6 Ways to Teach Your Kids about Money
Teaching your kids about money shouldn’t be so stressful. But with all the other things you need to remember to teach, it’s easy to let budgeting slide past, unnoticed. But you don’t need to make it any harder than what it already is.
When it’s time to start teaching, there are a few easy ways to make sure your kids know what they’re doing and financially responsible.
6 Easy Ways to Teach Your Kids about Money
Show Your Finances:
The best way to teach kids about money is to give them a real-world example.
The easiest way to do that is to sit down and go over the ins-and-outs of your family’s finances. You can go over your household’s monthly budget, bills and debt. Allow them to watch how you manage your money and encourage them to ask questions.
Go on a Grocery Shopping Trip:
One thing I’ve noticed is that the convenience of sites like Wal*Mart+ and Amazon have made it less natural for me to teach the kids about managing our grocery money.
Instead of ordering this weeks groceries, plan to go to the actual store and do your own shopping.
Sit your kids down and make a list of things you need. List the general prices of each item so you’ll have an estimated running budget.
Once you’re at the store, allow the kids to do the shopping. Encourage them to stay under budget.
If they run out of money before they get all of their shopping done, talk about their options. They can put back non-essential items or do a price comparison to find a better deal on items.
Teach Them How to Research Purchases:
Comparing prices is a very important skill for kids to learn. With the internet, they can learn to compare and shop around without ever leaving their house!
Allow your kid to choose a few items they really want then show them how to research online for the best prices.
Make sure they know to include some wiggle room for taxes and shipping!
Help Them Create a Budget:
Many adults don’t know how to when to use a budget! But it’s never too early to learn how to budget. From the time they get an allowance, their first job or just money from birthdays and holidays, they can start saving.
Teach your kids to keep track of how much money they have. Demonstrate healthy spending habits and teach them to save up for items they really want.
You can even dive deeper and discuss topics like giving and investing.
Make it Fun:
Learning about finances doesn’t have to be boring! It can actually be fun. You can learn a lot of financial skills by playing fun board games.
Some of our favorites include:
- Monopoly and Monopoly Junior
- The Game of Life
- Managing My Allowance
- The Stock Exchange Game
- Money Bags
- Act Your Wage!
- Bank It!
Use Smart Resources:
The good thing about homeschooling is that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel with each subject you want to teach. Instead, use trusted resources, like Beyond Personal Finance or Before Beyond Personal Finance.
We loved using Beyond Personal Finance in our homeschool!
The curriculum is designed to teach late-elementary students important money concepts.
In just 10 fun lessons, students will learn smart spending, saving, investing, and borrowing. Before Personal Finance allows kids the opportunity to learn and experiment with money without any regrets.
The interactive workbook gives kids a chance to make decisions using a simulation approach.
One of my favorite things about this curriculum is that everything you need is included in the 150-page student notebook. No teachers book, complicated print-outs or long list of needed supplies. If you feel like you need extra guidance, you can find a short “how to” video, answer keys, activity resources and more online. However, I don’t feel like I need them to teach.
Using Before Beyond Personal Finance, kids can learn how to build a strong financial foundation, without any risk or regret. It’s one of the most important things we’ve ever taught in our homeschool!
Check out Beyond Personal Finance today!
Follow Beyond Personal Finance on social media:
Facebook
Instagram
