Helping kids appreciate money
In this age of immediacy many parents have fallen victim to adage of “more is better”. According to T. Rowe Price's 2016 Parents, Kids & Money Survey, 57% of parents say they spend too much on things their kids do not need. Here are five tips to help you combat the “more is better” mentality.
Read MoreAccording to Lewis Mandell, a professor of finance at the University of Washington who recently studied more than 50 years’ worth of allowance research, “The kids who receive [a regular, unconditional] allowance tend to think far less about money in general.” He also said “Those children appear more likely to grow up to be ‘slackers,’ since they aren't learning to associate work with money.”
Read MoreWe get many testimonials on the ease of use of FamilyMint, so we're very careful about adding features that add complexity that may not be used by a large portion of our user base. Many FamilyMint families have indicated that they actually prefer to track chores manually / outside of an online application. The chore tracking and maintenance implementations we've seen online are anything but simple, and in our estimation, actually seem to cause more work in the end vs. simple manual methods. This is one area where technology hasn't yielded a better result.
In line with keeping things simple... we thought we’d share what we do personally in our own families in hopes you might find it useful.
Read MoreHave you set-aside ample time to regularly sit down and have “money meetings” with your children to discuss their money habits? If not, why not start now? And in addition to a successful school year, your children will also learn life long positive money habits.
Read MoreHow much allowance should I give my kids? What do other parents do? Is giving an allowance even a good idea?Many experts will say $1/week multipled by your child’s age is the “right amount”. To this, we say nonsense! Here is some quick information that really will help.
Read MoreWe had a mom write in with some ideas that she uses with her own kids at home. We thought they were great, so we wanted to share them with you.
Read MoreAccording to one expert, the right time to start an allowance is as early as your kids start to understand the value of money (usually around age 6).
Read More“But why do I have to wait two weeks?” said my 12 year old son. “O, come on, please! I really want it and I won’t want anything else for a long time!” This was almost a weekly ritual in my house as my son would look through the Sunday ads for good “deals.” We had tried many things, including a mandatory two week waiting period, but nothing seemed to really help.
Read MoreOne of our earlier blog responders suggested that “budget” has negative connotations these days, so he prefers “spending plan.” He suggests that this indicates that the planner is in control of his or her own financial destiny.
Read MoreA few weeks ago I wrote a post about paying allowances, noting that it is “one of the big conundrums of parenthood”. One of our FamilyMint parents commented that paying allowances was difficult in light of her family’s limited “spending” money, so I wanted to touch on the topic again with that in mind.
Read MoreAs parents, we have a responsibility to build our children into adults who don’t just cope, but thrive. A lot of it boils down to teaching them self control in making good daily decisions, including how they manage themselves – and how they manage money.
Read MoreOne of the big conundrums of parenthood is whether or not to give your kids an allowance. A lot of it is based on your own experience, your view of its place in parenting, your financial situation, etc.
Read MoreCreating money-smart kids doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a skill and a behavior that has to be nurtured over time. The skill lies in learning the value of saving, giving, and spending conscientiously and understanding the difference between wants and needs. The behavior comes from the habits formed in doing these things over time and learning from mistakes.
Read MoreAn allowance is a great means to teach children how to manage money, develop budgeting skills and encourage independence. By giving an allowance and giving the child the responsibility to pay for the things they want and activities they like to do, it helps them see money is a limited resource and they must budget it wisely.
Read MoreUSAA recently had webinar program with experts answering parents questions and providing tips around kids and finances.
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