3 ways to include children in financial discussions
In times of financial crisis, most families have revised their finances in order to optimize their spending more and inhibit budget villains.
Contrary to what was once thought, this is not just a subject for “big people”. Involving the small, and not so small, in this family agenda can generate, in addition to great ideas, responsible future consumers.
When the children are involved in this, they also feel responsible for collaborating with the family budget, and this in itself helps a lot.
1. Meeting with the whole family
To get started, call your family for a family reunion with a date and time marked. Have a family expense table with you and show everyone on a marked day. Let the children participate and ask questions about the family’s expenses.
After that, discuss ways you can reduce your spending, ask your child’s opinion as well and abide by some of them so that they feel participative in this process.
2. Give them a responsibility
Give a small spreadsheet and ask them to record all the family’s expenses. All expense invoices need to be passed on to them to have them posted to the family worksheet.
This way they will be an important part of spending control.
Once a week, ask them to report on how they are spending. Over the months, with the help of the registered expenses worksheet, they will be able to perceive and indicate the improvements that the family had in relation to the expenses of each item.
3. Teach them how to save
Much is talked about in economics and reduction of expenses, but an important subject for the family and also for the children is to save for the future.
Parents can teach their children in this task. In the same way that they can control household expenses, they can become responsible for saving the family each month.
Teach them that the lower your monthly expenses, the higher the amount you can save. And also that a savings can be made with a definite purpose, for example, if they can save a certain amount they can, in a certain amount of months, make a long dreamed trip with family.
If this is the family goal, children can be responsible from the beginning for the savings of the trip, so when they get the full value they will feel the joy of having participated and collaborated to make the dream come true.
Article by Akinbode Toluleke check up Twitter on taakinbode
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