Getting kids involved in family budgeting

Child experts say that it is never too early to teach your children about budgeting. Here are some tips on how to teach your children about money and how to value it, handle it and save it!!

Getting kids involved in family budgeting

Child experts say that it is never too early to include your children in family budgeting. Some parents may have an opposing view to this, saying that children should not be be bothered about serious things like money matters; and that it is too complicated a subject for kids to grasp.

I agree with the experts - kids should be involved money matters in the home-front. In this day and age money isn't a taboo subject anymore. One study shows that one of the things kids worry about is finances! So even if you choose to exclude them from home finance matters, they would still worry about it.

Kids are smart so it will be easy for them to understand the mechanics of budgeting if parents just patiently guide them through it. Helping them budget money even when they are young will make them responsible spenders in the future.

Read on to know about getting kids involved in family budgeting

1. Show them the money.

Children need to understand the concept of money as it could be really abstract to them. I once heard a mother say "you need ten of this paper and two of that other paper to buy this doll". It was really funny but I think it was effective because I heard her daughter say that she needed to save more so she can buy the doll.

Teaching kids about money has to go beyond the textbooks. You could try letting them pay for small items at the supermarket so they will get a feel of how to handle money.

2. Help them visualize.

Explaining things verbally always doesn't work with young kids. You could use graphs or charts while budgeting so they can visualize what you’re saying. You can even get creative, using a pizza with its wedges to demonstrate a pie chart.

Tell them that the whole pizza represents your family’s money for a month. Ask them to help you make a list of things the family spends on monthly. Then cut the pizza and tell them that each slice represents a part of the family’s monthly expenditures. Prepare envelopes and mark them with labels. Ask them to put the right amount of money in the envelopes. If there’s money left, tell them that it will be put away as savings.

3. Teach them how to manage money.

Give your kids a weekly allowance so they will learn how to manage money. Guide them on what they can use this money for and what they cannot buy.

If the price of the thing that they want to buy is more than their weekly allowance, then you can teach them the concept of saving. Tell them to make wise choices so they can achieve their goals. Remind them that if they buy things impulsively, they will not be able to buy the thing that they really want.

4. Teaching them to save

By managing their weekly allowance well they will be learning how to save money early in life. By giving examples of how you budget and save to get an appliance you have been wanting for example, you can teach your child to save their money to buy something they want to have (with your permission of course!)

5. Teaching them the 'value' of things

By getting your child involved in money matters you will be teaching them to value the things they have much more than they already do. They will treat their books with more respect and learn what money can and cannot buy. This is a very important life lesson!

Written by

Karen Mira

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