Teaching Kids How to Save and Spend Money Wisely

People talk all of the time about how ‘kids these days’ don’t know how to manage money. They don’t know how to hold down a job. They don’t know how to cook meals when they go off to college. And you know what? Some of it is completely true. And that scares me! That is why I believe that my #1 goal as a Mom is to work myself out of a job. Sure, I will always be their Mom, but my job is to teach them independence! Teaching kids about money is one of those super important things that we can help teach our kids to save them future mistakes and heartache.

The Why

The first thing you should teach kids when teaching them about money management is teaching them why it is important. If they don’t know the why behind it, they may fail to see the point. Why is it important to save money? Why is it important to give to others? Why is it important to learn how to make smart decisions when spending our money?

I would even suggest giving some examples in your own life when you were saving wisely as well as an example or two of when you weren’t saving wisely. Talk to them and tell them what you learned from both examples! Sometimes those can be the most impactful lessons. I still remember my Dad teaching me that way and it really had an impact on me for the better. I truly believe that I was able to learn from his own choices in life, good or bad, and made better decisions because of it.

Give them Opportunities to Earn

We can talk to our kids about money until we are blue in the face, but until they have cold hard cash in their own little hands, and can learn from their own mistakes, the lessons won’t sink in. We need to give them opportunities to earn money.

Our kids have daily chores that they do, that we don’t pay them for. We have extra chores that they can to do earn money. I have a previous post where I created a Free Printable Kids Chore Chart. Check it out if you are looking for a way to help kids learn responsibility. I also have a post with Free Printable Chore Cards. These are what we use in our family to give our kids the opportunity to earn money.

And if you want more of a one-time event opportunity for them to earn money, you can also check out my post about how to help your kids have a successful lemonade stand! My kids look forward to doing this every summer multiple times. We have even turned our Lemonade Stand into an Apple Cider stand in the fall, and a Hot Chocolate Stand in the winter (when it’s not too cold). They always make great money this way and it really puts fuel in the fire when it comes to implementing the lessons we have taught.

Make it Exciting with Their Own Money Jars

Make earning and saving money exciting! What could be more exciting than presenting your kids with their very own Savings Jars at then end of your money lesson?! They will love it! My kids are always losing money they have earned because they didn’t have a specific place to put their money. So I created these jars for them! I purchased these jars from Hobby Lobby (they are SUPER cheap if you wait for them to go 50% off). Then I used my Silhouette machine to design and create the labels. If you are looking into buying a Silhouette for yourself, these are the products that I use:

It has been really fun for me as a mom to see my kids be more thoughtful in their purchase decisions. My daughter will take painfully long at the store in the mall trying to decide what she wants most. But, after a lot of thought, I decided that I would much rather her be this way instead of buying the first thing she sees.