Teaching dd about money...help needed!

[sushikitty]

I've recently started a little at-home scheme to teach my 7 year old dd the value of money, like awarding her a with a little bit of pocket money for doing little tasks (like learning to put the Lego away after she's finished so that mummy doesn't tread on it in bare feet and end up hopping and cursing grrrr!), and encouraging her to put it somewhere safe to save it up... she's not so good at the saving bit however! Is 7 too young to start this sort of thing do you think? and does anyone have any ideas as to how to persuade her that saving can be a Good Thing?

Sooner the better, though I can't vouch for whether it will work. My mum encouraged me to save when I was a child and rewarded me for saving, yet money still, to this day, burns a hole in my pocket.

Can't hurt to try and no, 7 is not to young imo.

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A reward chart is a nice idea I too have problems hanging on to anything I earn, I do think she might have inherited that unfortunate trait..

Definitely not too young to start. My brother gives his girls their pocket money in age and they have jobs they have to do to get it. They are allowed to spend half of it how they like and must save the other half. They have doing it since the girls turned 3 and they have very healthy savings accounts now.

I got a suggestion from here years ago rather than dealing with cash, we write it all in a book. That way it doesn't rely on us having change, or remembering, and it's 'easier' to save up!

That's a great idea Roisin. I'm sure I've "done" my DD out of loads of cash. Mind you, the fact that she doesn't remember probably shows that she wants for nothing. Yikes. I'll end up with a spoilt child!

sushikitty, our dd is 5 and she understands the value of money already. In fact that's how we got her dry at night and now going to sleep in her own bed. We love bribery . DH emphasises the value of money to her by saying this will cost you so and so many barbie dolls so if you want x then you have to sell x amount of you barbies. She's saving towards her own tv LOL. We started her on pocket money on her 5th birthday and to start of with she kept spending it, but now she's realised if she keeps doing that then she'll never get a tv as dh pointed out to her in no uncertain terms . We're so proud of your capitalistic achievments ;)

I've actually just received this free booklet this morning, it's got some rather fun little games on helping kids learn to save (and add up!) As I recall my parents NEVER taught me about money matters, not even before I headed out to uni, and tbh I've been struggling with debt for most of my adult life. I'm determined dd will know better when she grows up, because sad as it is, it's a fact that not having an ingrained ability to manage what money you have has the potential to make you very unhappy indeed... I'm not saying it's the most important aspect of leading a happy life, of course not; it's just that without it you can end up darned stressed and miserable. Which is a real shame! common sense, no?