How to Financially Secure Your Child's Future

How to Financially Secure Your Child's Future. Every parent want their child's future to be secure and they aim for the overall wellness of their children, be it physically, emotionally and financially. The future is uncertain specially in terms of the economy as the world is slowly changing and we are interdependent with each other more than ever. What we do today for the sake of our children's future counts a lot. The family is still the basic institution that cares for the children and it is an entity that determines what kind of life a child will have to some extent. Indeed, the responsibility that is upon a parent is loaded but it can be achievable.

This hub How to Financially Secure Your Child's Future objective is to share some of my insights about securing the financial future of your child by instilling some values in them. These you might say are common sense way of securing their future but I will add some of what I have learned and observed.

Just remember that each family is unique and each has its own structure, but these simple reminders shall go along way. I hope this hub -- How to Financially Secure Your Child's Future -- will be a guide for new or future parents who like to ensure the finances of their children by instilling basic values in them.

By teaching them the value of saving money at a young age. When we were young and other people will give us some funds for a gift from our grandparents and other friends plus relatives, our parents will explain to us that they need to open an account for us individually so that it will be our money when we need them. My parents opened an account for us. At that time, smaller banks are opening so my parents put the money there. If we have some money like coins, we put it in a bamboo saving, which has a hole on it and if it is full already we count them and deposit it in the bank. We are encouraged to make the money grow by being a good student or if you have a high grades my parents will reward us and we have the option to choose, some books, toys or money. It worked for us.

Inculcating the value of education so that their lives will be better and they can get a high payng job. At that time, there is financial crisis in the Philippines and due to hard times, there is high unemployment. My parents always tell us that without a good education we cant move on with life because there is a good competition for jobs that are available and if you are educated, you can have more chance to get a job. We opt for higher educations. We are bombarded with stories about successful people through their education told by my father, -- stories of successes when you are diligent and patient, you will succeed in life. Those values are priceless.

Good works, diligence and patience pay in the long run specially in terms of getting an education.

Teaching children how to hold and account a money at a reasonable age. When I was six years old, we have a small store, like a cooperative store where we sell items -- foods, canned goods and ordinary stuff which we buy everyday. When it is time to buy for merchandise, my mother will always bring me and have a calculator with me, I will be the one who count what we buy and monitor it, in that way i learned how to have simple accounting knowledge. We have a small notebook where we put all the things we buy and then how much money we have for the day due to sales. In that way we monitor profit everyday. I also learned math the fastest way by doing this. I can subtract mentally because I will be staying at the store and attending to customers.

Same goes when we go shopping, we have a list and we stick with it, plus we monitor expenses to the cents. These values which I learned from a very young age made me learn how to account money.

When you can afford, prioritize or buy educational plan or insurance plan for your children.  In this hub --  Gerber Grow Up Plan  -- I talked about how to get life insurance for your children -- -- if you have time you can read it.

Getting a life insurance pays in the long run, my eldest sister has a pre need educational plan and she went to college smoothly. By that time, we were both in college and I was on a scholarship, my parents has no problem in our college education. After my sister graduated in college, my youngest brother is entering college and my sister helped my parents with his education. After two years I have a degree also and pursue my Masters while working. You see in the Philippines, in our culture we stay with our parents until the time we are married and even so if the house is so big, some children even stay in their parents until they want to separate from them.

Instilling the value of wise spending. While learning how to account money, my parents always talk about spending money wisely. Buy only the things which are necessary and rewarding us with gifts if we get good grades, so we have a bike or a new toy. We cant just buy anything we want to even if we have some money to spare. We don't have video games then, only Mario brothers. We don't just buy clothes when we feel like buying one. My uniforms in school are hand me down from my sister, they still look good, and so I learned that it is not the kind of fancy clothes which make people admire you but excelling in school is a way to get respect. As long as you have decent clothes, and you are good at school, you can make a difference in life.

The value of responsibility. When we were young, each of us and my siblings have a responsibility to do, or chores, like I will take care of all the chickens (we have poultry) and do the folding of the clothes. My sister helps in cleaning the house. We enjoy this because my mother put a check list and we are so determined to have finished the responsibilities and tasks for the day. My mother don't have tasks for us during the test period at school, all we need to do is study for that period. My mother was a very busy woman, we have a small store, a piece of land where we plant rice and other vegetables, plus my father work in a government office. Three of us my brother and sister helped in the house and we have each our duties and responsibilities.

Being responsible is connected in some way to financially securing your child's future as they learn to have a word of honor -- meaning they do what their job is and that will make them earn money well, sticking to their responsibility.

Mostly the things I shared here are from my own experiences and I am so glad to share it with you, it worked for us and I hope it will work for you as well. There is nothing like the feeling that the future of your children are secured financially by instilling values that we can live by everyday. My family when I was growing up is not perfect and we continue to learn the lessons as we go along life everyday.