In today’s day and age, if there is one thing every parent desires it is to raise children into well-rounded individuals. However, a fact that many people fail to understand is that this form of growth, development, and learning cannot come with bookish knowledge alone. Children need to be motivated to explore and experiment with other areas of life as well, one of the most crucial ones of which is financial understanding.
We at Delhi Public School Kangra, one of the most trusted schools in Kangra, firmly believe that only when children understand the importance of finance and how to raise sufficient finances, can they become financially independent. Goes without saying that parents and educational institutes have a crucial role to play here. While we at our school have always ensured teaching kids about such crucial life skills, we urge the parents to also pick up such topics with your kids at home. It will help instill these skills in them more swiftly.
Here’s how you can teach financial independence to your children:
-
Make them understand the value of money:
We at Delhi Public School Kangra have observed that one of the reasons why most children take time to understand the importance and value of money is because they believe everything comes easy in life.
No offenses, but a lot of this is accredited to parents and family members who make their children’s every wish their command. There is no harm in pampering your child. However, while doing so, one must not forget to speak to children about the value of money. At the same time, children need to be made to understand that it is not easy to raise a huge quantum of funds, which is why spending smartly becomes key.
-
Teach them the importance of saving:
If you wish to see your children grow up to become financially independent and understand its importance in and out, make sure you motivate your children to save enough right from an early age.
How do go about with this?
Let us assume your child is demanding an XYZ toy. Now, instead of buying the toy for your child in one go, you can motivate your child to save money, gather the complete sum, and go buy the toy. You can assign easy home activities to your child and reward the child for every completed task in the form of cash.
-
Make them manage their allowances:
Allowance, better known as pocket money, is a day-to-day sum that parents hand over to their children for use during emergencies or to fulfill their desires like having a favorite treat like an ice cream.
Here, children have two choices. Either to finish all the allowance that they are receiving on a day-to-day basis in one go or to save a tiny part of the allowance for something big that can be bought in the future.
To make the latter a reality, parents need to discuss this option with their children and help them manage their savings, at least during the initial saving period.
-
Speak about wise spending:
Here, we at Delhi Public School Kangra would like to bring to your attention the very fact that, as adults, there are multiple occasions on which we end up buying items that are of no use to us. What is even more disturbing is that in most cases, we end up spending a whopping sum on these.
If we as adults can make these mistakes on a somewhat repeat basis, children for sure can falter. This is where drawing a distinction between one’s needs and wants becomes important. Explaining children to lay emphasis on their needs while being okay with the idea of not immediately attending to their wants should be engraved in their minds early on. To some extent, this works as the first step towards introducing children to financial independence.
Summing Up:
All this while, if you have been postponing financial independence-related conversations with your children, it is time that you realize the urgency of the matter. What makes us say so is the very fact that financial independence lessons, which are taught at an early age, continue to stay engraved in children’s minds long after.
That said, we at Delhi Public School Kangra, being one of the most trusted schools in Kangra, would like to advise the parents not to expect miracles in the matter. Financial independence in itself is a heavy topic to digest, hence, it is necessary that you give your children enough time to sit with it and imbibe it.
At the end of the day, there is no denying that financially independent individuals are the most successful ones in life because, come what may, they know how to deal with unsettling times. So, are you ready to get started on this? Make sure you apply the above tips and tricks.