At one time or another, a parent would have asked the question ‘When is a good time to start teaching the kids about money?’. Teaching your children on the value of money is an important area and there is no one answer that fits all. It is all up to the parents and each family unit is different. So, a method that works for one family will most probably would not work for another family.
A good place to start
Where do we start? As parents, we have gone through our childhood and grown up to be adults. Compared to our children, we have definitely learned more things, good and bad, what works and what does not work. This is a good way to start teaching your children about money, by sharing your own experiences.
You can start from when you were young, when you started schooling, the amount of pocket money you received back then and when you started to earn money by yourself. You can share your savings method, if you had one. Maybe you used a piggy bank and had a savings account to deposit all the gift money, extra allowances and extra pocket money you did not used. You can relate your difficult experiences, on how it was tough in the old days to accumulate money. I believe your children would love to hear your experiences and stories regarding money.
About my parents
I know I did. I loved to hear my mom’s own experiences when she was young. It was a tough life for her back then. Having a higher level of education was certainly a great advantage during her time if you had one. Unfortunately, my mom did not manage to even reach Primary One (Malaysia’s education system) due to financial constraints and general life hardship. My mom’s contribution to the family’s finance was by doing things she was able to do. She took up a job as a cook (a basic life skill), she washed other people’s laundry (another basic life skill) and she even took a job as an office cleaner.
My father managed to complete Primary Six and that was good enough to ensure an office job throughout his life. However, it was still a tough life and a struggle for both my parents to build a comfortable life for themselves and their family.
What I learned
What did I learned from my parents experience? I learned that for some people like my parents, money was not easy to come by. When they had money in hand, they tend to safe-guard it carefully. Generally, I prefer to lead a frugal life just like my parents did. I learned to appreciate money for what it is, as a means to a comfortable life. Money is not everything but to have money is better than to have none. Nowadays, it can afford you better education, better health-care, better living environment, etc.
Now that I have children of my own, I love to tell them stories about my own upbringing and my experience with money. Their grandmother still loves to tell her own stories about her life when she was young. I hope that my children do learn something from all these life stories but I am confident that they will as I did too.
Therefore, it is a good way for you to start as well. Your children can learn from your mistakes and continue to practice the methods that work for you. Who knows, they would want to past it on to their own children and grandchildren and so on.
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My parents did teach me a lot about money. But I guess it is the story of the “poor dad” (oh sorry dad)… however, the golden rules still applies anywhere, anytime – earn more and spend less!
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