Point your kids in the right direction — when they’re old they won’t be lost. Proverbs 22:6
Make money talk a priority
“We work hard to educate our kids about reading, writing and arithmetic, but money-smart lessons often get overlooked,” says Barbara Dunn, one of the Thrivent Financial representatives who led the sessions. “Families are very busy, what with work and school and sports and a million things draining their time,” says Dunn. “Growing up, a lot of parents were taught that you don’t talk about money, so even as adults they are reluctant to teach their kids the basics of earning money, making budgets and sharing with others. They don’t know how, because it was never taught financial literacy is important.”
Start early
Avoid the common assumption that money is too grown-up for kids. “We want our kids to have carefree childhoods, and we worry that talking about money will make them anxious,” says Laura Dierke, program manager at Thrivent Financial, who includes her 3-year-old daughter in coupon clipping. But the opposite may be true. “Young kids can grasp the underlying ideas of saving and sharing, and the earlier we make them comfortable about money, the better…”
Teach them to share, save and spend
Help children divide their money into three categories: share, save and spend. “If your kids get money for Christmas or a birthday, always encourage them to divide it into thirds – a third for buying something they want, a third for saving for things they may want in the future and a third for sharing with others,” says Dierke. Children attending the workshop received a blue piggy bank with three compartments, but you can easily label three jars or boxes at home for the same effect…
Have a grateful house
Be purposeful about celebrating sharing in your home. Read Bible stories and books that feature generosity. Make a point of noting the kindness of others. If your sister supports a food pantry, make sure your kids know you admire their aunt’s sharing. To help kids allocate and budget their money, make sure the cash you give them can easily be chopped into singles and the rest in coins. This practice will not only help them understand the idea of parceling it out, but also make it easier for them to stash some in a piggy bank for saving and sharing, and some in their fist for spending at the store.
Spread out the cash
Don’t give an allowance every week; consider dispensing it biweekly or even monthly. If kids know another $5 is coming on Friday, they may be more impulsive about spending the allowance you just gave them. But if they know they have to make their money last for a while, they’ll figure out the importance of discipline and self-control.”
Hugh O’Neill in “The Secrets of the Blue Pig: How to teach your children about saving, spending and sharing” in The Generosity Project by Linda Staats, 24-25.
What a delight to have Linda Staats present at the Stewardship Summit on The Generosity Project! It is a lively Saturday morning interactive experience for all ages exploring attitudes and behaviors around money: earning, saving, spending, and sharing. After listening to her presentation, I read through the project materials, including this article, and loved how stewardship and budgeting conversation activities engage everyone together from children and teens to parents and grandparents.
The idea of teaching budgeting has been on my mind since I recently wrote a blog post for CLA entitled, “Got Budget?” Check it out. It just posted today.
Therein I ask people to consider the difficulty of someday giving an account for our stewardship to God if they rank among the two-thirds of Americans that don’t live on a budget. I urge everyone to build a budget with four or five categories — give richly, spend simply, save carefully, pay taxes, and retire debts (if you have them) — and to help others they love to live on a budget as well, to prepare everyone to give an account for their stewardship to God.
As O’Neill notes and as Staats emphasized, start talking about money when children are young. Point them in the right direction so they don’t get lost!