5 Creative Ways to Teach Your Kids About Money Management

We can all agree that money education is extremely important. I’m a firm believer that it’s never too early to teach your children about the value of money. Today we will discuss a few ways to begin teaching your children about money!

Money recognition

Before a child can understand the value of money, they need to understand what money is! So begin by teaching them the different currencies and how much each currency is worth. You can create a chart with all of the currencies to help them review or even find loose change and teach them what real money looks like. Any way you decide to do it, your children need to be able to identify money.

Earn money

I know everyone has certain feelings about this topic, but give your children the opportunity to earn money. Whether it’s an allowance for doing household chores or for whatever you choose. This teaches them that work must be done in order to receive money. You can always teach your child about work ethic and timeliness (where age appropriate). Set a time when you want them to begin a chore. If they are late, their pay gets deducted, just like in real life. Have a standard of how you want a chore to be done. If they do the bare minimum, they get their agreed amount but if they go over and beyond, then they get a small bonus! Create a visual like an allowance chart to help them keep track of how much they are earning.

Saving

This is a life lesson, teaching our children to put aside money for a rainy day or to buy that one toy or item they’ve always wanted is major. It teaches them to delay instant gratification and that putting away money is essential to life. If they save, hopefully they will always have a little money in the bank. 

Take them shopping with you

Okay moms, I get it, going to the grocery store or shopping in general is normally your alone time. You go get a coffee and walk the aisle of Target or your favorite store. Trust me I get it! Every now and then, take your children with you. They need the experience and lesson of searching for items, looking at the price tag, putting the items in the basket, putting the items on the conveyor belt and pulling out money to buy the items. If they never see it done, they won’t know how to do it. Take them with you mommas!

Budget

Let them know how much money they have to spend before they go into the store. Help them count their money as they are putting items into their baskets so they know how close they are coming to their budgeted amount. Don’t let them overspend. Let them spend their own money.  Don’t come to their rescue and purchase an item they don’t have money to buy (unless you want to teach them about credit and interest). When their money has run out, that’s it! 

Encouragement 

However you decide to implement these tips, your children will be better because of it. Purchase each child a bank, preferably a clear one so they can see their money stack up. Remember we are in the business of training our children to be functioning adults. Let’s do it well and remember as always mommas YOU GOT THIS!