Five ways you can instill ‘value for money’ in your kids

Lets not begin this article by using those cliché concerns of the fast moving times, technology, consumerist demands, attractive packaging in retail stores, inflation trends and aspirational lifestyles. This isn’t to imply that any of these concerns are not legitimate but we can agree that no matter which era we live in or generation we belong to, children often don’t understand the value of money and ultimately the goods that it purchases.  And simply reprimanding them or severe abstinence has never really helped to improve matters.

Halabol offers five simple and conscientious ways that will help to reduce the emotional blackmail your kids might be putting you through to buy that every toy, gadget or goodie that his/her friend or classmate has had.

1.     Start of with the old school basic of letting them earn their rewards. So whether it be ice cream for dessert after dinner or the new playstation, make sure they earn it by finishing their homework, making their bed, getting a 90% in finals etc. Only if they achieve something with focused perseverance and patience, they sure will understand its worth in terms of the effort gone in from their end.

2.     Engage them in fun and entertaining board games, like Monopoly, or the many interactive web flash games by Disney, Feed the Pig and Practical Money Skills that simulate situations where they have to earn/spend/invest ‘wisely’.

3.     Engage them in major household chores like gardening, cleaning, polish jobs or simple paper or clerical work at your office or helping out a neighbour’s in a task for which you pay them a nominal rate that is separate from the pocket money they receive in a week or month. This ideally should be kept optional and not mandatory so that they clearly understand the difference between easy money and hard earned money.

4.     Besides the time memorial piggy bank for kids, many parents also open savings or fixed deposit accounts for their children where they have the choice to keep some portion of money they receive during festivals, birthdays, visits from relatives etc. In a more strict sense, the children should be able to withdraw the money only after a certain point of time, hence, teaching them the values and benefits of saving from an early age.

5.     Let them assist you in sorting out your monthly bills like telephone, garbage, groceries, fuel, housing society or club memberships etc. For kids 10 years and older, it gives them a good idea of what your family expenditures are like as well as helping them know what are market rates on services and goods and the inflation/deflation trends.

It wouldn’t hurt to try them out and let us know how it worked for you and your kids. Or perhaps post some successful suggestions as an idea to this article.