We learn most of habits from our parents. If you want your kids to be financially successful, there is a time and place when to start teaching them!
The best advice that we can give is to start when they are young. The exact age is difficult to say, but depending on your child and their learning capabilities, you can start teaching them basics as early as 3 years old! You might think this is too soon, but there are many games and other ways to start teaching your child at this age.
The Center of Financial Security said that “It has been shown that children make great strides in economic understanding between the ages of 6 and 12, such that children’s understanding is ‘essentially adult’ around age 12.”
Parents.com discusses ways to incorporate financial learning to playing store and shopping. As your child gets older, you can add activities such as clipping coupons, trips to the bank, and collecting coins. This should progress into how to budget, open a bank account, and start a savings account.
Teaching your children the importance of work and earning money to be self sufficient is also very important from their early adolescence to teenage years. This means, not spoiling your kids and teaching them how to budget. Make sure to reward them and help them understand that every action has a reaction and that you have to act if you want to make money. Help apply principles of finance into their daily lives with real life application.
Remember that the best way to teach is to lead by example!
What you are able to teach your kids about finance will stick with them for their whole lives. Invest your time to teach them and it will pay off!
