12 Ways to Teach Kids About Money

I am sure, you would also want to raise money-smart kids like us. 

Remember – If you don’t teach your kids how to manage money, somebody else will. And that’s not a risk you want to take! 

Sharing easy and simple ways that we as parents used for our kids and helped us in raising them as money-smart kids. If we can, so can you.

1. Money doesn’t grow on trees

This is something we all have heard from our parents when we were kids but what we were not told was – Where does money come from then if not trees   You can explain to the kids where the money comes from, how it is earned and what is its value.

2. Giving them piggy banks 

We used to give our kids coins daily to be added to Piggybank and then we opened it after a year and count the money and deposit in their bank accounts. This way the principle of savings will be instilled.

3. By Opening their savings bank account

This helped in 3 ways:

• The kids were always excited to go to the bank with me to see something on their name
• They wanted to see the passbooks,the amount growing year on year made them happy and they wanted to save more and more and park in their accounts
• Also, when they saw money growing – they started asking about other investment options.

4. By taking them to grocery shopping

Grocery shopping was a fun tour that we and our kids used to look forward too, it changed to online grocery shopping later – Thanks to Covid. 

They used to check and compare prices of different products, this not only saved us money on grocery but also taught them what to buy and why to buy.

5. Asking them to make presentation whenever they had shown desire of buying something

The presentation had set format

– Why

– How is it going to add value

– What are you going to use it for

– Do you have something similar already

– Do you really want this

After answering these 5 questions, at times they never came back to us and at times they did come back and we respected their thought process and bought it for them.

6. By giving simple budgets on what they can shop so that they can prioritize

We used to give them a budget for spending – on their birthday, on our holiday, on other special days. This helped them in prioritizing and making wise decisions.

7. Allow them to make mistakes 

We allowed them to make mistakes- even if it meant making a wrong spending decision or wasting money. This helped them to learn from their mistakes and acted as a valuable trashing tool.

8. By letting them pay Utility Bills online

They select their own recharge plan. Also, asked them to check which subscription is suitable for us – like in Netflix.

This helped in 2 ways :

 1) I got relieved from this duty 

2) They also knew what all we are spending every month on electricity, telephone, etc.and next time they were mindful while an extra light was switched on.

9. By teaching them to set goals

In today’s world of Impulse purchases and instant gratification, it is extremely important for kids to learn Delayed Gratification. Help them define their goals and then celebrate when the goal is reached.

10. By Involving them in Financial decisions

 Involve and engage them in household Financial decisions. Small and Big both. Be it budgeting, buying a new TV, buying/selling a house. By doing this, you will knowingly/ unknowingly make them learn a lot of things. Also, you will make informed decisions by taking their feedback.

Recently, I had to buy a phone and asked our kids to do the research for us-they were bright from a fresh perspective and helped in purchasing the right phone.

11. By teaching them contentment

It is extremely important to teach kids that they should be content with whatever they have in life. I remember, my father used to say- I can afford a Mercedes but I am content with the Santro car that we had.

There is no end to our wishes but we should be content and grateful for what we have. This stayed with me.

12. Set an example as “Actions speak louder than words”

Children learn from what you are than what you teach. So, focus on becoming a role model for them. Focus on building good and healthy money habits that they can pick up from you. I asked our kids, what is one money habit that they don’t like in us – he said NOTHING 

Mission Accomplished!

A recent candid where I talked to our kids about money – I am sure you and your family would love watching –

It’s never too early to teach them about Money. The best time was to start yesterday and the next best time is to start today.

If there are any points that you would like to add from your experience, do let us know in the comments- we would like to add them for the benefit of everyone.

One good thing will be to start a SIP of just Rs.500 on their name and we would be happy to help here.

About the author: Gurleen Kaur Tikku is a CFP and devotes her time to her company www.hareepatti.com. She has done her Bachelors in Finance and Investment Analysis(BFIA) from the College of Business Studies(CBS, Delhi) and MBA from IMT, Ghaziabad. She can be contacted at [email protected]