Grasping the concept of how to budget can be difficult for a child, particularly when they don’t get the hands-on experience of going to work, getting a weekly wage and allocating pay for bills and essentials to live. However, there are lots of different age-appropriate activities you can do to teach money skills and make budgeting fun for your kids.
Sell arts and crafts
Introduce your children to the art of generating a passive income. Find something your child enjoys doing. It could be braiding friendship bracelets to cake-decorating. You could help them set up a website or a market stall to sell their products. A loan from the bank of mum and dad may be required to kick off their side-hustle, but once the money starts rolling in, teach them how to budget for new materials, how to put money aside for tax and set money goals to save for.
Play board games
Who doesn’t love a fun night playing board games? It’s better to learn about how about the pitfalls of money and budgeting in a board game environment than real life. Even a family game of Monopoly has been known to end in the odd upended board when the bank takes all the money. The Game of Life throws all the curveballs you can expect in real life when on a journey to start a career, have a family and invest in properties. Pay Day is great for social interaction for children aged 8 years and over. Unlike Monopoly that can take hours—hence the frustration of losing— two rounds of Pay Day can be completed in a quarter of an hour. In this game, kids will learn how to earn, save money, manage their money, and even take out loans
Use pocket money apps
There are a huge number of money apps that are able to help you teach children about the value of a dollar. One of the most popular apps in Bankaroo—a virtual bank app. The app can be used at home or schools and children can be rewarded for behaviours and chores. Your kids can earn extra money by going above and beyond for your expectations. They can also learn how to manage banking, savings and charity accounts, as well as transfer funds to family members.
Plan a family holiday
Planning a family holiday is fun. Exploring destinations and finding accommodation and tourist activities can be an exciting challenge for your older children. Give them a budget and access to the internet and watch them spend hours carefully calculating whether the entire family can fly to Disneyworld or will they have to make do with camping in the outback.
Put the kids in charge for a week
It can be hard to let go of the reigns, but let your children have free run of the household for a week and see how they go keeping with a budget. They will be in charge of everything from working out meal plans to whether you can afford to order Uber Eats You’ll have to put your hand out for petrol money and any spending money you want, but at least your kids will come to grips with the pressures of keeping within budget.
Gerry Incollingo is the Managing Partner of LCI Partners, a firm that specialises in accounting advisory, lending, wealth, property, insurance and legal.