Today – 10 things to Teach your child about money

 

Each month there will be a feature on kids and money and as always if you would like to contribute a guest post that would be fabulous. I would love to hear your views on how you teach your child about money.  I really want this to be a budget sharing community rather than just one voice.

I really believe in educating a child about money when they are young. If  you don’t teach your child about money who will? It isn’t something schools teach and they don’t get it from the TV. I’m sure their peers don’t give great budgeting advice either.

There are some core principles I want my children to understand about money and I feel the younger they understand this the better chance they have to stay debt free. I feel it’s part of my parenting job to help them prepare for the world and that means helping them learn to have a positive and productive relationship with money.

When you come to teach your child about money I am sure as a family you will work out for yourselves what you want to pass on. For me there are 10 key things I think they need to know:

 

The Top 10 things to teach your child about money

1. Money is not evil. It can do a huge amount of good if used to help and support others and to create security and opportunity.
2. It is okay to talk about money, it is not a forbidden or impolite subject, talking about it can be productive and can help prevent debt.
3. Working hard at school creates more options later for how you can make money. It is not the only answer but it can increase opportunity
4. Effort doesn’t always equal output where money is concerned. You have to work smart not just long, hard hours. Despite that money does NOT grow on trees and you need to work to earn it.  Try and work at something you love. If you’re a coffee fiend and you love interacting with people, maybe a job at Starbucks would be perfect, for example. Working just for money can feel long and soulless.
5. Having all the expensive things other people have will NOT make you happy it will make you want more. Experiences bring much more joy than stuff. try and avoid excessive materialism.
6. It is not a good idea to borrow money from friends or to lend it to friends (unless they are in dire straits) it can cause a very  bad feeling
7. You will always be glad of rainy day savings because boy does it rain sometimes and quite unexpectedly too.
8. You should always ALWAYS have enough independent money to leave a bad relationship (maybe save this one till their teens!)
9. Time with your children, time with friends, days full of fun, meals as a family, regular holidays, carefree weekends  – all of these are invaluable don’t work so hard or so long you will miss them, the extra money is never worth it.
10. Debt is HORRIBLE and hard to get out of. Tell someone and ask for professional, FREE, independent help if ever you get a in a money pickle.

 

Things to teach your child about money – over to you

What would you add to this list? Are there things that you wished you had known. What do you need to teach your child about money?

 

A Kids & Money Post

 

If you found this post on things to teach your child about money – you might also like my post on saving money on your household bills