Serving Bread

This past month, my wife and I have begun teaching our kids, especially our 4-year old about money. Teaching children about the value and uses of money is a bit more of a complicated task than I first realized.

My children (like many other children I imagine) learn about money by watching their parents model those values. Any anxieties and lack of discipline with budgets will inevitably manifest themselves in my children.

So this is why it’s difficult to teach my kids about money: My teaching is only as strong as my values. I can develop an allowance system or a financial reward for chores, but if I bypass these systems and give them whatever they want whenever they want, those systems become useless.

Principle #1: Model what we teach.

Before we develop any system for financial training and education, we need to be aware of what we project to others about money. Our best and our worst will come out over time–whether it be our generosity and simplicity or our anxieties and extravagance. Developing financial maturity is important because we are often passively communicating lessons to the next generation of consumers, savers, investors and givers.