How often do you talk to your children about money? Every day? Every time you go shopping with them? Every time they ask for a new toy or a gadget? Is the subject of “money management” taboo in your family?
When you talk about money you suddenly get everyone talking about money from pocket money to how to invest in stocks and shares and what cryptocurrency to buy next.
As a parent, guardian or grandparent, you want to teach your kids about money management as early as possible. Starting by teaching your toddler “how to count to 10 you still have a lot more to go through. As we move further and further into digital money exchange there are even fewer opportunities to teach kids about money.
Playing free money games for kids, shopping together and talking about money are some of the things you are probably doing already.
Nevertheless knowing how to manage money is an essential life skill, that has an impactful influence throughout our entire life. Teaching your kids about money management is easy and fun and you can do it spontaneously or have a set time. Either way, you will help your child develop life-lasting skills about money.
Here are 5 fun and easy ways to teach your kids about Money Management :
1. Spend a day paying only with cash
This is especially effective with younger kids. A good amount of your shopping is possibly happening online and for most things, you pay via card or a device.
Either way, there is no physical cash being exchanged. When these transactions happen kids are not aware, that money is being spent on goods or services.
Choose a day when you will pay with cash and teach them simple counting. An ideal opportunity for that is to take them to a local open market day.
2. Give them a shopping list and a budget
The price ranges of most essential foods are a good way to teach your growing kids about budgeting and smart shopping.
The easiest way is to decide on a dish that you might even enjoy cooking together. So let them pick the ingredients for the dish and stick with the budget.
You can go further and ask them to calculate how much the meal costs per person, depending on how many people you are cooking for. This could be a part of your weekly routine and a nice new life skill for many years to come.
3. Introduce them to Cryptocurrency and NFT with video games for kids
Kids learn through play. It is amazing how effective learning through games is. With the evergrowing popularity of cryptocurrencies and most recently NFTs playing a game might be a good fit to introduce your kids to the world of blockchains.
This is a simple free bitcoin game, which I enjoyed playing too. It encourages the young mind to learn about flat currency and also how currencies fluctuate in value.
This game can be used to discuss the role of the state and central banks in money, speculative excesses in markets, historical financial bubbles going back to the Dutch tulip craze, the markers of bubbles, and how the perception of value and price movement trends impact speculative demand in financial markets.
4. Open a bank account -this is a very big step for most children. Giving them the responsibility to look after their own money will help them understand how basic banking works. Most banks have bank accounts designed for kids and young teenagers where they can have a bank card and in some cases access to inline banking.
It is a great foundation for their future. You can teach them about borrowing and interest rates by asking them for a very small loan.
Overall teaching your kids about “money management” is an essential part of modern parenting. Whether it’s cash, digital or cryptocurrency the basic rules apply to all. Keeping things simple and fun will help kids along the way for many years to come.
