4 ways to teach your kids about money

Worrying about money can keep us up at night. A lot of those worries wouldn’t exist if we’d just done a few things differently when we were younger. Now you know how important it is to teach your kids when they’re young, so here are a few ways you can start teaching them about money now…

Make them earn some: It’s hard to learn about handling money when you don’t have any. That being said, don’t just give them money and let that be the end of it. Give them responsibilities and provide them with a regular allowance so they’ll learn that money doesn’t grow on trees. Paper grows on trees and money is made of paper, but let’s just ignore that for now.

Teach them to save: If you let your kids spend their allowance freely, you won’t be doing them any favors. Talk to your children about work and retirement and teach them about compound interest. Establish savings goals for your kids and reward them for saving each month by throwing in a little extra when their goals are met.

Let them spend it: You can’t afford to buy your children everything they want. Teach your kids about making responsible purchases and let them spend money on things that make sense. Not only will they get something they want, but they’ll learn a little bit about spending, saving, and budgeting.

Teach them to be cheap: Ok maybe frugal is the better word. But the point it, show them how to save their money for the things that really matter. Don’t buy them a drink in the checkout line of the grocery store when you’re about to head home to where the drinks are. Show them that most of the time there’s usually a better option.