What lessons are we teaching our children about money….

What did your parents teach you about money?

Two things I remember being told are that money doesn’t grow on trees and also being told that you don’t get paid for what you do, it’s what you know how to do – neither of them seem like huge life lessons, do they?

But they really are….

Money doesn’t grow on trees

Money doesn’t grow on trees comes from the fact that it’s easy to think that money is endless – especially to a child who sees you walk up to a cash machine and walk away with cash or watches you hand over your card to pay for things as it just looks so easy to them.

It’s important to let children know that money has to be earned and that no matter how easy it might look like it is to spend it, every pound has to be accounted for.  Here’s a few ways to teach your children that money really doesn’t grow on trees:

• Give your children weekly or monthly pocketmoney rather than paying for everything for them.
• I don’t make my two do jobs to earn their pocketmoney but they do have set jobs to do and if they don’t get done, they don’t get pocketmoney.  In the same way that if they’re naughty or too cheeky then they wouldn’t get their pocketmoney.
• If they want something, make them save up their own money to buy it and try not to advance them the money for it as they need to learn to save for things rather than get them instantly like they could on a credit card when they’re older.
• Be open and honest with them – I show mine our bank statements every now and again so they can see how much some things cost us.

You get paid for what you know and not what you do

(This isn’t an across the board thing but it certainly applied to my Dad and to a number of other people I’ve known)

Have you ever looked at someone and thought you could do their job easily?  Granted, in some cases you probably couldn’t and they’re just that good that they make their job look easy to others but there really gave been cases where I genuinely could have done the job as good as they could but they were better qualified with letters after their name.

I didn’t go to university but only because I wanted to see the world and couldn’t wait to start working and I’ve almost never regretted it – the only times being when I realised that I could be doing even better than I am now if I’d stayed in education a little bit longer.

In all honesty, I’m not sure that you can teach your children this life lesson other than telling them and encouraging them to work as hard as they can at school, college and hopefully, university.

And one from me – Collect Moments, not Things

I’m teaching my children how to manage their money in the same way that my parents taught me but I do have one very important lesson that I want them to learn which I think is just as important as knowing how to manage your money….

If you can help your children to understand that it’s not all about the ‘stuff’ then they’re going to find being frugal and saving money a LOT easier when they’re all grown up and earning money of their own.  We’re not quite there yet but we’re working on it.

Do you have a money mantra that you want to teach your children?

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Image credit: Shutterstock, red-feniks