I’m a firm believer that you should teach children to save money. A couple days ago, a friend of mine updated her Facebook status. Pretty normal, just like any other day on good ol’ Facebook. But the status caught my eye because it was something that I can’t remember hearing anyone talk about in a very long time.
My friend had seen her daughter going back and forth from her uncle’s (my friend’s brother) bedroom with coins. And when my friend asked her what she was doing, she replied that she was filling up her piggy bank. Imagine that! A two year old intent on saving her little dollars and cents.
In my response, I jokingly said that she’s never going to need a loan. But now that I think about it, I might be right. If at two years old she has been so rightly educated about saving, I can only imagine that she’s going to be a powerful force to reckon with. I might be exaggerating a bit, but I guess you understand where I’m going.
Parents have a powerful influence on their children, who in turn love to mimic what their parents do. When I was younger, I could remember seeing my parents saving coins in large Klim milk tins. When they were full, I would help them separate the accumulated silver dollars, twenty-five cent, ten cent, five cent and one cent pieces into money bags. And that would have been twenty plus years ago and it’s still with me all of this time.
The best way to encouraging your children with positive money habits, is to be the example that they need. Without you telling them, they can observe that in order to get something, you need to have the money to do it with. You can use everyday situations like going to the supermarket or the bank to teach them the value of money.
Do you have any cool and exciting tips about teaching children how to save money?
*** This article was featured in the Yakezie Carnival Credit Card Edition hosted by Prairie EcoThrifter ***