Teaching your children how to manage their finances is absolutely critical if you want them to be successful at managing their money in the future. More than 80 percent of all parents are led to believe that their children are learning enough about personal finance and money management in school, unfortunately more than 90 percent of all students in high school and approximately 87 percent of all students in college have stated that everything they know about money management and financial planning has been learned from their parents rather than in school. Only 26 percent of parents with children aged 5 and older feel well enough prepared to teach their children the important details about money management. A study by the JumpStart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy found that among twelfth graders, only around 10 percent of high school graduates were prepared for their personal financial future.
If you are not sure where, when or how to begin talking to your teens about saving money, you should rest assured that you are not alone. Teaching your kids about good money management, however, is a parental responsibility that is just as important as teaching them not to cross the street without looking both ways. As soon as kids become interested in money you can begin to lead by example, allowing them to pick up on good money management habits by following the direction that you give them. Here are some other simple and fun suggestions that will help your teens learn the value of money at an early age so that they can be prepared to take care of themselves as they get older.
Talk to your teen about money.
1 – Explain to your children what money is all about.
As soon as your kids are old enough to count, they are old enough to understand the value of money. The earlier you can manage to teach them about money, including earning, saving and spending it responsibility, the better prepared they will end up being to manage their own finances in the future.
2 – Talk to your child about the family budget and allow them to learn by example as they grow up.
Let them ask questions about household finances so they understand early and receive consistent reinforcement of what it means to maintain a family budget and the financial matters surrounding it.
3 – Show your children how credit cards, debit cards and ATM machines work.
Show them that money does not grow on trees, and help them understand early what relationship exists between cash, credit, debit and other types of cards and accounts. Help your kids understand early that money has to be earned and saved before it can be spent.
When you discuss money with your children of any age, you will help them to develop a good sense of limits and positive, healthy financial planning in the process. You will teach them through examples exactly what it takes to spend money in a healthy way and make positive financial choices.
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Originally posted 2008-12-16 05:30:53. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
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Tags: family budget, financial future, financial planning, high school graduates, jumpstart coalition for personal financial literacy, money management, parental responsibility, parents, Personal Finance, personal financial literacy, saving money, twelfth graders, value of money