How to Teach Your Kids Good Spending Habits

Teaching your kids good spending habits is as important as teaching them manners and rules, as learning how to spend money as they grow up will be as important to their survival and happiness as anything else in the world these days. While money is definitely not everything, a respect for it is incredibly important for decision making, planning and just general knowledge about how the world operates as a whole. By using some of the advice listed below, your kids will learn the value of money and how to spend it on things they really need, as opposed to just things they might want.

Give Them an Allowance

If a set amount of money is given to a child every week or every few weeks, they will learn how to spend and budget their money on their own. Say you give them $20 per week and tell them they can spend it on anything they want, but they won't get any more money for another week. At first they will probably spend it frivolously but when they are constantly disappointed by not having enough money to buy something bigger they want, they will learn how to save this money.

Make Them Buy Something Expensive Themselves

If your kid wants something expensive, like a video game system or a pretty dress, that in other circumstances you would just end up buying for them for a holiday or birthday, tell them to save up for it themselves through their allowance, or payment for chores. This will really teach kids how to save towards a goal and they will experience the joy in saving up enough money to buy something they really wanted, to have earned it and crossed that first financial finish line.

Pay Them for Work

Paying a kid for chores or little amounts of work that you assign to them will also teach kids good spending habits, as they will learn that the money they have is money they earned and they should protect it. This will also teach the importance of hard work to kids, especially those who are reaching adolescence and may want to get a real job some time soon.