Mama, we both know money makes the world go-round. Rather than pretending that’s not the case–take a proactive approach by giving your kids the financial education you didn’t get.
Kids learn about money at home and allowance can be a helpful tool to put real money in your child’s hands to help them learn about finances.
Kids are never too young to learn about money
Sometimes we may not give our kids credit for being able to understand complex concepts, but I love when kids shock us with how much they absorb. Rather than a traditional allowance, where you just hand out dinero–I believe in teaching your kids to earn money.
Chores are a typical value exchange for parents and kids. You can not only involve cleaning tasks but sorting, organizing and creative tasks too. Assign a dollar amount to each chore and let them pick which tasks they want to do.
Don’t use fake money to teach your kids about real money
We treat fake money differently than real money. That’s why some people spend more money when they use credit cards–the spending doesn’t feel real.
Fake coins and dollar bills don’t hold the same weight (literally) as real money. You want your kids to understand from an early age, what money is and what it can do.
To help your kids understand the value of money, buy or make a bank for them to store their hard-earned funds. Impress upon them the importance of keeping track of your money and treating it as valuable–because it is.
Save, Spend, and Give
There are really only three things you can do with your money: Save, Spend, and Give.
Some parents like to have set percentages for each category–you can decide to do that if you want. I like to be colorful and use real life examples when I teach these concepts.
Taking your kids to the stores and having them write down the price of the things that they want, can help them internalize how much things really cost. This instills the value of a dollar and how much work they’ll need to complete in order to obtain the thing they really want.
Keep the conversation going
Many of us didn’t talk about money growing up. Personal finance wasn’t (and still isn’t) taught in school and our families didn’t discuss money around the dinner table.
We were left to try and figure it out on our own.
That’s why sometimes as adults we struggle to improve the financial literacy of our own children because we lack confidence in ourselves and this is why I created my free financial literacy course for kids.
This course is driven by real life examples. We want kids to learn new behaviors in how they perceive money. We teach in games to help children understand cause and effect, have chances to make mistakes and get rewarded for smart choices. We pair those teachings with an actual buying exercise that gives them the ultimate power and control.
You can also purchase the workbook to go along with the course, to keep the money conversations flowing.