Strategies for Raising Children with Money
I recently read a great article by Adrienne Penta for Women & Wealth Magazine that delivered strategies for teaching your children about money. Here’s a summary of the main principles discussed:
- Start early and often.
- Strategy: Financial education should start early and be weaved into everyday conversations. Three primary goals is to teach your kids delayed gratification, responsibility, and autonomy. Together, these skills form the basis for prudent financial decision-making.
- Example: Teaching a child delayed gratification by explaining why they can't get a toy immediately and encouraging saving for it instead.
- Remember to Listen.
- Strategy: Practice active listening to help children think through financial decisions independently
- Example: Instead of telling a child what to do with their allowance, ask them what they think is the best way to use it and why.
- Provide Opportunities to Fail Small.
- Strategy: Allow children to make small financial mistakes to learn from their experiences.
- Example: Letting a child spend their weekly allowance on a toy they later regret buying to understand the value of money.
- Give Them the Gift of Work.
- Strategy: Encourage children to work for their own money to develop a sense of achievement and purpose.
- Example: Requiring teenagers to get a summer job instead of providing them with spending money, fostering independence and responsibility.
- Why Is More Important Than How Much.
- Strategy: Emphasize the reasons behind financial gifts and align them with family values.
- Example: Explaining that a family vacation is funded because spending time together is a core family value, not just because they can afford it.
Overall the big take away is to keep conversations about money and wealth open, use family values to teach responsibility and be the example you want your kids to follow. Happy reading!
To read the full article please visit: BBH
Submitted by: Lisa Colalillo
