Thursday, March 31, 2011

Family Lawyer in Houston Talks Money Lessons For Young Children

Perhaps I am biased as a family lawyer in Houston, but I believe that it really is never too early to start teaching your children about good money habits. Obviously, by doing so, you are preparing them for the uncertain future. You are also establishing a family culture, wherein money is handled with maturity and openness.

But the best news is that helping them to develop these habits can be fairly simple! I have put together some basic steps -- many of these may not seem like rocket science, but my job is to be a coach and a goad for you to do the things which you already may "know" to do!

1) Give them an allowance--with strings. Do not just give them an allowance for doing nothing -- this actually defeats the purpose! You can buy your young children whatever they ask for, so they do not need "spending money". Instead, see an allowance as a training tool: your children should learn that money is earned by working. Believe it or not, this isn't an obvious connection for a young child! Because a kindergartner truly is able to help with small chores around the house, you can put them to work and let them earn their allowance this way. Rather than seeing it as a "bribe", or some sort of indentured servitude, this is a critical knowledge base for a young child.

2) The old lemonade stand. Encourage this! And do it with adult supervision. Your child will learn how to make a product, market it and sell it. While the idea is to teach good money habits, they are also learning valuable life lessons -- nothing sells itself, after all. (Though with cute kids, that is sometimes the case!)

3) Saving and investing. Rather than showering your young child with gift after gift, encourage them to go through the process of working towards a savings goal. You can always "supplement" this process, but having your child save up for an item will teach them that nothing comes for free. In return, children also learn that the items you buy them have real value and should be treated as such.

This might, even, cut down on those "negotiations" so familiar to parents who bring their children into stores!

4) Cold, hard cash. A lot of children nowadays are so used to seeing parents pay with debit and credit cards that they may not know what actual money looks like! This is a new-generational issue, and it is important that your children learn that money is more than a mouse click, or a card swipe. Show your kids the different types of money - coins, bills, etc. and tell them the monetary amount for each.

When you go shopping, let your child have a try at paying for certain items. This will help them feel quite grown up, and again -- they see that transactions don't just "happen", they cost.

What about you? How have you gone about introducing your children to money? I would be interested to hear some other tactics, and may share them with the list next week.

But until then, I remain your kindly Houston family lawyer-- out to save the world from improper planning, unnecessary taxes ... and from young adults still living on Mommy/Daddy credit!