not be necessary to teach the Adults” -Abraham Lincoln
When thinking back… how did we first learn about money? Were we taught by our parents? Did we learn in school? Did we learn when we were taught how to count, or was it a rude awakening once we opened our first credit cards? As Abraham Lincoln hinted in the quote above, if we don’t teach them now we will have to teach them later… Isn’t it easier to instill good habits from nothing than convert bad habits to good? But who’s job is it to educate our children about money? In a recent poll I read online, Parents, School and Financial Advisors respectively were ranked highest in terms of their expectation to educate our children on money matters.
Some of the most basic concepts about money can go unaddressed as a child however there are so many opportunities and examples that we experience over the course of our everyday to address some of these concepts. With that being said, we thought some of the following tips could go a long way in creating positive habits now rather than later.
Understanding the Value of Money?
- Let our children pay with our money when we take them shopping
- Pay them an allowance
- Teach them about tradeoffs / money is not infinite
- Clip Coupons, find sales.
- Money can be borrowed
- Secured / Intro Credit Cards
How do we earn Money?
- Bring your child to work to teach them how we earn money
- Provide opportunities for work. (household tasks, etc)
- Offer services to neighbors / friends (babysitting, snow shoveling, feeding pets etc.)
- Part-Time Jobs
Saving and Investing Money
- Loose change adds up to dollars
- Bank accounts pay interest
- Short term vs. Long term Savings
- Higher potential risk equals higher potential reward
- Include in Financial Planning Meetings
