Thursday, January 29, 2009

Parents' Money Management Affects Children

By William Blake

Parents have a big responsibility to set a good example for their children in every aspect of life. All children imitate what and who they see. Because they spend more time with their parents than anyone else that is who they will imitate the most. This includes imitating their parents spending habits.

If parents have a cavalier attitude toward spending money a child will adopt the same attitude. Children are smart and they will quickly realize it if their parents are spending frivolously every time they go to the store but at the end of the month are stressed because they cannot pay the household bills. This is not a good example.

Money problems are at the root of many marital conflicts and this has a huge impact on children. It is important for parents to use their money wisely so as not to put a strain on their marriage and on their family.

Because parents are individuals too they may have different approaches to spending money because of the differences in their families as they were growing up. They need to reconcile these differences so that the children do not see a conflict.

Maybe our parents were big spenders and never focused on savings. So that is the way we learned. Do we want to teach our children the same lesson? If not, we can educate ourselves on how to do things differently and teach our children the value of saving money.

Do not exclude your children from all discussions about the family's finances. Of course there may be times when parents have to discuss financial matters privately. But when creating a budget or discussing needed adjustments to the budget include the children so that they can see that you have a plan and you are working to follow it.

It is sometimes easy to see what type of financial history a person had by looking at their spending habits. Some kids who grew up with parents who survived the depression watched their parents hold on tight to every dollar and never want to spend a dime on anything. They hated that so now they are big spenders and never save a dime.

That creates a problem for their families because while they are not tight fisted and depriving their children of everything they are not teaching them to save either. Wouldn't it be a better idea to sit down and discuss finances with your children so that they can see the need for a balance?

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