Children are eager to celebrate Eid, wear new clothes and see family and friends. It is also a golden opportunity for them to collect the Eid and brag to each other about what they have collected, and what they will buy for themselves. It is also a golden opportunity for parents to teach their children about the value of money and how to manage it, and to set priorities and the importance and methods of saving.
Children do not realize on their own the value and importance of money, and instead of preventing them from disposing of their money, you can teach your child to manage and save money, set big goals for him and strive to achieve them, and how to give up some of his unnecessary desires to reach a greater goal.
Here are some steps and tips that may help you with that:
Where does the money come from?
The first step in talking about money and saving with children is to explain what money is, why it is important, and where it comes from.
"It's important to teach your kids where the money comes from, it doesn't come from the mom's and dad's wallet, but we have to work to get paid, and if we don't, we don't get paid," financial expert Rachel Cruz tells NBC. ".
Some parents feel embarrassed to talk to their children about money, or for fear of burdening them with concepts older than their age, but money management is one of the most important life skills that your child needs and needs training and learning during the stages of his life, and it is not required to involve him in all the details that may exceed his realization, and it is enough Teach him initially about his money, spending and savings.
The child must be trained to behave politely when rejecting the gift from strangers (communication sites)
Giving, saving and spending
After explaining where the money comes from, Cruz advises explaining 3 basic principles: giving, saving, and spending. Every time your child gets paid, remind him to give part of it to those who need help, spend part, and save part.
It may help to give the child 3 “jars” of glass for giving, saving and spending, and dividing the money among them each time he gets the money, while leaving the freedom of choice for him to determine the value of each part of the three.
"Giving teaches your children to feel the impact of helping others at an early age, which is an invaluable value," Crone added.
Desires and needs
The American Investopedia website stated that explaining saving to children requires discussing some important concepts such as budget and financial goals, and distinguishing between wants and needs.
Needs include the necessities of life such as food, home, basic clothing, health care and education, while other extras can be considered desires such as sweets, extra clothes, buying a bicycle, and others.
By differentiating between needs and wants, the child can understand the meaning of priorities and how to define them, and that needs are what money should be spent on, while leaving some money for future necessities.
opportunities to earn money
Encouraging children to work or perform some tasks in exchange for payment teaches them the value of money and how to use it. Realizing that it requires hard work, almost everyone values the money they earn differently from the money they receive.
This work could be doing some extra household chores, besides their main role in helping out with the house, or taking part in a fair with their friends to sell their handicrafts or whatever they are good at making.
Encouraging children to do some tasks in return for payment teaches them the value of money and how to use it (Pixabe)
savings goals
The child does not realize the value of saving, and when asked to refrain from buying what he wants and keep the money without explaining the return from it, it may seem to him that it is useless, so you can encourage him by setting short-term saving goals, motivating him to keep his money to buy something bigger that he wants to Get it, like a modern bike or a big toy.
With a savings goal in place, help them break down the goal into the stages of reaching it and the length of time they need.
For example, if the goal is to buy a game for an amount that exceeds their expenses, a percentage of the expense can be set to be saved each week, and the time required to collect the full amount and purchase the game.
Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha are two opportunities that cannot be compensated, so the Eid can be used to reach these goals faster, or even achieve more than one goal.
Savings Incentives
To further encourage your children, you can offer to give them incentives for their savings, which could be a monthly percentage of what they saved, or a bonus when the child reaches one of the savings milestones, such as a certain amount of money when saving half the amount that was agreed upon.
We make mistakes to learn
Part of letting kids manage their money is expecting them to make mistakes. Some parents may feel like stepping in all the time and preventing kids from making mistakes, but it's best to let them make mistakes to learn better and fully experience.
Some may intervene to prevent their children from making mistakes, but it is preferable to let them make mistakes to learn (Shutterstock)
a good idol
Children copy their parents' actions. If you want to develop your child's spending and saving skills, be a role model for the behaviors you want them to adopt. He needs to see you make smart spending and saving choices.
You can show your children some details about how you manage your money, your family or personal saving goals, and what you want to achieve and sacrifice for by giving up luxuries.
You can involve them in some of the big goals you are planning, such as traveling with the family, discussing the details with them, what needs to be saved each month for a fun vacation, and it is an opportunity to teach your children that even fun things have a cost and must be saved.
By laying the foundations required to deal with money and realize its value and how to save, you help your child build healthy habits at an early age, teach him discipline, delay the fulfillment of his desires, set goals, plan for them, and sacrifice to reach them.
In the future, it makes him less likely to fall victim to financial pressures when he becomes an adult, and avoids making huge mistakes that cost him a lot of money when he needs it.