When raising children to have a good relationship with money, its important that you mind the language you use on a daily basis.

They really will take in everything they hear and if the rhetoric in the house is one of scarcity, or associating negative emotions with money then they will grow up with those same negative views.

Understandably, there is significant financial pressures in the current climate with the lockdown – which has created a lot of uncertainty. This creates stress and pressure on working families. However, if possible, save these conversations for a private meeting or after a certain hour. Anywhere away from children. If you haven’t got anything positive to say, don’t say anything at all.

You can create a positive relationship with money from an early age by adopting a few of the approaches below:

  1. When I was younger, my parents would hand me money when going to the bank – to ‘count it’ – but really this was to get my comfortable with holding money and being in charge of it. Let your children have similar exposure if possible
  2. Let them see the hard work that is associated with earning money. I would usually see my parents work tirelessly – and my mum would show the reward of her work to me. The link between working and earning was ever present and mentally prepared me to work hard.
  3. Show them the accumulation of money – a link back to the previous blog where you can play the game in the resources section of the site – or actually open a real bank account for them and ask them if they would prefer to spend the money or add it to their account.

Use your language to change the story around money for your child and you will see that they won’t fear it – and may instead be comfortable around it and be able to earn it with ease in the future.