Have you talked to your kids about money today? We often think it’s a big conversation that needs preparation, but it doesn’t have to be. The biggest step is starting those conversations and opening up the floor for them to be curious and ask questions regarding finances.
And the good news is that it can be so easy! We have no reason to wait until they’re a certain age to discuss, we don’t have to sit them down, and we don’t need to complicate things for us or them. All it takes is talking about the costs of daily life and making sure they comprehend that.
It can be as simple as “This is how much lunch costs today,” “here’s how much we earn every day,” or “Here’s how much money we have in savings.” When you buy something at the store, they have an activity they want to do, or they wonder about an item in your house, enlighten them about the value of each item or experience.
You can certainly keep these conversations within the family, but starting to have those conversations is the most important part. The only way to ensure our children have a genuine understanding of the value of money is to know how much things actually cost. Without this, they’ll never truly comprehend money’s value.
As they grow up, these conversations will absolutely look a little bit different. We will change the things we share with them and they will gradually have a better understanding of earnings and finances with age.
We try so hard to teach them to budget or to pick what’s most important to them, but we cannot do this without them first understanding how money works and how things are valued.
Letting them know the value of things as we are buying them is the key to teaching them the value of money. There’s truly no other way.
Then from there, we can teach them to consider why they value things in their life and help them to understand their Awesome Stuff™.
So what’s the most important lesson to teach kids about money? Simple. How much things actually cost. That’s it.
