As a parent, it’s your duty to ensure that you lay a solid foundation for your kids’ future success.
Besides teaching them a good set of moral values and imparting to them a high-quality education, it’s also crucial for you to teach them life skills.
One crucial life skill to instil in your child is money management.
No matter their current age, you must help your child navigate the world of financial literacy to ensure that they grow up with a strong understanding of how to manage, save, and invest money wisely.
That said, teaching them the fundamentals of money can be a bit boring. It can easily fly over their heads. So it’s key that you teach the topic in an age-appropriate manner.
If you’re currently struggling to find ways to teach your child how to handle money, read on. We’ll share some tips on how to gamify finance and make it something your kid can digest and adopt in their current and future life.
Without further ado, here are some fun and engaging ways to teach kids about money management. Let’s begin!
Saving is one of the first things everyone should know when talking about financial literacy. It’s a fairly straightforward habit, but it can be notoriously difficult for people to follow through, especially for those who may not have the best impulse control.
Kids are among the most likely people to become tempted to spend on things they want in the short term. Letting kids off the hook with their lack of impulse control can form bad habits in them. This is why it’s important to teach them the value of saving.
A great way to engage your kids to save is by making it a fun challenge that they can participate in. Consider hosting a challenge wherein you’ll give your kid a prize for every savings milestone they reach by a certain time.
For example, you can bring them to their favourite restaurant if they manage to save over 50% of their allowance two weeks in a row. If you have multiple kids, you can have them compete against one another and allow the winner to choose where they’d like to go as a reward.
By doing this, your kid(s) will become more conscious of their spending. This can help them in two ways; one, it helps them form the habit of impulse control, and second, it saves them more money, which can be used for more important needs in the future.
Technology is a powerful tool with a tonne of utility in today’s modern world.
It can perform a wide breadth of functions, and one of its relevant functionalities is the ability to broadcast a wide range of information to all sorts of individuals, including children.
Two features that most easily capture the interest of children are games and educational apps. These games are made to be fun, making it easy for kids to pay attention to them without it feeling like a chore.
Fortunately, there are many apps in the app store of various smartphones like GoHenry and Zogo that are built to teach children all about financial management and literacy.
Specifically, these apps provide features that allow children to track their expenses and manage their spending. Some apps also help you with saving, and you can learn more by clicking here.
Besides those aforementioned apps, kids can also learn about the basics of economy, supply, and demand by playing non-financial-related games that utilise currency, whether offline or online.
These games give them the testing grounds to utilise actual money skills, like saving up for a big purchase or grinding to gain more of the game’s currency.
Do you or your partner host family game nights ever so often? If not, consider spicing up each week with a night or two of old-fashioned fun, specifically with financial board games.
These board games, like Monopoly and The Game of Life, provide your child with an entertaining way to learn about money management, investment, and strategic planning. All in a fun and enjoyable package!
When playing Monopoly, your child can learn how to buy and sell property (in an oversimplified manner, of course). This can be a great segue to introduce them to real-life situations.
Furthermore, your kid can also learn about and experience luck and opportunity firsthand, which are quite instrumental in affecting one’s life. They’ll also learn how to optimise cash flow and make financial decisions.
By engaging in these games, kids can learn the basics of financial literacy in a fun, competitive, and safe environment. The bonding experience of family game nights also offers parents the opportunity to discuss and share financial principles that may be relevant to their lives.
Another way to make finance fun and challenging for kids is by having them adopt it in real life. The best way to do so, at their age, is by allowing them to tag along while you shop for groceries.
In the supermarket, you can assign your kid some tasks to get them to utilise their money management skills.
For instance, you can give them a shopping list with a total allowable budget, and they’ll have to accomplish the task of buying everything on the list without exceeding the budget.
Besides giving them these assignments, you can also use this visit to teach them about financial concepts that you may see at the store.
For instance, you can teach them how to calculate discounts (or calculate the full price), how to compare prices, and how to pick the best option when shopping.
Having your child experience this hands-on can help them understand the value of money and its finite nature. You’re also teaching them basic life skills, like summing up costs and fulfilling tasks in the grocery.
Not only will this make them more appreciative of what they have, but it can also help them become more responsible later in life.
While some kids may not always be on board with this idea, roleplaying scenarios can be extremely helpful for the right kid.
Set aside an hour or two with your kid and start by briefing them on who you wish to play as and who they should play as. Give them a scenario and a fake budget to work with.
Then, role play. For example, you can play as a customer, and they can play as a store manager. You can have them try to convince you to buy a product or set of products, and you can choose to make it easy or hard for them.
Of course, the range of roles you can play is endless, so feel free to choose your persona depending on what your kid may need to learn about.
Through these activities, children can hone a wide range of skills, namely, budgeting, saving, spending wisely, and dealing with unexpected costs. It’ll also teach them people skills and negotiating tactics in a safe environment.
Another fun way to ignite some passion in your child’s heart is by encouraging them to perform entrepreneurial activities.
Encourage them to set up a lemonade stand, a garage sale, or any outdoor service business. If they show interest in doing this, help them out in any way you can, like by moving tables around or creating marketing materials.
If outdoor selling isn’t an option, bring the task online. Consider having them list some old items or any products they may have with them and wait for responses. Once a purchase has been made, teach them how to send the product to the other party.
By allowing your child to become entrepreneurial, you’ll help them learn how to stand up for themselves and sell things on their own accord. You’ll also teach them valuable life skills, like negotiation and hard work.
This, in turn, can be a pivotal moment in that child’s life, teaching them the beauty (and hardship) of entrepreneurship and the hardship of earning even a dollar sometimes.
