Want to teach your kids about money? here is what to do.

 

Money is an important part of our daily lives, it is imperative therefore that you start early to teach your kids about money.

Kids have a penchant for asking you to buy things that are not necessary, anyone here who loves to do that? raise your hand if you do, because I don’t.

Making money and money management is something we ought to start teaching our kids early in life, especially if you are a business owner.

Great businesses are only sustained when there is someone to pass it on to. Your small home business may turn out to be something that your child will take on and expand to a big-time business later on

So it pays to begin to prepare them early enough.

While I will not subscribe to forcing a child to follow a particular career path,

I understand that it is my responsibility as a parent to expose my child to different ways of making money.

So that they can begin to form attitudes on how income is made, spent and multiplied.

One of the most confusing questions about this topic is usually when to start?

Here is my simple answer: start as soon as they can communicate with you.

I started teaching my son about money when he turned 4.

I started by telling him that every money that is spent is earned, therefore if he wants something he has to think of what to do in other to earn the money that he needs.

It was within this concept that he came to understand how money is earned.

Yours may take longer depending on the circumstances,

The most important thing is that you are taking the initiative to start helping them understand how money is made

Thereby helping them to imbibe money habits early in life.

In this post, I outline 5 simple ways you can teach your kids about money

 

To Teach Your Kids About Money, Here Are 5 Simple Things To Do

1 Involve them in money related activities in the Home.

Whenever we want to buy Gas for the car, I always ask my son to get the receipt from the pump owner and in that process, we discuss how much money has been spent on Gas. Simple activities like this teach kids how money is spent in the home.

2 Create opportunities that show how money is Earned

Sometimes I may be working on my computer and my kids want to play.

I make them understand that mom has to work in other to earn the money we use in the house.

That way they are able to respect the time I put into making a living for us.

Of course, there will be times they will say they want to work too, that is what led me to the next point.

3 Create chore charts and award Tokens.

This past summer, I created a chore chart with tokens attached,

Each chore had tokens attached to it and my kids were responsible for writing down the tokens which they earned for the chores they did.

Exchange the tokens for cash for later use.

This activity makes them feel like they are earning their own money,

Call it mini jobs and you will not be far from it.

4 Teach them the principles of creating Wealth.

Making money is simple, you do stuff and you get paid, then you spend it, but what about creating sustainable wealth?

I thought hard before I started out on this one. I used a story of chicken and eggs to teach them how to multiply their money.

It’s a simple story of how you buy a chicken with some amount of money,

Feed it for some time until it lays eggs, the eggs hatch and you have more chickens to sell.

Stories like this give kids an idea of how to multiply their money to yield more.

I believe that we will move on to practice this concept with time.

5 Use the Proverbial Piggy Bank :

Get them a piggy bank and let each kid be responsible for saving some amount of money each day.

Whether it is earned via the chore charts or received as a gift.

At the end of some time perhaps a year or so, you can open the piggy bank and count out how much the child has saved.

Then open a savings account from it.

This will help your child understand how money works and also appreciate the principle of saving for later.

6 Use Board games to teach your kids about money Investment.

Board games even though they are simulation often helps one to appreciate how money is made and invested.

Taking advantage of games such as Richdad’s Cashflow for Kids will help you teach your child how to invest their money.

Other games that help teach kids about money includes: Act your wage, Thrive time for teens, Buy It right, Exact change,  Allowance game, The stock exchange game, Payday, and  Moneybags.

To teach your Kids about money, there are different ways you can use, whatever method you use, ensure the message is passed across.

Do you want to get my top 7 list of online resources for teaching kids about money? click here