Raising your student is not complete without preparing him or her for adulthood. Well, one of them is financial literacy and this is a decisive component of the matter. Very few children receive education regarding money matters, and only forty four percent of the American adults passed what is considered the ‘financial literacy’ test This explains why, many parents cannot teach their children because they do not have enough information themselves. It is something which should be on your curriculum though. It will help if you read on to know more ways you can help your kids understand what financial literacy is all about and help develop financial skills for students.
Basic Financial Skills (Ages 12-14)
Kids need to acquire important abilities that will help them in both their academic and professional endeavors for the future (Hermes, 2023). Your teen and early teen should understand the financial literacy for students’ basics in money matters, but must also be allowed to make their own purchases and engage in discussions relative to family budget.
Understanding Money and Transactions
Motivate your child to appreciate money by teaching kids about money as a young learner by talking about costs, credit and debit and banking. By this age, open a joint custodial savings account in their name, and in yours so that they also get to learn about how the use ATM cards, visiting the bank, and such things as online banking.
Budgeting Basics
Take your child shopping and introduce him or her to the family income and expenditure, introduce him or her to the concept of a simple budget with their allowance where you aim at saving at least 10-15% of their allowance and practicing saving for certain purchases (Fernando, 2024). You can also use their allowance to demonstrate how a basic budget functions in order to further interest them in write my assignment.
Smart Spending
In this stage, kids should be educated on what is a need and what is a want as far as mental health and the quality of life is concerned. Show them how to shop for food, how to differentiate between expensive and cheap foods and what is worthy to spend on. For better decision-making, you may think about employing a statistics assignment service to examine expenditure trends. They should not be, in simple terms, equate value to cheap, they should learn that personal preference should come before anything.
Intermediate level in financial skills (15-16 years)
Ideally, at this age your kid is looking for a first job, may be working few hours a week or earning his or her own first salary. That is the time when you can commence to show them how it is better to utilize it.
Advanced Budgeting and Savings
At this age children can understand concepts such as, saving for a car or saving for a future car. Persuade them to set money aside talk about the rates of interest and teach them the importance of an emergency fund.
Introduction to Investing
Investing, compounding interest, interest rates should be explained to children and starting with interest rates. They can buy stocks, bonds and mutual funds; however, they need to avoid buying stocks because they trigger the addictive behaviour.
Credit Basics
Your child can turn to your credit score and get added as an authorized user in order to learn about credit. They should know what budgeting is, avoid charging before getting paid and avoid using the card to make payment at all. Explain them about the concept of debt and the consequences such as get explore through basic examples like a character with financial problems.
Financial literacy with mathematical correlations (17-18 Year)
Preparing your child for college, trade school or a full-time job it is essential to equip him or her with more skills to do things on his or her own.
Advanced Investing
It goes without saying that teenagers can open a Roth IRA, can be introduced to the concept of diversification and risk management and can even set up a date with a financial expert to discuss their financial literacy session.
Understanding Taxes
As can be expected for any citizen of the United States, taxes are somewhat complicated and require the services of tax professionals to help in filing their own taxes as well as guide your brothers and sisters on issues to do with income tax, filing repercussions, and using tax software.
Major Financial Decisions
It is important to be financially educated to enable the children make valid decisions on college, car and housing. One has to make them understand about finances, the costs of maintaining the vehicle and the importance of keeping the vehicle in good condition. Also, when coming to planning for housing such as purchasing a house, such discussions also help in developing equity and reducing on followed expenses.
Practical Financial Activities
To demonstrate is always wiser than to inform. Below is a list of things that your child can do towards enhancing financial literacy in him/her at a practical level.
Real-Life Financial Exercises
While some of these have already been discussed:
- Make them open and manage a bank account on their own. You can, however, transfer it to their name once they turn eighteen. They will be able to comprehend banking services and how to manage savings.
- Setting a personal budget. You can start with as low as 12 dollars if they have allowance when they are young.
- Simulated stock market investing. Well, here there are some virtual stock market simulator games, which can be used by kids and mostly these games are free of charge.
All three of these will allow your kids to just practice and develop good skills with little concern. You are there to help out and if they overshoot their budget and have none left for food, then that’s their reality check!
Final thoughts
It can be stated that a huge portion of adults remains non-financially literate, and this subject is optional in schools. This means that you have a responsibility to ensure that your child is ready for everything that is associated with the financial aspect in the society. The art of financial skills should be learned and then practiced by your child as well as you at all times. Engage them on your budget issues and spend some quality time to ensure that you are comfortable to discuss these aspects with them.
