It’s never too early to teach children about money.
Some parents give children regular pocket money. If you’re
a parent who does this (or a child that receives it!)
here are some tips.
Kids!
Each week, take 10% out of your pocket money (or pay if
you have a job, like a paper round or working in
a dairy), and put it in a savings account. Mum or Dad
may
like
to open an account for you that only they can get
in to so you’re not tempted to spend it.
Go to www.sorted.co.nz . Click on “kids and money” for
cool ideas. You can find out how much you will have by
the time you’re a certain age if you start saving
now.
Ask your parents or caregivers to help you work out the
percentages.
Take another percentage of your
money to spend – say
50%
Then use the remaining 40% to save
for something special – a
trip away, stereo, bike or other item. It may seem
to take a long time, but you will really appreciate your
item when you can finally buy it with your own money.
Here is an example:
You get $10 a week pocket money or pay from the paper
round.
10%
Long term savings
$1.00
50%
To spend
$5.00
40%
Save for a bike
$4.00
Total
$10.00
Parents!
Saving in this way encourages children to only spend what
they have. Although buying on credit is not necessarily
wrong, it is far better to save and buy with cash
if you can. You have more bargaining power and you won’t
have to worry about where the next payment is coming
from.
Remember, you need to be a good example in this area
too. If children see us continually struggling to
buy necessities or save, or buying everything on credit,
they
will most probably operate the same way
