Teach your children good financial habits

Start early

Your children will start gaining an awareness of what money is early on in life, perhaps because they have pestered you for a toy or gadget and you have told them you cannot afford it.

This is the perfect opportunity to start teaching them in more detail about the value of money, saving and how you manage your various expenses, from paying household bills to paying for luxuries and non-essentials.

Encourage them to save

You can get your children actively saving money from an early age, from giving them a piggy bank or opening a Junior ISA.

Set a good example

If you want to instill good financial habits into your children, you are in a position where you can give them a positive example to follow.

If they can see you actively setting a household budget, weighing up how to spend your money and thinking about the choices you make, it will hopefully become second nature to your children, and they will grow up emulating your actions.

Set financial goals

You will have various financial goals in mind, from making sure you can afford a family holiday to paying for a future wedding.

You can encourage your children to get used to doing this by suggesting they set goals for whatever they want to buy. It doesn’t have to be on a large scale. For instance, it could be a holiday with friends, a night out, a new smartphone or a laptop. But even so, it will get them used to the idea of making sure they are able to pay for things before they buy.

Teach them budgeting skills

When your children are starting to earn their own money, perhaps because they have their first Saturday job, sit down with them and teach them how to budget.

Show them ways of tracking their income and outgoings, so they can see what spending must be prioritised and how much money they have left for discretionary purchases.

If you have any questions about managing your finances and helping your family become more confident about managing their money, please feel free to get in touch and we’ll be happy to speak with you.