Teaching your children about money gives them a lifelong legacy. “The more control we have over our money, the less control it will have over you,” says financial expert Sharon Lechter, member of the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, author and founder of Youthpreneur, an organization that encourages an entrepreneurial spirit in kids. Lechter says it’s important to teach your kids financial literacy because they see you spend money, but they don’t know how to create it, keep it or invest it. “Kids don’t understand the relevance of earning, saving and spending,” she says. Given the influence of the media and peers on kids today, she recommends starting to teach them about money anywhere from age 4 through 6. Consider these tips:
Allowances for over and above.
Don’t hand out allowances for performing the basics of personal and family responsibilities, such as brushing their teeth or doing the dishes, Lechter says. “Give allowances to your kids for showing responsibility over and above their normal responsibility. This could be volunteering to pick up the yard, cleaning out the closet or showing social responsibility such as going through their toys and deciding what to give to Goodwill or a children’s center,” she says.
In addition to allowances, Lechter says it’s easy to build lessons around money into the day-to-day raising of your kids when you consider three more.
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