I’m quite lucky that Jack has got himself into a routine with money ever since we opened up an account for him a little while back. He loved seeing the numbers add up and has been saving steadily ever since – he saves the money given to him by family or friends and even picks up coins if he sees them out and about. Slowly but surely his savings account is growing and long may it continue.
I know that soon, however, that may not be the case. As he gets older, he is becoming more and more susceptible to advertising and whilst he asks us to buy him things now, he will soon want to start spending any money he has on things – something we want to avoid in the most part. Of course, everything in moderation – he can buy a few things out of his money – but as with most children, he will probably want to buy the whole shop.
So how am I encouraging Jack to be responsible with his money? Whilst he is quite responsible now, I want to keep that going for as long as I can. We’ve made no secret of our financial struggles in the past and whilst Jack was too little to understand, he can see now that we do certain things to avoid that again.
As I mentioned before, Jack loved it when we opened his bank account as he saw the money adding up slowly but surely – we found a great account for young savers. He saves all of his coins into his money box and he also sees us doing the same – Steve puts his coins in a money box for emergencies and I put spare coins or money from selling our old things on Facebook in a box myself.
He also knows that treats are exactly that. We aren’t afraid to say we haven’t got enough money for that today or it is too expensive. We do treat ourselves but we try to keep everything in moderation and Jack has certainly been noticing that – if we haven’t bought something one time, he will ask if we can get it ‘this time’ and isn’t phased if the answer is still no.
He knows that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves – I talk to him about my work and how Mummy and Daddy working makes the money that pays for all of the nice things we have. He knows that we need to work to make the money to pay the bills – although he is only three, we don’t mollycoddle him. Whilst he doesn’t necessarily need to know the harsh reality of adulthood, a little realism doesn’t hurt and I put his responsibility with money down to this – he knows what money is, why we need it and what it is used for – and he knows that if he saves his money, he will have more at the end of it.
So how can you teach your child to be responsible with money?
Keep them informed (in simple terms for their age) – speak to them about what money represents and why we need it; open them a savings account for them so they can see the benefits for themselves; help them make decisions based upon whether they really need that product that they really want. Finally, let them see you being responsible with money – what better way to teach them than by practicing what you preach?
Keep them informed (in simple terms for their age) – speak to them about what money represents and why we need it; open them a savings account for them so they can see the benefits for themselves; help them make decisions based upon whether they really need that product that they really want. Finally, let them see you being responsible with money – what better way to teach them than by practicing what you preach?
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