3 Principles for Teaching Your Kids Finances

As the hot California sun streamed down, I huffed and puffed on my knees along the rock-walled flower garden. Weeding those rocks was a chore I hated. Not only was it grubby and uncomfortable, but sometimes big scary spiders were lurking in the weeds – anathema to a little 7 year old like me. (Actually, big scary spiders are still anathema to me!)

So why was I sticking with it? Because Mom and Dad promised my sister and I weekly allowances if we completed certain chores – one of them being the weeding of the rock wall.

It was so exciting when we got our allowance on Saturday (assuming the chores were satisfactorily completed). My sister and I each had a piggy bank on our dresser. Hers was a little fat pink pig and mine was a lovely green pig. The CHINK of the coins dropping in was such a satisfying sound.

Each Sunday, we felt excessively generous as we plinked our little coins into the offering plate. I can still remember the sudden grins of the deacons as they watched us importantly drop in our nickels and pennies. The story of the widow’s mite in the Bible always made me feel that God would probably do something amazing with my little ten cents – maybe save an entire continent or fund a new Bible translation or something.

And the part of our savings that we got to spend was fun too! After several weeks of savings, Mom would take us to the store to buy a toy or a candy bar with our very own money! Oh, how we agonized over those choices. After all, once our $2-$3 was gone, it would take several more weeks of chores to build up the savings again. I still have some of the little dolls and doll clothes I bought with that money. (I don’t have the candy bars any more though.)

Why do I share this story? Because learning how to manage money wisely seems to be a lost art in our culture. Parents themselves often are confused about how to properly save, spend and give. So they find it difficult to come up with a good way to teach their children these things.

While I certainly wouldn’t say that running a household’s finances is easy and simple, I am here to say that teaching good financial habits to your children can be simple. There are lots of good curricula, ideas, printables and internet blogs about how to do this. But the basic principles are free and you can easily adapt them to your own family.

Principle 1: All hard work brings a profit. 

That’s not my idea, it’s actually in the Bible. (Proverbs 14:23) Starting when they are just out of toddlerhood, all children can be taught this principle. Though contributing to the family through chores should never be completely on a mercenary basis, it is appropriate to designate certain extra chores or tasks as money-makers for your children. Since you want to teach them that shirking this work leads to no profit, it’s best to pick out some tasks that don’t absolutely have to be done every week.

Children need to learn (as do adults, and our government) that true profit only follows hard work. Get rich quick schemes rarely work long-term, as we who are older and wiser know. But the person who puts in elbow grease, who is willing to learn, who wants to improve their skills, who can take orders from a boss, who can properly complete an assigned task – that person will nearly always find a way to make money. Teach this principle with age-appropriate tasks you are willing to pay for.

Principle 2: Delayed gratification now means more satisfying gratification later on. 

Or in other words, saving money today means you can buy something really cool tomorrow. Helping your children learn to save up for things they want is an excellent way to counteract our instant "microwave" culture. Children today are so used to having everything NOW that parents often have to actively find ways to teach this principle.

Help your children choose age-appropriate goals to save for. Little kids may find it hard to save for a long time, so choose less expensive items for them. Older children and teens, however, should learn to be able to save for months (or even years) for something they really want. Mom and Dad can offer to match their savings, but Mom and Dad shouldn’t always be stepping in to make up the difference if Johnny isn’t disciplined enough to save.

Principle 3: God loves – and blesses – a cheerful giver. Help your children choose an amount to save for tithing and a place to give their tithe. Obviously the Bible instructs us to support the pastors and teachers who feed us at church each week. But you can also help your child look for other opportunities to give. Maybe they can fund their own shoebox for Operation Christmas Child, or perhaps they can purchase a toy to donate to a Toys for Tots drive. Help them learn the joy of giving, and remind them that God is blessing them by making them able to earn money.

The awesome thing about these three principles is that they don’t just apply to money. 

They apply to all of life. For instance, do you want a good relationship with another person? Put in some hard work, be willing to delay gratification, and give cheerfully – and see if that doesn’t improve any relationship out there! These are actually fundamental principles of living that bring peace, wisdom and dignity to everyone who applies them.

Make it practical: As your children learn and grow, continue to apply these principles in a practical manner. It doesn’t necessarily take a super-duper curriculum or intricate plan to teach basic finances to your kids. Simply introduce them in an age appropriate way to things like bank accounts, writing checks, making (and following!) a budget, running a small business, and generally keeping track of income and expenses. Let them see you doing these things on a regular basis as well.

