The Best Ways To Teach Your Children About Money

George and I have a vision to homeschool our children. One of the many good things about homeschooling is just that you can cater what is taught to meet the needs of your children. You also get the chance to teach them about practical skills that they may need in their life like budgeting, accounting, and other money-related skills because let’s face it: if you don’t teach your children about money, there isn’t anyone else that will. Setting them up for the future in a positive way is going to help them to have a successful life as they become adults and start families of their own.

Today we share with you a collaboration post with practical tips that you can implement to help teach your children about money and how to manage it properly. I think these are great ideas that we are sure to implement with Rosie in the future.

Clear Jar For Savings

The classic piggy bank is a good idea for saving money, however it does not give children a visual sense of what the money looks like when it is being saved. This is why a clear jar can come in handy as they can see the level of coins rising and rising as they save. Talk about what each coin or bill represents and what they would have to do to earn more of it.

Talk About Costs

If you go to the grocery store with your children and they pick up a book or toy animal that they want, then it is important to talk about what the cost of those items are. If a toy is $10 and they have that amount in their savings jar, you could let them know that they could have it, but it would cost all of the money in their jar. When they see the value of money versus the cost of the toys that they want, it gives them a greater perspective.

Set An Example

Children catch on to things pretty quickly. If they always witness you at the store and getting out credit cards, they will start to think that is what they should be doing. Rosie is already learning to sift through a (low) rack of clothes in the mall! The same thing goes for if they hear you arguing with your spouse about money – they’ll pick up on it. Being a parent that practices what they preach influences your children to have greater success. So set a good example and make sure that you are knowledgeable and confident with what you are doing with your finances too.

Get Them Involved

Again, homeschooling provides great opportunities for getting children involved as they can go to the store with you and work out how much things are going to cost. They can also help you to budget, as well as help you with when it comes to saving in so many other ways. Being hands-on, as much as they can be, is really how they will learn best. That said, we believe homeschooling provides more opportunity but in reality, any parent can implement these very practical steps to help their kids become more money-savvy! 

So those are our best ways to teach your children about money. Do you have anything else that you would add to the list? It would be great to hear what has worked for you.