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Teaching your children about money is essential if you want to raise them to understand the value of a dollar and the importance of hard work. Children need to appreciate how hard money is to come by and how important it is to spend it carefully. Those children who simply believe that ‘money grows on trees’ will never grow up to be good savers and wise spenders. Most likely, these unlucky youngsters will be the ones who believe the world owes them a living and won’t move out until they are 40!
Even the youngest child can do some sort of chores. If you give your child a job, make it a simple one that is not too difficult for them to accomplish. You don’t want to discourage them from the start. Make it something they are completely capable of doing and give them a fair price for it. Make sure to give them lots of praise to make them feel proud when they successfully complete a task, you know how much this means to you at work! This does not have to be a weekly allowance sort of thing, but simply a job you are hiring them to do from time to time. Explain to your children what jobs you do for money and what kinds of things money is needed for.
Once your child has earned his money, take him to the store. Tell your child how much money he or she has and let him look at the prices on different things. Perhaps your child will want to spend all of his money on one thing that is not too expensive, but show him larger items that cost more than he has. Explain that if he does a few more jobs and saves his money, he could have this item in a few weeks. Try not to let your child waste his money on junk, but teach him about the importance of quality, example: don’t buy the cheap toy because it will break, instead, save for a better one.
It is a good idea to take a certain percentage out of whatever your child earns and put it away for a savings account. Let your child help decide how much to save. Take the child with you to the bank when you are opening the account and have the bank officer explain to your child what it is all about. When it is time to go to the bank to make a deposit, let your child be in charge and let him fill out the deposit slip, if he is old enough, and write the deposit down in his own book. He will come to know that this is his money and will get excited as he sees the balance growing.
A child with his own savings and an understanding of money will have a kind of confidence that comes from knowing he is a member of society like any adult and has some control over the outcome of his actions. It will also be helpful to you is your child becomes a good saver and keeps some of his money to help with his college education in the future. Hopefully, this will even teach your child an appreciation of the things that you spend money on for him and he will understand how hard you work to provide him with the things he needs.
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