How to Encourage Your Kids to be Sensible with Money

Throughout your children’s lifetimes, money management is going to be a skill they use daily. Whether it’s how they spend their first batch of pocket money or which is the best mortgage type for them, there will always be financial decisions to be made. Making financial decisions, particularly when inexperienced in doing so, can be a daunting prospect. Below are a few tips on how to get them honing that skill as soon as possible.

Team Budgeting

Getting your children involved in your weekly or monthly budgeting process will start to build their appreciation for how much things cost and the relative value of money. Starting small, with them helping to budget a weekly food shop might be a good place to start. To further encourage your children to actively take part in this process, make a budgeting spreadsheet. Once the original template has been made, this will also speed up the process for the whole family. If you are unsure of how to do this you can find more information here.

Loans

A lesson they will soon learn in life is that not all expenses are predictable. Sudden costs such as vet bills or emergency repairs can arise when least expected and can be a particular problem if they occur later in the month. Even if your children allow room in the budget for unexpected costs, it might not quite cover it. In this situation, it can be important for them to know that responsible borrowing can be ok. A wide range of loan options is available to suit these varied situations. Examples of these can be found on loanpig.co.uk. These loans are designed to control the impact of any sudden expenses so you can then build them into your budget moving forward.

Lead by Example

Children learn so much from their parents and will be subconsciously picking up on any patterns of behaviour that you might be exhibiting. Do you have a habit for impulse buys? Are you sometimes guilty of ignoring a bill and incurring interest payments? The process of encouraging your children to be more sensible with money may involve you also changing your habits. There are plenty of tricks you can use to help form new ones for you and your family. You can find some of these at lifehack.org. When looking for someone to “buddy up” with to help you achieve your new habits, who better than your child or children? Holding each other accountable will never be easier than if you are still living under the same roof.

The time you put into encouraging your children to learn money management skills now will be re-payed time and time again throughout their adult life. Helping them to avoid some of the stresses that money can bring can be as simple as starting as soon as you can. They may learn from making some mistakes but that doesn’t mean that they won’t have avoided many more through your input.