Teach Your Kids To Manage Their Money

I came across the above “joke” posted by a friend on Facebook today and it really made me LOL. I don’t know if that is something that I should admit to, but I know that I’m among friends here, and you won’t judge me, will you? I probably wouldn’t find it that funny if I wasn’t mom to two teenage girls. Maybe it’s just my way of dealing….but it definitely made me feel better knowing that I’m not alone in my quest to get the kids to happily do their chores.

When it comes to kids doing chores there are two things that we can always be sure of. The first is that (most) kids don’t like doing chores and the second is that (most) kids like being paid. So now all we need to do is find a way to use that second detail to get our kids to do the first. It sounds quite simple, but believe me – it isn’t! Getting kids to work for their money usually involves a lot of persuasion and excellent marketing skills.

I don’t want to go into the usual “today’s kids” spiel, because if we’re talking frankly, I wasn’t exactly ecstatic about doing chores either, when I was a kid, I may not have thought that I was entitled as so many kids today do, but I also didn’t see why I should be the one doing the chores. And, it took me a really, really long time to finally realize how doing those chores was good for me and how it served me in the long run.

I believe that by giving our children chores and allowing them to work to make their own money we are giving them much more than just the ability to help out around the house and to save a few bucks. We’re preparing them for adult life and in this day and age it seems to be rare to see a young adult who is properly prepared for life outside of the nest.

Chores are a wonderful way to give our children a feeling of responsibility. They are not guests in their home, so there is no reason they shouldn’t work to keep it clean and tidy. It may take a while and a lot of convincing and some tricks might even come in handy, but in the end it will be well worth the effort. Kids that help out around the house grow up to be clean, tidy and responsible adults. I’m sure you don’t want your kid to be the only one at college who doesn’t know how to wash the floors.

One of the best things about getting the kids to do chores is that you can leverage them to teach the children how to earn their pocket money. Instead of just giving them pocket money for just being there, you can pay them for the work they do around the house. It’s a win-win situation, the kids will find that chores are much more fun when they’re being paid to do them and will hopefully even make an effort to do a better job. Parents, who want to give their kids pocket money or maybe buy them a new gadget, like an iPhone, can give this to them as payment for doing their work around the house. And, who knows, you might even find that they start asking you for extra jobs to do around the house to make some extra cash.

It’s never too early to start teaching our children about money, and this is a great opportunity for some of those lessons. Teach your kids about earning money, how to spend it frugally and different ways to save it. Everyone seems to be complaining about how they were never taught to manage their money, and here you have an amazing opportunity to teach your kids about wise money decisions and how to keep out of debt.

There are so many things that our children want which we can help them save up for – a new iPhone or gadget, their first car, college, or they might even start thinking about further into their future and start saving for their first home. The younger you start them off with a healthy earning, spending and saving mentality the better it will be for their future. You might also teach them about giving some of their money to others less fortunate. Teaching your kids better money saving habits and to be financially independent from a young age is one of the best things you’ll ever do for them.

Kids of different ages can earn money in different ways, each age group has a different set of skills and abilities. Let them try new things and master them and then move on to something else. There are so many lessons for kids to learn when it comes to managing their money, you will be doing them a great service.

Many parents want their teens only to focus on their school work. But, allowing them to take a job to earn their own money is a life skill which they can’t afford to miss out on and is equally as important as school work. There are a bunch of part-time jobs that are perfect for high schoolers because they can work around their school schedule and tests. Some perfect jobs for teens are:

• Babysitting
• Retail job
• Lawn care or landscaper
• Pizza delivery
• Restaurant Wait Staff
• Car wash attendant
• Lifeguard
• Cleaner
• Pet sitting
• Tutor younger children

Today more teens are also using their computer and internet experience to make money in their spare time. This is a great solution if they don’t have much time and if they need to work from home. Some great ideas for computer jobs for teens are:

• Teaching others computer programs
• Graphic design
• Website building
• Paid surveys
• YouTube channel
• Maintain a website or blog

Help your kids turn their hobbies into extra cash. If you have a budding artist at home why not try make some extra money on Etsy.com? A prodigy musician? What about teaching music? A sportsman, or woman? Let them share the love and teach their sport to someone else, this can be anything from surfing to skateboarding.

As parents, this is a paramount opportunity for us to teach our children some very important life lessons and most importantly, while we’re doing so we get to empower them!