Actions Speak Louder Than Words

When it comes to teaching kids anything, actions always speak louder than words. My dad used to tell my brother and me to “do as I say, not as I do.” You can probably picture the eye-rolls and disgruntled looks that we shared with each other. The way we as parents live our lives says a great deal more to our kids about our values than anything we actually say to them.

The same holds true with money. Talking about money has always been a bit taboo in our society. It’s just one of those things that you don’t discuss in polite company. But if we expect our children not to make the same mistakes that we’ve made and to be responsible with their money some day; we’ve got to show them through our actions how to do that.

We let our kids hear our discussions about how and when we choose to spend our money. We took a Disneyland vacation last summer, and we talked all winter and spring before then about how we were saving up money for the trip. We made the kids save up their allowance to buy their Disney souvenirs. We helped them to make choices about which souvenirs they wanted to spend their money on, since they could only spend as much as they’d brought with them.

My kids also watch us save up money when we want to buy something for ourselves. We make sure to talk about how excited we are that we’ll be able to buy that thing we want after we’ve saved enough money. We make them save up their allowance when they want to buy a new toy or movie.

I’m hopeful that getting to see and hear how we choose to spend our money will lead to them making responsible financial choices in the future. I know that there are no guarantees, but I can say to my daughter and son, “do as I do.”