Tips to Help Your Child Be Good With Money

With how materialistic our society has become, it is very important for you to teach your child to be good with money. Not only will it help them save up for those things that children want, it will also help make them responsible adults. The better they are with money when they are younger, the less chance they have of going into debt when they get older. Remember that you can’t do it for them. You as a parent must teach your child the importance of money, such as how to save for what you want and how to manage your money so that you can afford the things that you want.

Here are some tips to follow for teaching your child to be good with money.

Tip one:
No matter how busy you are you should never buy your child everything that they want; this does nothing but tell the child that they can have everything handed to them rather than having to work for what they want. Many parents buy everything their kids want because they feel guilty because of how busy they are. This is a way for the parent to make up for not spending as much time with their kids as they should. But in all honesty that doesn’t work; it just spoils the child and drains your budget.

Tip two:
In today’s materialistic world, you may feel you should buy your child some of the things that other children have. This is not going to help teach them about money. What you should do is, if they see things that they want, such as the latest CD or DVD, have them earn the money themselves by doing extra chores around the house and teaching them to save up their money to buy what they want.

Tip three:
Another good idea is to give your children a budget and allow them to do their own shopping for back to school. By giving them a set limit they are going to have to learn how to find the most value for their dollar and still get the things that they want. You can also make compromises depending on how old the child is, such as “you can buy that designer shirt, but you have to choose regular jeans” or telling them they can only spend so much on a pair of shoes. Setting budgets and limits is key to teaching your child about how much things cost and how to get the best value out of their dollar.

Tip four:
In addition to setting limits and budgets and allowing your child to earn the money for the things that they want, you should also offer to match funds for big purchases. This will help teach your child about saving money for things that they want and will help them to spend their money wisely.

Tip five:
Another good idea is to open up a savings account for your child when they are young so that they learn the importance of managing a savings account. Allow them to make the deposits under adult supervision and help them keep track of how much money they have saved and what the interest is doing. Whenever they have money given to them at birthdays or other holidays, have them set aside so much to save for future use.

Just remember that the key to teaching your child to be good about money is to set limits and budgets. They also need to hear the word no and understand why they can’t buy everything they want anytime.