Instilling good spending habits in your children when they are young will guard them from making big mistakes down the road. From an early age, parents can regularly reinforce smart budgeting lessons for their children, and that starts with putting cash in their hands. Here are some tips from Anurag Kar, senior manager at Interac, on how to raise financially responsible kids this school year.
Open a bank account. This is the first step in providing your children the autonomy to manage their own money. Open a bank account for them to deposit and withdraw funds. Teach your children the importance of creating and protecting their password and PIN.
Teach need versus want. This can be challenging when children are learning to budget for the first time. To help them distinguish between needing and wanting something, remind your child that every dollar spent is one dollar less from their weekly allowance. It also doesn’t hurt to ask them to pay for their own school supplies.
Transfer allowance into their account. Using Interac e-Transfer, send them their allowance directly to their bank account. This is also a great real-time solution for sending your kids money when they are away at university or college. Most transfer notifications are sent instantly, with the rest available to deposit within 30 minutes. Later this year, you’ll also be able to register email addresses for Autodeposit, meaning you’ll skip the manual deposit action and receive a notification when there is a new deposit in your account.
Scope out good deals. Once they begin understanding the worth of their money, encourage your children to shop for the best bargains. Take some time to explain how price comparisons and coupons can help stretch the money they’ve earned.