My Money Game Plan
"Most people don't plan to fail. They fail to
plan."
Did you know that there's more to
being good with money than paying bills on time and
paying off credit cards each month? As
important as these skills are, if you don't have a
money game plan, you may miss out on ways to be even
smarter with your money. So it's important to
get kids to begin to think about how to maximize the
value of their hard-earned cash.
It begins with a little exercise
called
My Look Into the Future.
Kids are given an opportunity to reflect on their
life in 5, 10, and 20 years. What do they see?
Where are they living? What do they have?
What do they do? What kind of person do they
want to be? What kind of relationships do they
want to have?
Of course, things will change.
They may not live on the beach in 20 years.
They may not be a brain surgeon. And they may
not drive a black maserati. Maybe it's red.
:-) The point is, if we can get kids to think
about their future dreams, then we can ask them the
question, "And how do you plan on getting there?"
Which brings us to the next little
activity, My Money Game Plan. This activity
will help kids reflect on making wise money choices so that
they can live their dreams. It's best done
after kids have been exposed to the other steps in
Kids Money Connexions. You'll also need to
bring them up to speed on the perils of credit card
debt (a high interest loan) and things like buying
lottery tickets (which keeps an average of 50% of
your money!)
Use the
My Money Game Plan worksheet
to help your child write down how they plan to use
money effectively so that they control their money,
it doesn't control them. When we have
strategies, we often perform better. Let your
child know that what they write down isn't set in
stone...that it will probably change over time.
And that's okay. Having a starting point is
what's important.
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