The Importance of Teaching our Kids About Money
In the not-too-distant past, children received pocket money each week which they would spend on penny sweets and comics, and whatever was left would be put in a money box to save for something special that had caught their eye.
The physical nature of money meant that its weight in the money box could tell them how their savings had grown, and when they stuffed their pockets with coins to go to the shop to make their special purchase, it will have weighed heavily in more ways than one.
Nonetheless, those children were learning valuable basic lessons about money such as its scarcity, its value, how to budget and how to save. They were also learning the importance of good stitching in their pockets, although that was less important.
Frivolity and rose-tinted images of the past aside, we now live in an age where money is rapidly becoming less about notes and coins, and more about numbers on a screen. As a nation, our physical relationship with money is changing at an astonishing rate; something the pandemic has helped to accelerate. Today we can tap our bank card, phone, or smart watch to make a purchase, and for many people cash is a virtual stranger. It should come as no surprise then, that some experts are predicting that within 10 years only 1 in 10 transactions will involve cash.
The changes in our physical relationship with money therefore poses a serious and important question when it comes to our children and money. How can we teach children basic money skills if it is becoming something that is invisible, intangible and almost abstract?
If you also consider that children today are likely to need more money in the future than previous generations – to pay for higher education, and to get a foothold on the ever rising first rung of the housing ladder, for example – it is clear that we need to find new ways to teach children about money from an early age and help them develop good money skills for life.
Fortunately, help is at hand. At Better With Money we have developed a webinar in conjunction with BlueTreeSavings.Com called “How To Teach Your Kids About Money”. Aimed at any employee with a child in their life, it provides a fun and informative way or them to teach children about money, help them develop good money habits and help them learn why saving and investing for the future is smart. It also highlights how important it is to pay children regular pocket money (something fewer parents are doing) as a way to help children put what they learn into practice.
Penny sweets may be a thing of the past, but the joy children experience when they buy something they have saved for, will never disappear. By providing financial education in the workplace in an interesting and accessible way, Better With Money wants to help ensure children in the future still experience that joy – although probably without a pocket full of two pence pieces.
If you would like to find out more about the courses Better with Money provides, please get in touch.