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Teaching your Child the Value of Money

Teaching your children early about how to save and budget in a fun and educational way can lay a foundation for sound money management later in life. MyEggNest.com has some helpful guidelines and suggestions that you can follow, including some fundamental basics, methods of teaching your young children how to save, in addition to helping them learn life-important skills.

We've picked up some good tips from their website:

Educate your children about the concept of money early on. As soon as they can count, introduce them to money.
Introduce the basic money concepts first: earning, spending, and saving. Instil money saving habits and let them see something tangible building up.
Teach them the fundamental concept of setting goals.
Introduce them to the value of saving versus spending.
Explain and demonstrate the concept of earning interest income on savings.
Make it fun. The more fun it is, the more the child will be interested to save.
Explore with them the possible ways to save for a goal. For example, allowance for chores, selling lemonade at fete/fairs etc...
Celebrate when the goal is reached but also take time to set a new goal.
Try taking your children with you when you go to a bank or other financial service provider and let them see you making deposits and explain why you are saving.
Give your children a moneybox or a piggy bank, and let them save the pennies and watch them mount up.
Encouraging children to make some charitable contributions can help foster compassion for others who have less and
gratitude for what they themselves have.
Giving your children an allowance can help them learn how to manage money because it ties buying power to effort.
Help your children open their own account and encourage them to save a portion of their allowance, gift or money, payment for extra chores or wages (for lawn mowing or cleaning their room).
Use regular shopping trips as opportunities to teach your children the value of money.
Allow your children to make spending decisions. Whether good or poor, they will learn from their spending choices.
Show your children how to evaluate TV, radio, and print ads for products. Will a product really perform and do what the commercials say? Is a price offered truly a sale price?
Alert your children to the dangers of borrowing and paying interest. If you charge interest on small loans you make to them, they will learn quickly how expensive it is to rent someone else's money for a specified period of time.