Raising Financially Responsible Children

Posted on | November 26, 2007 |

The Women’s Personal Finance Network (of which I am a proud member) is currently highlighting the subject of How to Raise Financially Responsible Children. I have a lot of thoughts on this issue — some of which I’ve already shared on this blog in my Kids and Money category. Other thoughts will come out in the coming weeks and months.

I do consider educating my children on the basics of finance to be a moral imperative. As with all subjects, I approach the subject of finances from three different directions.

First, I do my best to convey the facts in an unbiased and logical manner. There are many objective facts that children should be acquainted with before they leave the nest — things like compounded interest (interest you earn and interest you pay), balancing a checkbook, taxes, etc.

Second, I share with my children my subjective views on all things money and finance. When should quality trump quantity and vice versa? How important is money when considering a career path; how does having money affect people and relationships and how does not having any money affect people and relationships? I try to be honest with my kids about what I value; on what I will spend money and will not spend my money on; on what I consider to be money well spent and money sorely wasted.

Third, I make an effort to be as frank, objective, and as open as possible regarding conflicting viewpoints. For example, I choose to not spend any money at all on beauty products but I don’t expect, require, or demand my daughter share those same values. The point of this angle is evaluate how other people spend their money; to explore and discuss other paradigms of fiscally responsible behavior that differs from the way The Husband and I do things. I’m sure there are many women with dozens of pairs of shoes and a whole array of make-up who live within their means ;-)

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