Teaching Children about Money
Do not let ourselves be drowned in daily problems. It is our job to pay attention to young generation how to overcome daily issues about money and how money can lead us to debt problem. The earlier we introduce the principle of money to the younger generation, the better.
Money issue is truly an important thing to teach our children for their future. Teaching children how to manage money is not a difficult thing to do, as children nowadays already have a basic understanding of money and been practicing simple money management in their daily life. In a sense, children have their own income and expenses. As parents, we give them allowance money, which can be described as income. When children pay for the bus ticket, buy their lunch or pay for little they have expenses for school activities of donation from their income, the money spent can be considered their expenses.
How to start teaching children about money? First rule, the earliest age that children can be taught about spending money is 5 years old. At this age, a child can differentiate the nominal value stated on currency notes and coins, and they can do simple calculations. At the age of 5 to 10 years old usually they love to collect money without understanding the value. We can teach them by piling coins and notes according to their stated values. Then, ask them to pile separately the amount of money that we need to buy certain items, or we can give them instruction to buy something simple, give them the money and ask them how much the change will be. Upon completion of the task, we should tell them, the purpose of money.
Teaching money to teenagers is easier because they understand many things about the value of money and are able to calculate it in more complex calculations. Always remind our children to save up. Children around 11 up to 15 years old often receive gifts from family or neighbors. Some of them also earn some money from doing simple jobs. These occasions should be used to encourage children to value money and learn to generate income from the money that they already earned. They can do start with making handicraft or home-made art to sell.
Another way to teach children below 5 years old about money is by introducing them to ATM’s and debit cards. Five years old children in the present time are familiar with ATM and paying groceries using a debit card. We should make this our advantage in teaching children about the saving up in the bank and the difference between the money that we have on us (hard cash) and the money we keep in our bank account. This can also be applied as a teaching method to introduce money and to practice good money management. Teaching children about cash, debit card and credit card in their early years is a good way to introduce them to a good money spending habit.
Take your time in analyzing your daily activities to help find your own methods to teach children the good ways of spending money.
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