How do our kids learn to manage money? At school? By watching TV? From their friends? By their own mistakes? From watching their parents manage their money?
Most kids learn from a combination of all these. But as with every other aspect of education, with the right information and a little commitment, parents and teachers can make a big difference in preparing kids to conquer the many financial challenges they will face as adults.
Kids' Money is an interactive resource for parents, teachers and kids designed to help children develop successful money management habits and become financially responsible adults. This site continually changes as a result of new comments, suggestions and contributions. Check us regularly, share your experience and your views, and see the difference your input makes.
May is observed as child's month, so I decided to search the Internet for interesting and fun ways to teach our children about money and personal finance. Equipping our kids to handle money wisely is one of the most important skills we can give them. It is my dream that one day, there will be a financial literacy curriculum in all schools, so that our children will be fully prepared to deal with managing, multiplying and maintaining their money as adults.
Rich Kid Smart Kid
Developed by the team that created the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books, this site uses interactive games to teach valuable financial lessons. Each game has different age levels, showing kids how to make profit, deal with debt, pay yourself first, and invest in business and assets. It features detailed teacher's guides for all the games. Also available for purchase online are the CASHFLOW for Kids CD and board game, which are excellent tools to help children ages six and over, learn important concepts about attaining financial freedom.
Even very young children can begin to understand the concept of earning money. Explain to your children that money is received in exchange for working or as a return on an investment, and that you can only spend what you earn. To help them understand what it's like to get paid on a schedule, begin paying an allowance. Then help them set goals for how they spend and save their allowance. It's important, however, to make sure that you stick to the payment schedule; otherwise the lesson may be lost.
When paying pocket money or an allowance it is important not to set up an entitlement mentality in your child. If they think that they have a right to receive money from you from an early age they may grow up with that mindset. By all means link the allowance to chores and jobs around the home but consider that some tasks which contribute to the household should be done automatically and not for paid reward. You may like to create a separate list of family or community activities which the entire household share, along with an agreed list of extras activities for which your child will receive reward.
The Internet is teaming with many more websites geared at teaching our kids to be money-savvy, so log on and spend some quality time with them. You'll definitely end up learning important financial tips that will help you, too!
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