Family Talk: Money Matters

Having regular conversations with your family about money can boost their comfort level with money matters.  Conversations do not have to be complicated, and they can be initiated in the form of questions.  Additionally, just because you as a parent are not confident in all thing’s money, it does not mean that you can’t have valuable conversations with your child that will help build their financial literacy.

Here are a few ideas of topics that can create good money conversations!

• Found money: If you found $20 what would you do with it?

This can start a great conversation about saving or treating yourself and what the considerations might be.

• Asking for your kids’ help in a small financial decision: Help me decide what type of bread we should buy.

Make sure they understand that different types cost different amounts, that they may have different serving sizes, and of course different flavors. There is no right answer but try to have a conversation about what the considerations are in this type of decision.

• Allowance: I am planning to give you an allowance of $X each week.  What regular chores need to be done to earn this?

These can be really interesting conversations as they start to get into what the value is for doing certain things. It can also start conversations around, “if you don’t do your chores, you won’t get an allowance”.

• Savings vs spending: If you earn $10 a week, how much do you think you should save vs spend each week?

There is no right answer, but this is a great way to start the conversation about saving for the future. If you spend it all today, you won’t have as much financial flexibility tomorrow.

The most important thing is to just make conversations about money a regular thing.  Over time you’ll learn a lot together and will be making an incredible impact on your child’s financial future!