What I Teach My Kids About Money

What I Teach My Kids About Money
By Cameron Huddleston July 10, 2019

I’ve been a guest on a lot of podcasts lately talking about my new book, Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations With Your Parents About Their Finances.
As you can assume by the title, I’ve been sharing tips on how adult children can get their parents to open up about their finances so everyone can get on the same page if those children ever need to step in and help their parents.

Occasionally, though, the podcast hosts will turn the tables on me and ask what sort of money conversations I’ve had with my own children. I’ve been asked how I teach my kids about money, what sort of details I’ve given them about my finances, and what works and doesn’t work when it comes to teaching kids about personal finance.

I don’t claim to be an expert on kids and money. But as a mom of three kids ages 7 to 14, I’ve had plenty of experience teaching my own children money lessons. Here are five key things about money that I’ve tried to instill in my children.

Money Is Not a Taboo Topic
A couple of years ago, my middle child asked me out of the blue one day why people think it’s bad to talk about money. She couldn’t understand why the topic might be off limits because money is discussed so openly in our family.
Borrowing from the wisdom that my friend and financial psychologist Dr. Brad Klontz shared with me, I explained to my daughter that people avoid talking about money because they feel shame around it.
If the topic comes up in a conversation, they feel ashamed if they have less than the people they’re talking to – or if they have more money. They’re afraid they’ll be judged, I told her.

I remember my dad telling me when I was growing up that it wasn’t polite to talk about money. So he didn’t – which meant I didn’t have anyone teaching me about money. Once I got out into the real world, I had to figure out money matters on my own and made plenty of mistakes as a result.

I don’t want my kids to think that money is a taboo topic. That’s why I’ve been talking to them about it pretty much from the time they were able to talk. I want them to become financially responsible adults one day, so I consider it my job to teach them about being smart with their money.

After all, if I don’t teach them, who will? Only 17 states require high school students to take a course in personal finance, according to the Council for Economic Education. More importantly, I don’t want my kids to have negative associations with money. If I raise my children to believe that money is something you don’t talk about, they might develop an unhealthy relationship with it.

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