Teaching Kids About Money

Teaching kids about money involves preparing them for their future. You can’t look after them forever so you will want to best equip them so they will know what to do with money when they are adults.

Let’s face it, inflation increases, cost of living goes up and it feels like we are paying so much more for items than say 10 years ago. The only way to offset that is to have a plan for your child so when they are older, they can live more comfortably. The life expectancy keeps on increasing so therefore it is more important than ever that we teach kids about money properly.

COSTS FOR YOUR CHILD’S FUTURE

The following are a few costs that you will have to consider when helping to plan for your child’s financial future:

1. University/College. We all know tertiary education fees are incredibly high today. What is it going to be like in another 15 years? When teaching children about money, we want to make sure they are educated properly in order to make money. But we also want to teach them what to do with money once they receive it.

2. Medical Costs. The cost this is going to increase, so yet again, we have to prepare our children to make sure they have medical insurance covered.

3. Retirement. We need to teach kids about money wisely and show them how to invest and save so when they reach the retirement age, they will have enough for them to keep on living comfortably.

4. Insurance. When teaching children about money, we must ensure that they are protected in case anything happens such as disability or death and that they are compensated for these incidents. Teach them to pay for life insurance. Also educate them about income or disability insurance.

Teaching kids about money involves them not just learning what to do with money, but they will have to learn other important skills as well to live comfortably in this technology age. They will have to be computer literate. The internet is becoming an essential need in our lives and will be even more prevalent in the next 10 years or so. All our bank accounts and personal information are all connected together over the internet so we better teach our kids early how to use computers.

These days’ people are changing jobs more frequently than say 20 years ago. There are more opportunities out there for our children but we have to teach them to be wise when changing careers or jobs. If they know where they want to be, then that is fine, but if they are still unclear as to what they ultimately want as a career, you as a parent need to guide them correctly. Ask them what their strengths are and what they enjoy doing. Then encourage them to go out there and utilise these gifts.