What are the best ways to teach children the value of money?

Question

Is it a good idea to let him/her do some work and get paid, what examples of such..

Answer 1

Don't give them any. let them earn their own. Don't pay them everytime they lift their finger at home they, should help some as they do live their free.

Answer 2

my oldest is 10 & had her hand out every time I turned around...& would refuse to do anything around the house...so....

she has a weekly chore chart w/ specific chores for each day. She earns .50 for each chore she completes. If 2 or more are not completed per day, I subtract 1.00 from her weekly pay.

There have been weeks where she has done all that she was supposed to do & earned 12.00 & others where she only earned 1.00.

We have made her responsible for her own spending. I buy her clothes & toiletries & she has to buy everything else... songs for her ipod, lip gloss, posters, ect...

When she has a birthday party to go to, I set a spending limit & what ever she goes over for the gift comes out of her pocket.

She has learned a great deal from this. She has learned how to save for that one thing she REALLY wants. SHe has learned the diffrence between "need" & "want" & she has learned that money is not endless.

Now, my 4 year old earns marbles. For every time she is a good citizen, is kind to her sisters, does something the first time we ask, ect... she earns a marble to put in her jar. When the jar is full we go & buy the reward she decided at the beginning. Right now she is earning a doodle bear- last time it was a disney princess magnet paper doll thing.

There is nothing wrong with positive renforcement...kids thrive on it.

Answer 3

Letting them earn their own. Letting them spend some, but not all, and teaching them how to save in a piggy bank or the bank (depending on the age). Some parents try paying their children to do chores. It can be 50/50, because it can either teach them that they should be rewarded everytime they do a chore (that's not good for their future) or it could teach them the value of hard work. Or, simply let them do chores for friends and they can pay them and you can contribute to the pay without the child knowing you helped. They should also volunteer at some point or another, or annually. It also teaches them that there's people in need and not to be ungrateful of all they have, material, spiritual, personnal, etc.

Answer 4

My kids get an allowance for doing chores. My 8 yr old gets $8 a week, my 4 yr old gets $4 a week. They have to make their beds, pick up after themselves, that kind of thing.

My kids put half of their weekly money into their piggy bank, teaching them the value of saving.

Then they put 10% of what's left in a jar to be donated to the Crusade for Children (an old local charity), to show them the value of helping others with their plenty.

They can do whatever they want with the rest.

Here's the thing, though. My kids don't get toys and games just because. They have to earn them, or they get them for b-days or Christmas. If they want something they see in the store, they have to buy it themselves.

Answer 5

sorry you didn't mention the age of your children, but that's ok....
Let each child do a meanial task, say put away toys.....
put their clothes away after mom folds them.........etc,etc...
Give the oldest child 50 cents for doing his chore that week.
The youngest child 25 cents..............
Now take them to Wal-Mart and take them back to the toys and price things such as balls, book, show them the least expensive of the toys................Or they can maybe get a candy bar by the checkout... They may be surprised that they can only get one item and not the first choice they wanted.......That's why they may need to save it for a couple of weeks, or put it in an envelope for 1 month, then count it and see how much it takes to save up for a bike, a doll, a game, etc.....Remind them that is why Mom and Dad have to work so hard to pay the bills.......

Answer 6

Earning money (especially relatively small amounts) and seeing what (little) it will buy. Young kids think $5 is a princely sum, until they see that it doesn't even buy 1 action figure / doll.

Depending on the age of your children, come up with a way for them to earn some money, then take them shopping - let them buy whatever they want (within reason, of course).

If they want something foolish, let them buy it. When they realize their mistake later, it will be a lesson learned. If they buy wisely, then praise them and let them enjoy the pride of ownership.

Answer 7

When I was little there was a chore list. Next to each chore was a price to be paid. It was ushually 50 cents to a 1.00. Now these were jobs I could get money from aside from my regular chores of keeping my room clean, home work, keeping the table clean, and putting my laundry in the wash.
Jobs we got paid for were stuff like taking trash out, helping with dishes, dusting, they paid us to visit with our great grandmother who lived next door (not that we wouldn't), raking leaves, sweeping floors/stairs, folding linens.
The amount of money was larger as we got older, like it increased to 1.00 and 2.00 depending on the jobs. My mother wouldn't pay out more then 5/6 dollars per week, but she had 4 kids.

Answer 8

It is a difficult concept to teach early on, as children don't start to learn specific money skills until 1st-2nd grade. However, I have bought each of my children banks at birth and they all have savings accounts. Obviously, in the beginning, I would put money in their banks. At the age of around 14 months, my girls started putting in the coins themselves (great for fine motor skills). As they got older I increased the skills to include counting, naming coins, values of the coins, adding the coins, etc. My oldest is 7 and she knows that any money she receives goes in her bank and when it is full we take it to put in her savings account. To purchase items, she has a seperate bank that is money she has earned (doing extra chores, not her usual one's, or as a reward for good behavior at school). Her school has a store that she likes to but items at, and they also have a lot of bake sales. These are things that she has to pay for herself. I have tried to teach her that there are some things that I will provide her with as her parent, other things she needs to earn. When we go to the store and she constantly asks me for something, we will write down the cost and count her money when we get home to see if she has enough to buy it. If she does, we talk about other things she will not be able to buy if she spends her money on that item (i.e.- if there is a bake sale at school that week). This way, she is determining what is really important to her and what she needs to do to get it- rather than me just saying "no."

Answer 9

yes, it is a good idea to let them earn some. but i do not think you should give them any trouble about what they choose to do with it. my grandmother would not let me buy matching quartz crystal crosses for my best friend and i at the cave, said i "just wanted to spend money". They were a dollar each and i still had plenty of money left. i was 14 and i still have money management hang ups to this day, lol. but i have said nothing to my kids and they save money a majority of the time.

Answer 10

Once you start giving your child pocket money (maybe 7 years old?) they should learn to save up to the things that they want (candy, toys etc). So when they ask you to buy them something, check how much it costs ... then calculate if they can save up enough to buy it - maybe in a few months (if not you might cause frustration!) and tell them that they have save up for it or work for it (raking leaves, watering the plants, etc)

BUT THE BEST WAY IS THROUGH EXAMPLE, IF YOU YOURSELF SAVE MONEY AND USE IT WISELY!

Answer 11

don't spend so easy think twice before making decision takes years to save money but u canspend imm one shut teach them to save regullary that way they have some resposibilities some kids are already born with idea of saving money ahb they know mother father has to work hard