I was reading a quick tip article on Forbes today that revolved around good and bad ways to raise a financially savvy kid. Some of the advice such as leading by example with your own spending habits and introducing an allowance is something I highly agree with. However, it made a point that you shouldn’t tell kids that “we can’t afford it” as it will apparently instill fear. Instead, it suggested that you re-word it to something like “We choose not to spend our money that way.”
This got my attention because as a child I would often see scenarios and be told that the family simply couldn’t afford certain things. As a result, it made me aware about the concept of money and in-turn made me want to be savvy about it. I personally wasn’t scared in anyway and if anything it just made me understood better whenever I see my parents buying a lot of things that are on sale.
Sometime I think we treat children a little too fragile to the point where what they learn isn’t adequate to match the difficulty of handling the responsibilities that will be presented to them. Especially with finance I feel as for a lot people they simply have no real clue or experience in managing money only to then try and manage adulthood.
I have often said this, but even something as simple as video games often have a lot of content that deals with money in a kid friendly way. As well, kids can see the rewards or consequences to making good and bad decisions with it. Better sooner than never though I think.