How To Teach Positive Money Mindset To Kids

Money is an important part of life, but it doesn’t really get spoken about enough, not even at home! Kids will pick up on what happens at home with money and this will influence how they manage money later on in their lives. So it is important to take control of what they are learning! Here’s how and most importantly why teach positive money mindset to your kids.

What does positive money mindset mean

What is money mindset?

It is the combination of the feelings we have about money and how we think of it.

A lot of the way we feel about money deep down is influenced by our childhood and how our parents spoke about money and dealt with it.

How you feel about saving and spending is also part of your money mindset, do you feel guilt or yolo (you only live once) when you spend money

A positive money mindset is one where our overall feelings about money are positive, and come from a place of abundance. (You can read about abundance here.)

We are confident that we can manage our money and have faith that we can always make more.

Important to remember!

As mentioned above, money mindset is ingrained into us during our childhood at home.

Even if we’re not directly spoken to about money or consciously taught about it, we pick up on the money behaviour of our parents and the overall mood around house when it relates to money.

Children are deeply aware of different issues at home, even if they don’t consciously understand what they are about.

This is why it is important to first work on our own money mindset, so we can show our children what a positive one looks like.

There’s no point trying to teach something to your kids and then undermine it by fully contradicting it with your own behaviour.

In this post I write about working on your money mindset.

How to teach positive money mindset to kids

As mentioned above, the most important thing when teaching positive money mindset to your kids is to model it with your own behaviour.

This means having constructive money conversations at home with your partner, friends, or anyone really.

Depending on your kids’ age, including them on an age appropriate level is also important.

This will help your kids feel included and respected, and that they are “good enough” to take part in important money conversations.

Confidence and believing in themselves when it comes to money is such an important part of money mindset and will influence how they manage money in the future.

Just consider the difference between someone who believes they are good with money and how they manage their money, compared to someone who believes they are bad with it.

On top of providing a financially positive environment to grow up in, there’s more practical things to teach your kids too.

Letting your kids practice money matters and showing them how the money world works will increase their confidence and improve their relationship with money overall.

Some practical things to do to teach positive money mindset to kids (age dependent):

• Let them make cash payments at shops so they realise in order to get something they need to give up something else (money)
• Include them or encourage them to make savings goals to help them understand how to prioritise and how to save for what they want
• Make a pocket money/allowance system to let them earn money and practice managing their own
• Have constructive chats with them about how they can manage their money

The important thing in all of this is to help your kids understand your family’s financial situation, to a degree. The unknown can cause anxiety and lead to negative feelings about money.

This is true even if there is a lot of money available in the family. Without fully understanding what goes into earning and managing money it can lead to feelings of entitlement and inability to manage it on their own.

But if they understand what is going on, how you are managing money as a family and what you are working towards will give your kids a sense that they understand how the world of money works and that they can be in control of their financial futures.

How do you talk about money at home? Let’s have a chat in the comments!