Teaching your kids the value of money is not something that is easy but it is something that is entirely necessary and will help them greatly in the future. In order to teach them in the best way possible you should start when they are young and you should make sure that it is something fun so that you can properly engage them and get them to buy in to what you are trying to teach them.
I want to share with you some of the ways in which I taught my own children about how to save money which were fun and effective.
Double The Money
I gave my kids a small allowance each week and the challenge which I laid out before them was that for every dollar which they could save over a 3 month period, I would double it. Now, I know that this would never happen in real life but it did give them an incentive to save their money which helped in teaching them how much money they could actually save, if they put their minds to it.
Competition Time
In line with the challenge of doubling their money, I also created a competition between my 3 children as to who could save the most over the course of a year with the winner getting a prize of their own choosing, within reason. This competition worked brilliantly and the kids absolutely loved competition with each other to see who could save the most and bag the prize. Even though I no longer run this competition with the kids, they have no started to do this between themselves!
Big Spending
It is important to not only show your kids how to save money, but also why they are saving money. In order to show them this, I allowed each of my kids the chance to buy a large item with their savings every 6 months, again within reason. They would have to talk to me about what they wanted to buy and why and providing I was ok with it, I would take them out so that they could spend their cash. My kids instantly understood how important saving money is in terms of wishing to buy something large.
Banking
I wanted to get my kids to understand how the banking process worked and instead of creating an account for them at the bank, I was the bank and they all had accounts with me. I gave them their ‘first credit card’ which they could use to pay off chores and other treats and I also had regular meetings with them to help them understand what was happening with their cash. The kids absolutely loved the idea of creating a ‘home bank’ and I believe it taught them very well in terms of how the banking system operates and what they needed to do to look after their money.
What tips do you have when it comes to teaching kids how to save? Let us know in the comments section below, we’d love to hear from you.