Financial Literacy for Kids

I had a great interview with Kim Deep on Financial Literacy for Kids on Island Parent Radio which airs tonight on Village 900. In the conversation she spoke of the importance of teaching our children about the value of money and more importantly the reality of money.

Part of Kim's system in teaching kids about money is to divide their "income" (allowance, money for chores, etc.) and place it into 5 jars.

These jars are labeled accordingly:

Living Expenses (needs and wants); Financial Freedom Account (investments); Save (contingency, vacation, etc.); Learn (special activity/class that a parent may not fund, books, etc.); Fun - Yeah! (go bowling or a movie, splurge); and finally Share (gifts for others, charity).

Although parents may adapt it to their own family with different labels and numbers of jars, the idea that we teach children from an early age that they need to start to think about and handle money is the important thing. Kim even talks about having children "pay rent".

The other day I heard of a parent posting the family expenses of the refrigerator door to show how much money was actually coming in and where it was going. Over time this parent spoke to her kids about how much is spent on groceries, entertainment, rent/mortgage, etc. She took them grocery shopping and they guessed how much the bill was. Her idea was that if they saw what was entailed and had a goal in mind such as a vacation, they might help curtail some of the expenses.

With the state of today's economy, we as parents need in positive ways to help educate our children about money. Financial literacy is something we should be helping our understand.