Nowadays, parents are very concerned about teaching their kids about the concept of money; how to save and how to spend. There are so many strategies that have come out on the past and though all of them are valid, sometimes, it can still be difficult since different families can be in different social classes, financial conditions and family situation. A rich family with 5 kids will have a different situation from a poor family with 1 kid. Saving money is a very important skill to teach children since the times are hard and the earlier they are made aware of how to save, the better they will be in the future.
Setting goals
It is quite a difficult task to help them set goals. When the child reaches 5 or 6 years of age, or when they begin primary school that is the time you can get them started teaching them to set goals. Whenever they want something that is beyond your reach for the moment, something more of a whim, than a necessity, (toys, new video games and other stuff), you need to talk to them about setting goals. It may seem farfetched from teaching them how to save but it is very important nonetheless since in order for the kids to learn how to save, you need to help them learn how to create goals like saving at least 50 dollars at the end of the month to buy a new toy.
Saving money during their formative years
A very concrete tool that you can use to teach your kids how to save is by means of the piggy bank. It is something that they can see. Give them a goal to fill up the piggy bank with coins by the end of the year. It does not matter if it is just a dime, or a penny. What matters is that they fill it to the brim. After that, you can let them count the money, and tell them how proud you are that they are able to save money. Tell them that they can only use half of the money to buy stuff that they want. The other half will be used for their needs like projects. Buy a new kind of container and keep the old piggy bank on a safe area ready to be used when the child needs it.
Introduce banking
By 8 years of age, you can teach the child banking. Tell them how it is much better than just simply putting coins on the piggy bank. This time, they can handle bigger bills and from there, you can teach them more practical things and the kids can also apply their math skills in order to know how much they have on the bank.
