Finance For Kids

Top 10 Parenting Tips

Top 10 ways to incorporate financial lessons into your parenting

1. Compensate your children for extraordinary effort, work or errand done, particularly if they do it without being told. Reward them for positive change in their behavior.

2. Don’t reward with material things or money for being a member of the family or for doing what a child is supposed to do.

3. Remember that every moment with your child is a teachable moment. For example, when driving to school, show them the prices on gas stations and explain why they change so often. Explain the prices using concepts of demand and supply.

4. Take your children grocery shopping. While in a store, tell them they need to buy a cereal box, or some item. Give them money and tell them to pick one and to do it wisely.  If they can count money, ask them to complete the purchase transaction on their own. Discuss what they did right and what they can do better next time.

5. Teach children the value of comparison shopping.

6. Make use of coupons in their presence. Show them the value of buying in bulk, shopping at garage sales and flea markets.

7. Take your children to the bank and open a savings account in their name and request an ATM card for them. Once you receive the card, show them how to deposit cash using an ATM. Once in a while, show them how cash is withdrawn. Ask them to keep a running total of their balance.

8. When paying for a dinner at a restaurant, ask your children who will pay for the meal and how they should pay for the meal – via cash, check or credit card. Talk to them about pros and cons of using a credit card.

9. Talk to children about identity theft and the importance of protecting personal information from strangers. This can be done while completing a school application form, writing a check or paying for toys in a toy store.

10. Explain to your children that money is just a tool and they don’t need it to make them happy. It is a means to an end and not the ultimate goal in life. Money is not payment for love or a proxy for love. Money doesn’t guarantee happiness. Teach them the values associated with sharing, recycling and caring for others and the environment. Finally, have them develop a healthy relationship with money, otherwise money will control their lives instead of the other way around.

Dr. Prakash Dheeriya is a professor of finance at California State University-Dominguez Hills and author of Finance for Kidz, a 20-volume series of books that teaches children about money management, personal finance and planning for the future. www.Finance4kidz.com

Stacy Johnson’s take on stupidity

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tecouLYZS1o&feature=player_embedded

Top 10 things that money cannot buy

Please check  out http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-44196-LA-Personal-Finance-Examiner~y2010m5d16-Kids-and-Money-Top-10-list-of-what-money-cannot-buy?cid=publish_facebook:44196

Children & Money: When it comes to money, are savings enough?

Please check this article out.

Do you teach kids about money?

http://shine.yahoo.com/channel/parenting/do-you-talk-to-your-kids-about-money-1328708/

Should Goldman Sachs Be Reprimanded?

Check out my article at LA Examiner..

Dad of Divas’ comments on “choice”

Check this out!

http://dadofdivas.blogspot.com/2010/03/book-review-finance-for-kids-choice.html

Using allowances to teach about money

Here is a post on that subject. It provides a different perspective on allowances….Pay attention to the comments too…

http://www.cleveland.com/pdq/index.ssf/2010/03/using_allowance_to_teach_your.html

Men Versus Women

Who is better at managing money? Women or Men?

I am curious as to what you think.

What is the future direction of the stock market?

One of the questions that my students often ask me is: Where is the stock market headed?

My answer to this profound question is really simple: The stock market will go up and then it will go down.

Should I give an allowance to my child? If so, how much?

This is a very common question asked by parents. They want to know how much, when to start and how to give it.

Some parents refuse to give allowances as they believe that children should learn the value of money first, understand what it takes to earn an allowance, and try to get it. Others use arbitrary rules. One of the most common ones is to give a dollar a week for each year of age. For example, a 5-year old will get $ 5 a month. Some parents may give $ 5 a week.

Another question that is asked is: Should the kids ALWAYS get an allowance, once it is given?

Again, it depends. If a child has behaved normally during a week, then yes, they must get their allowance. Sometimes, parents use a disaster-event (child breaking something precious or does something he/she is not supposed to do) to communicate the concept of “consequences” and the allowance for that week/month is forfeited. It is important that the child understands the reason behind the forfeiture. Alternatively, the parent can keep it aside and return it back to the child once the child has started behaving in the proper manner. It is upto the parents how they use these teachable moments.

Another question that is asked: Should I pay my child for chores?

This is a difficult question which has life-long implications. A child should do chores regardless of whether an allowance is paid or not. Rewarding them for chores that they should be doing anyway sets a bad precedent. In future, if the parent wants the child to do something, the parent should be prepared to hear “how much is it worth to you?” from the child. It is better to reward the child for the extra chores he does after he does them, so that the child is not doing it for the money. 

Money and its relationship to happiness is a very delicate subject. A child should not related money with being happy and vice versa. Society may throw such images to the child as he grows up and becomes an adult, but the child should be taught that having money is not a pre-requisite for being happy.

What do you think? How would you respond to these questions?

Hello there!