How do you teach kids to save

Our ten-year-old son receives an allowance every week of $10.00. He has to put $5.00 into savings for a long-term goal and $5.00 into his wallet for spending.

We bonus him if he gets great grades, does extra to help out, etc. Bonuses go into the wallet.

We provide him with necessities and some extras, but stopped buying little treats that he asked for. He can spend his wallet money on whatever he wants. He usually holds onto it until he has enough to buy a Lego set or videogame.

Kids can't learn how to manage money unless they have some to manage. The trick is to not cover for them - for instance, if my son spends all his cash and doesn't have enough to buy a treat at the store then he doesn't get one. If I stepped in and bought him the treat, he'd never learn that he has to keep some cash on hand.

I'd give them the "Would you rather have Million Dollars or a Penny doubled everyday for 30 days?" speech...

Which would you rather have. . .

Then - hand them a nice shiny penny, and tell them to figure out the rest...

try bribing them, usually works

You don't want to grow an accountant from your kid. Don't focus on learning him how to save. Give him enough money for his primary needs. Don't buy so much stuff for him. Soon he will want to buy something that he can't afford with the money you give him for his primary needs. He will ask you to buy it - you'll refuse. He'll ask again and you'll refuse again. Sooner or later he'll discover the saving and will start saving for a video game for instance.

Don't force things to happen. It has to be natural especially for a child. Sometimes under some circumstances some things don't happen naturally but your best bet is to first let them happen naturally and if there is no option - then 'teach'.

That way you will raise a good, intuitive, smart and last but not least - thinking man. Not a robot who follows norms.

Rule #1 - Teach them to EARN.

Money freely given has no value...just sayin'

Maybe have them choose something they would like to have (within reason) and teach them to set a side a certain amount of money (from what they’ve earned doing chores etc.) every week towards their “goal.” (Which is kind of like how life works as well as money.)

Just a suggestion. I’m not a Dad. : )

Teach them that money = power later in life and to not spend money on dumb stuff

Wow. Five kids.

Our kid earns money by doing extra things around the house. And for getting good grades.

He doesn't get a weekly allowance. He should clean his room, do his laundry and take out the trash. There is no reward for doing what he should be doing.

Before he got an xbox for Christmas, he would spend it.

The boy broke a game controller because he got mad and threw it across the room.

Apparently he thought MOM meant made of money and assumed I would buy him another one.

Wrong.


It would have been easy for us to buy him that controller but we didn't do it. He saved his money until he had enough money to buy it.

We're teaching him to save.
No credit cards.

When we buy items, we tell him we saved the money to buy it.

A recent purchase we made took several months to save the cash.
We explained why we saved the money instead of financing it - showed him how much the item would have cost at the end of an installment plan.

I think it helped our boy to save when he knew there was a goal for doing it.

Good luck!

Have you tried the old-fashioned piggy bank, the ones you have to break? Those still work for a specific savings goal. For teaching the concept of saving, in general, it gets more complex.

I try to teach my kids the value of money which works a bit better in my house than teaching a specific behavior. Also kids learn best by example, so it doesn't matter what I say, my kids see and mimic what I do. So the first step is to be wise with my own money.

Kids live in the here and now (which is why childhood is so great) so teaching kids to save for the future is a challenge because of their limited concept of it. Actually to younger kids, saving seems more like a punishment. Young kids understand tomorrow or next week but abstract future, some point in time, not so much.

I cover all needs and some wants but anything else has to be earned. Even my 4 year old has to work (pick up his toys, make his bed, put his clothes in the hamper etc.).

My neighbor once called me harsh but IMHO, my job is not only to take care of them but to teach them to take care of themselves and each other. To that end it is important to me to teach the correlation between work and money early.

personally, i am such a wise spender. my mom taught me how to by always telling us that money must be hard-earned. maybe you could start telling your kids that their money comes from every sweat you are producing while working very hard.

Thanks for the tips, everyone! I agree with most of you here that parents should act as the role models to their kids, when it comes to money (or any other important things, for that matter). When kids see that their parents value and spend money wisely, eventually these kids will do the same.

I know it's easier said than done, having five kids and all. But if I want to see my kids grow up to be wise-spenders and responsible adults, now is the best time to teach them (or show them) how.

Again, thanks for the useful tips, peeps!

I remember that Zillions inspired me to save when I was young... also my parents told me to. Lolol.

The easiest way to teach kids to save is not to give in every time they whine for something..

Every week they both receive 50 (philippine pesos) or about a dollar from my mom; bigger on special occasions. They have special wallets with a record of the 'donors' inside. They have their snacks so they don't need money in school. they don't bring money when we go out so they really don't get to spend. They have their goals... wanting to buy some big thing in the far future (like laptop) so they're really serious about saving. my daughter even accepts massage and gift-wrapping work from her aunts, with charge, of course.