Teaching Kids About Money Management (Part 1)

A coworker posed the question to me about how we teach kids to manage money today. Money is much less tangible than it used to be, we get our money direct deposited and electronically transfer it to other accounts. We pay our bills on line and most of us use debit cards (or credit cards, but check out previous posts to see my opinion on that!) Kids today don't often see cash to understand where all that electronic money is coming from, which can lead to later financial trouble.

I am a firm believer that kids should start with cold hard cash money when they're first old enough to start purchasing things. It helps to give them a solid grasp on what money is. It then becomes easier to explain to them when they start getting gift cards how the money is loaded onto them and that they can only spend up to the balance on the gift cards. Which also helps them to later understand debit cards and the even more abstract idea of credit cards.

My kids' school district teaches math using a curriculum called "Everyday Math" that was developed by the University of Chicago. I think it's a phenomenal math curriculum that teaches math the way we think about it. But the other thing that I really like about it is that it has kids use actual coins and bills to learn about money, and also has them use symbols for the same money. So they start to see different depictions that all represent the same money. OK, I've spent enough time on that soap box. I'll post again on this topic since there is so much to talk about here.