Moms have been asking me this age-old question for years.
The short answer: start when your child is old enough to say, "Gimme!"
The long answer: Research shows that kids as young as three years old can learn about money. If it's hard to imagine your finger painting, peanut-butter eating little one calculating compound interest, fear not. Karen Holden, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that kids don't need math skills to build good financial habits. They just need to understand basic, but critical, concepts like waiting, making choices and developing values.
In fact, this idea was a starting point for Sesame Street's "For Me, for You, for Later," a financial education initiative entirely for preschool-age kids and for which Karen and I were advisors. I even got to star in the videos with Elmo!
Moms aren't the only ones who ask me how early to start teaching kids about money. Recently, I was tasked to answer this question by a very important dad: President Obama. As a member of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability, I'm developing an initiative for families called "Money Milestones," a set of 20 simple, age-appropriate key concepts for kids aged three to 23-plus.
Based on our draft, which is still in progress, here are the four milestones your 3 to 5-year-old should reach:
You need money to buy things.
To help your child achieve this milestone, try these activities:
You earn money by working.
To help your child achieve this milestone, try these activities:
You may have to wait before you can buy something you want.
To help your child achieve this milestone, try these activities:
There's a difference between things you want and things you need.
To help your child achieve this milestone, try these activities:
Have you tried any of these activities with your kids? If you give it a try, report back!
Beth Kobliner is a personal finance commentator and journalist, the author of the New York Times bestseller "Get a Financial Life: Personal Finance in Your Twenties and Thirties," and a member of the President's Advisory Council on Financial Capability. Visit her at bethkobliner.com, follow her on Twitter, and like her on Facebook.
This post was originally published on Mint.com.
To read the first segment on the "pursuit of happiness", click on the link:
http://lifeamongtheordinary.blogspot.com/
I believe the sooner we start to educate our kids about money, taxes, investments, business opportunities, how to be a great employee, etc., the better.
Honoree Corder
Author, The Successful Single Mom book series
When I was four years old my two older brothers went to school. I could not cross the busy street myself but crossed the street anyway to get to my uncle’s restaurant that sold hot dogs, hamburgers, roast beef sandwiches and fries. I asked for a hot dog. My uncle asked me if I had any money. I said. "No".
He literally taught me that there is no free lunch. He folded up an apron many times until it fit. Put me on a milk crate so I could reach the cooking area and taught me how to "work". Business occurred when there was a mutual exchange of value. I got the hot dog, he got the entertainment value.
Earl Nightingale (google him) in his presentation “The Strangest Secret” said money is a measure of your value. You get paid what you are worth or what you will settle for if you do not know your value.
The mentors I have had over the years taught me that the merchant must have knowledge, serve, and give valuable advice. The value exchanged must be mutually agreeable and exchanged cheerfully. No one likes to be cheated or abused. That advice has been very profitable to me.
Whether liberal or conservative, all children should be taught how to write. I guess your parents and teachers never got the message.
Let babies be babies for crying out loud. Pre-K or Kindergarten is young enough to start shoving the real world down their little throats.