Cindy’s Other Blog

Children are great imitators, learning by what they see other people, especially their parents, doing. Children also learn how to care for financial matters by observing what their parents do, so setting a good example will help them later on in life financially.

Children who spend money without considering what consequences it could bring are usually raised by parents that act the same way. It would not be wise to teach children that money is simply a means to an end. Instead, emphasize that money is important for physical necessities like food and shelter but is not the most important thing in life.

The respectful use of money will help ensure that money is always available when necessary. Money problems are the main cause of arguments for married couples, and parents with differing backgrounds will usually have even more difficulty seeing eye to eye financially. In order to prevent children from being affected by such issues, parents need to come to an accord on how they will care for money matters as a family.

Learning to save takes time even for parents. We didn’t all grow up with money-savvy parents. But now it’s time to break the cycle of overspending and debt. Parents can take a money management class or read a book on the subject. As they learn, so will the children. The information can be shared at family meetings.

Get the family together and make a financial plan if you dont already have one in place. Make the kids part of the process so that they learn the proper use of money in a family. Talking together about problems and solutions to money problems can be beneficial as well.

As a child, my family didn’t have a lot of money. When I was old enough to have a job, I would spend my money on whatever I wanted. I didn’t want to live a life where I was deprived of things because I didn’t have money. I worked hard, but spent every cent.

This carried over into my adult life and created problems when I got married and started a family. My parents didn’t do anything wrong, there just could have been a few more “right” things done. We never talked about money. It was a “grown-up” thing and children weren’t included. I went with what I perceived to be the truth when it came to money.

Teaching children about money is certainly preferable to simply leaving them alone to figure out financial things. Let children be part of conversations on big financial adjustments in the family so they know how things will be handled. This does not mean, however, that children have to know about every little decision you make regarding money.

Poor money choices, even for the right reasons, can affect the way children deal with money. You may think that the children aren’t watching, but they are carefully. Make use of every opportunity that you have to arm them with the tools that produce good money management decisions.