When children find shiny pennies on the street, they likely aren’t thinking of applying it to their mortgage payment or rent for next month. So how do children learn about financial principles needed as adults?
Research shows that parents are the top source for a child’s financial education. An article in the June Ensign details seven gospel-related principles parents can use to teach their children about money.
Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin once said, “Too many of our youth get into financial difficulty because they never learned proper principles of financial common sense at home. Teach your children while they are young. Teach them that they cannot have something merely because they want it. Teach them the principles of hard work, frugality, and saving.”
The article in the Ensign, authored by Ashley B. LeBaron and E. Jeffrey Hill, details seven principles that can be used to teach children about finances: tithing, hard work, budgeting, choices, communication, facilitating real-world experiences, and being guided by the Spirit.
The authors give examples of what parents can do to teach their children these principles. One example associated with the principle of budgeting is giving children a homemade bank with three slots. “The giving money is paid as tithing, the saving money is deposited in a real bank account, and the spending money is used to buy something the child has been wanting—all with the child as involved as possible until he or she is old enough to do it independently,” the article reads.
Read more about how to teach your children about finances at the Ensign.
