Teach your children about these important money lessons and they will grow to understand the value of money.
Teaching kids about money is one responsibility no one should shy away from regardless of whether the child is two or twenty-two.
Children at a certain age in their life will always want to spend the money they have on unnecessary things.
And to avoid raising a thriftless child, there are money lessons every parent should take time to teach their kids. This is very important, as your child will understand how money works at a very tender age.
1. Money is for buying things, not eating
This is the first lesson you'll need to teach your kid at infancy. Children like to put everything in their mouth including money.
When a baby begins to crawl, you can expect him/her to develop an interest in money and wallet. At this point, you have to keep money out of their reach to prevent them from shoving it into their mouth.
2. Money is valuable
Your kids must be able to differentiate between money and papers. They must be able to understand what goes into the bin and what should be in the wallet. Let them realise the importance of money by preventing them from treating it the same way they treat papers.
3. Saving is as important as spending
Money is so easy to spend and everybody is good at this. Spending is probably the first thing everyone does with their first money.
However, your children should not only know how to spend money judiciously, they must also understand that saving money is as important as spending it.
Let them know there is always a reward for saving their money. Also, let them understand the fact that saving enables them to reach their financial goals.
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4. Money is worked for
This is a very important lesson. Your kids must know that money do not fly into people wallets. People work to have it.
If your child gets everything handed to him, he'll probably find it difficult to understand that he needs to work to make money. Let him understand why you go out in the money and return in the evening.
You can give him a task and give him a pocket money for completing the task. This could give him an idea about working for money.
5. Giving is just as fun as spending
Once your child understands that is used to buy things, you can start teaching him about using the money to buy gifts for others rather than always receiving from them.
Teach him the importance of giving others especially the poor and how special it is to share money with others.
6. Money is limited
Money is very important in our lives yet, it is limited. Let your kids realize that you have no lasting grip on the money you have today because it is temporal.
With this in mind, you can teach them about budgeting. This will teach them how money works and how to manage the little they have.
7. Money isn't everything
Finally, you use money to buy a lot of things from food to toys. But then, money isn't everything.
There are other aspects of life such as family and sharing that are as important as having money. Teach your children to cherish these aspects of life so as not to think everything in life is about money.