{"id":6209,"date":"2014-07-28T06:13:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-28T13:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/?p=6209"},"modified":"2014-07-28T09:23:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-28T16:23:53","slug":"start-em-young-teach-personal-finance-lessons-in-the-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/start-em-young-teach-personal-finance-lessons-in-the-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Start ’em Young: Teach Personal Finance Lessons in the Family"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children learn their first life lessons in the family. Among those lessons should be those that deal with personal finance. Money is an intrinsic part of life and, as such, can be taught in a very contextual way within the day-to-day activities and realities of family life. As a resource, it must be managed and as a tool, its proper use must be practiced.<\/p>\n

Teaching children about money<\/h3>\n

The first step to teaching children about money is providing them the basic facts.<\/p>\n

What is money?<\/strong>
\nTeach children early on that money is something we trade for items and experiences. They should learn at as young an age as possible that many things we have and do in life cost money. Reference things they know well to illustrate the point: A new bicycle or set of markers costs money, as does going to a movie and a trip to the ice cream shop.<\/p>\n

How do we get money?<\/strong>
\nChildren don\u2019t think about where money comes from; they just know it \u201cexists.\u201d Explaining that we receive a certain amount of money for doing work and sometimes as a gift is an important way to help them understand its source.<\/p>\n

What are\u00a0the value of things in relation to money?<\/strong>
\nThis is really the first step to helping children understand money as a resource that needs to be distributed mindfully in order to have the things we need and some of the things we want. Talk frankly with children about the cost of things to help them understand upon what the family money is spent. It\u2019s perfectly acceptable to tell children that certain expenditures are more than the family can afford or are something for which we need to save.<\/p>\n

Lessons children can learn about money with prudent guidance<\/h3>\n

Once they possess the basic concepts, children can be taught to handle some money of their own. Paying them an allowance for doing chores is a logical way to help children experience the correlation between work and money. With some guidance from you, this process can help them learn some vital personal finance lessons, including:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • First-hand experience with the challenges of\u00a0spending and saving\u00a0–<\/strong>\u00a0Handling money presents an ideal math-in-real-life scenario. Adding\u00a0funds to their savings, calculating the difference in price between items they\u2019d like to buy and subtracting money from their balance to determine how much remains\u00a0provides children with actual experience in seeing how money comes and goes.<\/li>\n
  • Prioritization\/decision-making –<\/strong> When children are allowed to manage some money of their own, they will soon realize that it only goes so far. They\u2019ll be faced with the very true realization that they can\u2019t have everything they want and that they\u2019ll have to make choices when determining how to spend their money.<\/li>\n
  • Benefits of saving – <\/strong>Children who save learn they can\u00a0accrue enough money for something that costs more than they\u00a0have today.\u00a0While delay of gratification is difficult to accept, it can be character-building as well as wealth-building. When children save toward a goal, they learn self-discipline and patience that will serve them well with their adult finances.<\/li>\n
  • Responsibility –<\/strong> Teach children to be responsible with their money in every sense of the word. When they are carrying money, keep it in a safe place on their person. When paying for something, carefully count it out themselves. When storing it, keep it in a secure place where it won\u2019t be lost or stolen.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Children who\u00a0learn personal finance lessons from a young age start out with good habits and a strong command of money which will last throughout their life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Children learn their first life lessons in the family. Among those lessons should be those that deal with personal finance. Money is an intrinsic part of life and, as such, can be taught in a very contextual way within the day-to-day activities and realities of family life. As a resource, it must be managed and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[515],"tags":[85,517,512],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6209"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6215,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6209\/revisions\/6215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/couponshoebox.com\/tips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}