 People who complain about how decadent our government or culture is often forget that “the government” and “the culture” are simply made up of people like us. We the people need to recover biblical basics like hard work, delayed gratification and cheerful giving. When we do, our culture and our government will change for the better. But it all starts with one family at a time!

Written by Heather Sheen

Items of Advice from the Oracle

Not every family is blessed by having a Great Oracle of Wisdom such as myself in their midst, but my family is lucky. I am always ready to dispense Advice and Instruction whenever I’m asked for it, and often when I’m not asked! (Isn’t that nice of me?) 

And although my Vast Talents occasionally go unappreciated by my thankless family, I have no doubt that you will appreciate the tips on homeschooling and childrearing that I, the Homeschooled Oracle, have to offer. I share these Fabulous Tidbits out of my store of Personal Experiences and Personal Observations, coupled with a Vast Stash of Truisms I learned from my Venerated Parents.

A-a-hem. Here we go.

• Kids will be kids. But that doesn’t mean they can’t learn to act like well-behaved adults—usually at a younger age than parents give them credit for.

• Just because an “expert” says something doesn’t automatically mean it is the only way—or even the best way—for your children to succeed. Don’t be afraid to think independently. You know your children better than the experts do.

• Children are much more likely to remember the ice cream they had at the end of an Expensive Educational Field Trip than they are to remember anything else about it. (This pearl I share from my Personal Experience as a kid.) Unless you’re filthy rich (or you’re going on the field trip because you want to go), save the expensive field trips till the kids are old enough to truly appreciate them.

• Your children are not you and may disagree with your opinions in many areas. But as long as they are in your home and living on your nickel, you have the right to require certain standards of dress and conduct from your children, even if they do squawk about it.

• Just because a book is an incomprehensible “literary classic” doesn’t make your children ignorant morons forevermore if they don’t read it.

• Kids need pets. You probably don’t need their pets, but they do.

• Criticizing or making fun of your children in front of others is a great way to have a bad relationship. Unless you want a bad relationship, don’t do this.

• It’s not the end of the world if your children spend the first couple weeks of school in September finishing up their books from the previous year. (Another gem from Personal Experience. Do you know how many times this happened to me? And look, I still turned out normal! Er, um, stop looking at me like that...)

• It does no good to homeschool and shelter your children from the world if you invite the world back in through harmful books, movies, video games, TV shows, websites and bad peer influences.

• Kids need dirt to play in. If you don’t have dirt that you’re able or willing to let them wallow in, let them grow some indoor plants from seed.

• Include your children in your conversations with other adults. Your kids will learn a lot.

• Homeschooling in and of itself doesn’t earn God’s special favor. What counts in God’s eyes is your heart and attitude.

• If you value your own reputation, teach your children not to touch, taste, or handle things or explore the house uninvited when you take them into someone else’s home.

• Kids need hugs. So do you.

• Not every child who begs for a chemistry set is responsible enough to own one.

• Your children’s overall behavior will usually conform to the level of your expectations. If you expect them to be rebellious little pills, they probably will be. Keep your expectations high.

• Turn off the TV. Yes, turn it off. Really. It is possible.

• Your children do not have to go to college immediately after high school. If they wait a year or two to and spend the time working and rounding themselves out with other valuable experiences, their lives aren’t going to come to a screeching halt.

• Kids don’t need friends their own age nearly as much as they need to find their best friends in Mom and Dad.

• Teach your children telephone etiquette. “Hellowhoozit?............ Hey, MOOOOOOOOOM! MOOOOOOOOM!” doesn’t cut the mustard. For safety reasons, don’t let young children answer the phone or have their voices on the voicemail recording.

• My mom says that your life will get crazier the older your kids get. That’s a truism I trust her opinion on, even though I quite frankly don’t have any idea what she’s talking about. Do you?

• Children do not have to grow up despising their siblings. Encourage and insist on siblings treating each other with love, kindness and respect.

• Baking soda and vinegar experiments should take place outside.

• If you’re indefinably uncomfortable with who your children hang out with, your gut instincts are probably right. Don’t be afraid to politely sever questionable relationships.

• The old adage that “What you do in moderation, your children will do in excess” is usually true.

• Take time for family fun now and then. Schedule it on the calendar if you have to.

• Teach your sons to cook too.

And finally...
Once in awhile homeschooling is a lonely and difficult road. It’s still worth it. You’ll be glad you did it. 

I, the Oracle, hath spoken!

Written by Raquelle Sheen