Teach Your Kids Financial Literacy Each Day

As Financial Literacy Month draws to a close, I thought it was appropriate to share a guest post about how you can teach your children to save every day of the year — not just during April. This is a guest post from John M. Box, Ph.D., the Senior Vice President of Education for Junior Achievement Worldwide.

Even though April is celebrated as Financial Literacy Month, it’s important to remember that you should practice smart money management all year long. What’s the smartest financial decision you can make? Talking to your kids about financial literacy. Junior Achievement and The Allstate Foundation conducted a poll of U.S. teenagers to gauge their thoughts on the economy, with some surprising statistics:

• More than 50 percent say they talk about the economy with their friends.
• Nearly three-in-ten teens (29 percent) said that the economy is causing them anxiety.
• One-third of all teens report less job availability.
• Nearly half (49 percent) said their parents had discussed family finances with them as a result of the economy.
• More than half of teens surveyed (55 percent) said their college plans had changed due to the economy.

With that in mind, it’s important to open up the dialogue about personal finances, college savings and smart money management with your kids. Here are a few tools and ideas that might help along the way:

• Learn: Junior Achievement created a new series of free, downloadable teaching tools to help parents talk to their children about smart money management. The lessons, called Junior Achievement $ave, USA, are posted at www.ja.org, and cover such topics as budgeting, the importance of saving, understanding the cost of credit and how to use it, and planning how to pay for college. The lessons are sponsored by The Allstate Foundation and can serve as a great learning tool for children, teens and parents.
• Discuss: Teens can have quite a talent for not listening to you when it comes to “boring” topics such as school work, chores and saving. So, next time they’re eager for a new iPod, designer jeans or a Spring Break vacation with friends, take the opportunity to discuss the costs and benefits of what they want. Are they willing to pay for all or a portion of it? How much time would it take to earn that money doing chores around the house or at a part time job? What would they be willing to give up to attain this?
• Show: Most people learn best not by merely listening, but by seeing an example. Show your kids that you do have to pay bills and that you’re open to discussing finances with your family. By making the topic open for all, it becomes less scary and taboo and they are more likely to ask questions.

You can never stop learning when it comes to making smart financial decisions. Make it a family affair and you never know, your kids might have a thing or two to teach you as well.

Stay connected with the latest news going on with Junior Achievement by becoming a fan of the JA Worldwide Facebook page. Find ways to volunteer, stay connected, share your JA story and learn about the latest JA happenings all over the globe. For up to the minute news, follow JA on Twitter at @JAworldwide.

Junior Achievement is the world’s largest organization dedicated to inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy. Through a dedicated volunteer network, Junior Achievement provides in-school and after-school programs for students which focus on three key content areas: work readiness, entrepreneurship, and financial literacy. Today, 137 individual area operations reach more than four million students in the United States, with an additional five million students served by operations in 123 other countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.ja.org