Educating my 8 yo about money (Newbie to MN)

[jennasmith91]

Hello Everyone!

I have recently been trawling the internet for ways to educate my daughter about money - which I am starting to freak out about! She has had pocket money since she was about five, just a little at first then I increased it as she has gotten a bit older. She has a savers bank account as well, I thought I was teaching her well about the value of money and spending.

But I found out yesterday that she 'accidentally' spent £15 on my iPad for some films without thinking twice about confirming the payment which I have only just noticed on my bank statement! I was so angry!

She never asked me about it or even mentioned it to me, she didn't even see that purchase being expensive or a problem that she was spending it!

Any advice on how I can teach her more about spending or the value of money would be so helpful! I'm starting to think I have missed a trick. Is it because it was digital money she was spending and didn't register the value?

Help me Mums!!!

Why don't you have your iPad locked and password protected so that she can't do that? My DS1 is 8, and plays on it - I've never let him spend real money on anything because he doesn't understand the value of money, so it's password protected.

He's never really had to think about the cost of things; I do tell him that we can't afford some stuff, and that X is too expensive, and that I'm not paying Y for that piece of tat - but he just doesn't get the value of money yet.

Thanks for your reply!

Yes, I have deleted all my cards and things now from my apps but I did think they were password protected before as well!

I asked my mum about my attitude to money at 8 and she said that she thought I was quite aware of the value of money as we were always just making ends meet at home when I was younger so we were constantly counting change and being aware of our weekly spending.

But thats not really an issue for my family but £15 is ridiculous for a few films without permission.

How can I be more pro-active about teaching them the value of money though so they don't reach their teenage years where I don't see everything they spend money on each day at high school etc? I want to try teach them more about money without it being a 'lesson' or something that is tedious for them. Maybe some habits or small things I can do each day without being obvious about it?

Sorry, I'm just a bit confused!

The only thing I've found that helps even a little bit at this stage is to tell DS1 that if he wants to buy tat that I'm not prepared to, he'll have to spend his pocket money on it.
Unfortunately, his piggy bank is quite healthily fat because Grandma has, over the years, given him quite a lot of cash and for various reasons, it's still mostly in there and not in a bank account.

So I say "well if you want to spend $6 on a packet of pokémon cards, that's your look out, but once it's gone, it's gone" and he says "great" and gets $6 out of his piggy bank!

We've been fairly comfortably off the last few years, but that's about to change - I think he'll learn quicker when our own version of austerity starts to bite.

So, sorry that I don't have much useful help - but I do understand your problem!

It's a tricky one for sure! Yeah we do that kind of thing as well!

Obviously there is not a right or wrong way to do it, just thought there is bound to be some thrifty mums with good ideas I hadn't thought of yet.

But your right I think with the idea of 'once its gone its gone'. But she's maybe getting a little old for that concept now as she is the same, she knows its going!

Thanks anyway!

Offer choices to teach comparable value.

£15 can buy you a downloaded film or 2 trips to the cinema with sweets . A visit to see Santa. A new dress. etc

Real, physical coins and notes are better than money in the bank for children to understand.

Also, encourage your children to spend! They cannot understand the value of a number on a bank account. So select things that they can save up for and nit themselves.

At that age my children would spend their own money on heelys, a football kit and some fashion boots. I could buy these for them, but empowered them financially themselves.

Say child has £50 saved. A Google search together with my son showed that he could get Heelys for £65 (or whatever) or unbranded for £45. Making this decision himself teaches the idea if value, rather than just money.

I'm interested in your replies as my children are slightly younger and I've just started teaching them monetary value and saving.

I got myself into huge debt as my parents never taught me budgets and saving. I am determined that even if they do the same they will at least have been taught differently!!

Stuff I now implement:

• Child ISA for big chunks of money given to them so they can't touch until 18
• a high interest account that allows one annual withdrawal (if take out more then interest rate drops massively). I make them save a quarter of their pocket money into this then each birthday they can withdraw up to half what's there for a treat of their choice.
• I point out if there are deals on when they're looking to buy sweets
• I make a show of praising them if they don't spend every penny available and if they work out deals themselves
• I now openly tell them I can't afford certain things and why (such as I can't buy pizza as we ate out yesterday so we need to eat from food cupboard today). I also say they can have certain things if they save for it.
• a big thing at the moment is they keep asking me to lend money and they'll pay me back. Eldest got a bit upset when I said no and kept promising she'd repay. I explained it's not that I don't think she'd repay, as I know she would. It's that I don't want her to get used to spending she doesn't have.
• for online purchases they have it drilled into them that they can only download stuff in app store if it says free. Admittedly I have taken card off too as a precaution!

No kids yet, but DH has the idea that when they're 8/9 we'll take them to Disneyland, give them maybe 100 euros and tell them they can buy whatever they like, but when the money's gone, that's it. Should get the message through!

I've taken children that age along when going to the bank, shops etc. In a supermarket, you can give them a budget eg. £5 to pick some fruit - they'll need to look at the labels and do the maths and will become more aware in the process. In the bank, you can show them how they have savings account and when you put money in, the bank will pay you extra. They can also learn how salaries get paid into accounts and then you use your card to pay for stuff. At 8, she won't quite have the maths to work out some details but she'll actually soon be learning about adding decimal places or working percentages out so the real life experiences might actually motivate her with maths too.