This is year the theme of Money Week is From Doekoe to Digi: online stores are always open, more and more children are getting their pocket money digitally and paying with their smartwatch or cell phone. Cash is disappearing at more and more stores and also at sports clubs. Paying and saving are done digitally. Hup, pass through it, phone or smartwatch on it and you've paid.
Children who learn at an early age the value of money, how to save, plan and spend, have fewer payment problems later in life. Consider late payments and difficulty making ends meet. This is why a financial education from an early age is very important.
Dealing with money: tips from parents
SNS asked parents with children between the ages of 6 and 10 how they teach their children to manage money. It turns out that children develop financially in 4 steps. Step by step. It starts with discovering 'real' money, i.e. coins and bills. Only then comes understanding and learning the value. Once kids have mastered that you can start opening a bank account with a debit card. Practice together and they will be ready for the real thing! Where one child is quickly handy with money, another takes a little longer to understand the value of money. Read other parents' tips below.
Step 1: Discovering coins and paper money
Familiarize your child playfully with "real" money, that is, bills and coins. The value of money is not important at this time.
- Exchange coins, learn to recognize coins, play with coins, learn to count coins. Do this with bills as well. "Without cash, you can't really teach children what money is. "
*Learn that you can buy things with money: play store, pay for things with coins, buy things together.
Step 2: Learning the value of money
To teach children the value of money, parents prefer to use cash as well.
- Learning to save money in a piggy bank or wallet where money goes in, but where money also goes out to buy something. "With a debit card they don't see that and learn that, of that they think you can buy unlimited things with it. "
- Start by giving weekly pocket money. "That way they learn to plan. When the money runs out, you have to wait another week. "
- Sometimes reward a chore with a small amount of money. "This way they learn that you have to work for money. "
Step 3: Getting to know the bank and digital money
Now the children are learning how to handle digital money. They discover that digital money is just as much money as tangible money. They learn to do math with it and they learn what a bank is. Parents provide these tips:
- Open a digital savings or checking account with your child in your child's name. And keep the debit card for yourself in the beginning.
- Use the debit card together for the first time and buy something with the card or cash.
- Have conversations with your child about learning to handle (digital) money and your balance responsibly. "They don't see this money, which makes it much harder. They don't always know quite what they're spending and what they have left."
Step 4: Manage a checking account yourself
Eventually the time comes when a child gets his own account and his own debit card. And therefore more control over money.
Some children are ready for their own online account early, others take a little longer. "The digital world makes money less tangible, so you have to guide your child more. "*
- How soon a child is ready also depends on how the parents themselves handle money and online payments.
- The first grade of high school is often cited as a great time to give a child more control over their own account. Another time is a first job.
- Make your child financially resilient by talking about money: earning money, saving money and spending money.
Freedom to make mistakes
You can only spend money once. This is a painful lesson for your child, but also one of the most important. Making good choices and learning to deal with temptations is part of it. Finished = gone cannot be taught young enough.
Knowledge about money is important, and a child learns most through experience. Mis-selling and making financial blunders are part of the game. Although you would prefer to spare them this, give your child the freedom to make mistakes. The earlier certain mistakes are made, the less likely your child is to make those mistakes later as an adult.
Money Week is an initiative of the platform Wijzer in geldzaken, together with government, banks and insurers. Under the motto 'learned young is done old', the platform wants to prepare children and young people for financial literacy in the future. Money Week is an important booster for the structural stimulation of financial skills of children and young people, both at school and at home. Money Week runs from March 28 to April 1, 2022.
Sources: Research conducted by Motivaction, July 2017, ABN-Amro, SNS, Wijzer in geldzaken.
