Teaching Money Management to Children

By James Martin

Children can grasp good money management skills at early age, if it is taught in the right way. The sooner they learn the ropes of managing their money, the faster they will learn to use it wisely. The earliest age to do is between 7 and 10, because that is when they will start to learn basic money matters in school too.

Assign simple and suitable jobs around the house which children can perform without much of effort. Also, allocate an appropriate amount which the child will be paid as salary to the child. After the\he assigned job has been successfully completed by them, pay them their earnings. By doing so, the child will realize the value for his/her work and will also strive to earn more.

The parent now needs to show the child how this money has to be spent wisely. The child should be taught to allocate for three important categories - saving, charity and spending. The parent needs to teach them to split it as 40-10-50 or 50-10-40, whichever looks appropriate to them. By doing so, children give away a small portion for others and give away a small portion for others and importantly, learn to spend their hard earned first salary on their favorite things, and finally, save a portion for themselves for the great job that they've done so far.

Since savings is primary here, give them a box or jar (a transparent one) where they can see how their savings increases as they work for it. Visualizing the way their savings grow will have a positive effect on the child; similar to, when they see sprouts from the seeds they've sown with their tiny hands.

Teach children to give away charity money to church or some old-age or children home. This will show they how blessed they are and instill values like humbleness and simple living in them.

And finally, let them enjoy with their own savings. They could be allowed to buy a favorite toy or dress or video game or even use them for their outings. These simple lessons on savings will teach them to be responsible for their actions and will definitely prevent them from falling into debt traps in the future. - 29970

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