Kids and Money…How Do You Teach It?

Our first child is only two months old, and we are already discussing how we want to handle money with our child(ren). My biggest concern up until I read this article is how early is too early?

Now, however, I have an even bigger fear. I realize that my parents never taught me ANYTHING about money. I only recently got a small glimpse of my parents’ financial situation. It’s not horrid, but it definitely isn’t as good as it should be. Additionally, her parents have been notoriously bad with handling their money, so I don’t think that she was taught good money lessons as a child either.

Luckily, she and I both have a very healthy view of money and have good habits. We are debt free, and we save, give, and spend in healthy proportions. But we developed these habits in a round-about way. My financial philosophy was developed because I was interested in learning and had to look outside of my parents to get the information I wanted. Hers came about more as a desire to do a better job and have more security than her parents. Additionally, there were lots people around her who were constantly having phones cut off, being evicted, and having cars repossessed, and that wasn’t too appealing.

The concern is that because we weren’t taught these lessons as children, we don’t know how to teach them to our children–we have no example to follow. We know how to teach kids to count, say their ABCs, ride a bike, hit a baseball, etc, but we don’t know how to teach them about money.

Unfortunately, we are not alone. With a negative savings rate and personal debt constantly growing, I don’t think most people in the US have the needed skills to handle money themselves, much less teach their children.

I’m going to look for some books on the subjects…open to suggestions as well.

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