Money and Children

Like with most lessons that a child learns from an early age, the money skills gained at an early age will stay with them throughout their lives. Many parents however neglect to teach their children about the importance and value of money for a variety of reasons. With the right approach, teaching children about money can set them up for a lifetime of good habits, and hopefully financial security. The following guidelines and suggestions are not intended to be an all inclusive resource for teaching your children about money, but merely to offer a starting point enabling you to determine the best path for you and your child.

Children and the concept of money

Managing personal finances is not as easy as it’s made out to be in some quarters. Indeed, many adults go through life simply having been unable to master their own finances, so it’s easy to see why many parents shy away from teaching their children about the concepts of money. But despite whatever degree of financial mastery the parents themselves have managed to attain, it’s relatively easy to introduce the key concepts of money to children. It needn’t be painful, it needn’t be difficult, and it can start at a relatively early age.

Simply by having fun with their children and playing board games such as Monopoly, parents can start to teach simple concepts about money to their children. The idea, at an early age at least, is to teach the concepts rather than the specifics. Start out by concentrating on the concepts of receiving money, saving money and spending money (we’ll touch on these areas a little later on), and the more advanced concepts such as borrowing, giving, budgeting and marketing can be introduced as the child grows older and becomes more aware of money and it’s value.

This ‘money journey’ for your child should begin early and be a long, gradual one. By teaching and educating your child about money and matters financial, you should be trying to guide them toward developing skills and habits that will stay with them a lifetime. Don’t be put off by your own financial limitations, as you are simply placing your child on the correct path – how far down that path they go will ultimately be up to them.