Kids learn more when they observe the actions of their parents who are their first role models. So, how may parents teach their children the values of delaying gratification, saving hard-earned money, and become wise consumers, values that will serve them well into adulthood and pave for them the way to a successful life?
Consider thus
1. Parents Should be Good Role Models
The best way to teach anyone anything is by showing them, which means parents must be good role models.
2. Children Should Be Taught The Value of Money From a Young Age
From a young age, children should be taught to save part of their pocket money. And as they get older, be encouraged to get a job. This will serve as an opportunity to learn about the value of time and hard work, helping them see how a purchase that looked perfectly reasonable when daddy or mommy was paying for it can seem less necessary when they have to pay for it from money that they worked hard to earn!
3. Parents Should Reward Their Children’s Saving Habits
Parents could do this by helping and teaching their children to invest the money they saved wisely. Another way to reward them is to match the amount of money they save and give them as a gift.
4. Show Them How To Manage Expenses
Kids can also be taught the benefit of bargaining before making a purchase. And instead of parents paying off debt owed by their children, a better way will be to help them work out a plan for paying off the debt themselves, as this helps them cultivate a sense of responsibility.
5. Let Them Make Decisions
Parents can also create plenty of opportunities for either/or decision making. Saying yes to all of your children’s requests doesn’t require them to practice any decision-making at all. Make sure, even if you have the means to grant every wish, to say no from time to time.
Teach them to think critically about the advertisements aimed at them; even as they are helped to see that in every purchase, there’s always a fool, and that they need not be that fool all the time.
Of course, they will not like it at first, but parents must remember the strong influence they have on their kids and how using this to teach them wise money skills will last them a lifetime. Well, it doesn’t just go one way, children can hold their parents accountable too!
