Teach Your Children about Money Tip #5

Tip #5 for teaching your child about money involves teaching them how to bail themselves out of financial jams. It may be hard to resist the urge to help bailout your child, but when you don't always come to their rescue, your child learns to save themselves. So if your child wants to buy an expensive toy or item, have them take a good look at the amount of money they have in their own account. If they do not have enough money to buy the item then do not give a cash advance to your child so they can buy the item. Instead, brainstorm with your child to see what ways they may be able to come up with the extra money they want to buy the item.

For college aged children that run up their credit cards, do not offer to pay them off. Again, spend some time talking with your child to see how she can come up with the extra money needed to pay off the credit card bill. These types of lessons teach your children that they have to work for their money and manage their debt themselves because there isn't always going to be somebody (like Mom and Dad) to bail them out all the time.

Teach Your Child Amount Money by Limiting their Access to It

It's Day #3 on how to teach your kids what they need to know about being responsible managers of their money. No matter how wealthy or poor your family is, the only way to teach your children how to budget and manage money the right way is by limiting how much money you give to them. This is not an encouragement to let your child suffer. It's fine to give your child an allowance in exchange for doing household chores or completing tasks, but make sure that the payment fits the duties.

This helps children to learn how to save and spend their money according to how much they have. If the latest video game has hit stores and your son is saving up his allowance to buy it, then he knows he has to forgo buying a shirt he wants and hitting Starbucks everyday with his friends after school for an iced latte. Otherwise, he won't have enough money to buy the game.

Providing an allowance to college-age children is OK too, but you'll better prepare them for adulthood by keeping this amount within meager means as well. When they hit the real world, they are going to have to start at an entry-level job, probably not making a ton of money. They need to learn how to live within their means and by not overindulging them, you're preparing them for their financial future.