How To Teach Kids How To Save
Most kids love or at least understand money. Whether that’s shaking birthday cards to see if there’s cash inside, playing shop with pretend coins, or counting out their pocket money. If you want to teach kids how to save it’s important to help them understand it from an early age. Especially as kids love spending money too- whether it’s their own or yours.
Times have changed a lot since I was a kid. I don’t specifically remember how I’d save or spend my pocket money. But I remember when I used to go out and my mum would give me a tenner I’d really consider how I spent it so I didn’t waste it.
The earlier you can teach kids how to save the better. A study by the University of Cambridge found that children understand money from as young as seven years old. Times have certainly changed as I don’t think I understood money at that age.
Here are some ways to help teach kids how to save.
Teach kids how to save by being open about money
Kids are very observant and pick up how their parents talk about things so talk about money. For example discuss how you go to work in order to earn money, and what earning that money means. You don’t need to go into detail about taxes and pensions etc unless your kids and older and show interest. But it’s important that kids understand that getting a job is part of life.
You can teach kids how to save by talking through how much things they want cost. This can equate to how many weeks of pocket money that would be. Knowing how much they have to save or work for an item should help them understand its value of it.
It’s likely that kids who are exposed to conversations and positive discussions about money will be more confident and deal with money better in the future.
Teach kids how to save by giving them pocket money
Letting kids be in charge of their own money is important and will teach them valuable lessons. But to allow kids to work towards a savings goal or learn about budgeting you need to be consistent with their pocket money.
If they know that every Friday they get £5 pocket money and a game they want is £25 they can make the decision whether they want to save for five weeks.
Embrace technology
Technology is part of kids’ everyday lives so chances are they’ll pick up how to save or budget better through technology. Use apps and devices to your advantage to help teach kids how to save.
There are apps such as GoHenry where you can add money to their account and kids can see their balance grow. You can add their pocket money there, or transfer money they get for birthdays/ Christmas. You can even get them their own pre-paid debit card to use which will alert you when money is spent. But there’s no risk of going overdrawn or being charged fees.
With Rooster Money you can set goals, and track chores and kids can learn to save, give and grow their money. It works in a similar way to Go Henry and is affiliated with Natwest bank.
Having a pot of money that’s their own and that they can see will help them manage it themselves. This will (hopefully) set them up with good habits for the future.
Separate out chores and the things that will earn them money
It’s important for kids to learn from an early age that most household jobs are done for the household, and not purely to earn money. This might be things like clearing plates after dinner and keeping their rooms tidy. But it’s can be a great incentive to offer some additional jobs such as cleaning the car if they want to earn some extra cash.
Just make sure you keep these additional jobs separate from their day-to-day helping out around the house.
Other ways you can teach kids how to save:
- Use the online education platform Twinkl- there are a number of free guides for parents to support teaching their children about money
- Find mathematics games- when kids are young having a good grasp of basic maths skills can help them understand money better
- Discuss money safety- this may not directly help teach kids how to save but it’s important that kids know how to be safe with their money, especially online
Have you had to teach kids how to save?
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16 responses to “How To Teach Kids How To Save”
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Rhian Westbury
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You have some important points there. There are a range of ways to teach kids about money and allowing them to earn money for chores is a good one. They can then understand the value of the money they have earnt.
You make some excellent points. I used to save every dime given to me when I was a kid. I taught my children to save, but at the end of the year, they give their savings to their beloved grandma. Maybe I should teach them how to save and keep money for themselves as well.
Aw that’s so cute that they gave it to their grandma x
This is a great post with some really helpful tips. My son is a hoarder so he saves every penny he gets. He knows he’s saving up for a Pokemon Card box for storage at the moment which is around £40, so he’s saving up every tiny bit he gets.
That’s so good that he already understands how to save towards something he wants x
I’ve alwasy been a fan of talking to kids about money and teaching them how to use it responsibly. So many kids are just thrust out into the world with no concept of it at all.
I think it is so important to teach children about money. Finance should really be thought in school as well – there are so many pointless subjects that don’t help at all in life – why not introduce economy and finance which is actually preparing children for the future.
I couldn’t agree more, things like pensions/ taxes etc should be mandatory to educate people in x
These are great tips. When my middle daughter was 7, she saved up to $50+ and in the end gave it all to me. LOL. Thanks for sharing!
We didn’t get on with GoHenry so both our kids have Monzo accounts where they can easily check how much pocket money they have.
As long as you’ve found something that works for you that’s the main thing x
Great tips! It’s so important to instill those values at a young age.
Some great tips here. I think it’s important to encourage children to handle their own money from an early age. We used to build in a cooling off period for most purchases, but now my son’s older we’ve stopped that.
These are all such great tips. Teaching our kids about money is something we have always tried to do and give both our children pocket money (age 8 and 12). My eldest has just asked for a card that he can put his money onto as its safer when out with his friends so we have been talking about using bank accounts etc too.
That’s so good that you have been teaching your kids x
I am totally loving this as this is such an important lesson to teach the kids. If they learn early they can really learn to Dave from the start.