Free Kids & Money Tips and Resources

Getting kids in the habit of saving money is an important life skill. But seeing and understanding the value of saving does not come easy to many kids. Offering your kids incentives to save can help. A money bag icon appears next to the items where KidsSave can help make the tasks easier.

• Matching Funds: Match their savings dollar for dollar, or quarter for dollar, or whatever fits our budget. What kid doesn't like free money? Okay, so it may not be free to you, but the saving habit you are establishing now will save pay great dividends later!
• Interest: Customize their monthly interest rate. This allows their money to grow at a faster rate, encouraging them to save even more!
• Compound Interest: Over time, small amounts of money become large amounts of money. A good way to help kids understand this is by having them "see" their money grow visually. Any chart or spreadsheet will do the trick, or for something a little more kid-friendly, use KidsSave.
• Open a Savings Account: Kids love to act "grown-up". Helping them to open a savings account at a bank or credit union may be the spark that ignites their life-long saving habit.

Until your kids are old enough to get a part-time job, giving them an allowance is one of the best ways to get money in their hands. This allows them the opportunity to "practice" money. Practicing money involves learning how to budget, set personal financial goals, spend wisely, and invest.

How Much?
A good rule of thumb for how much allowance a child should receive per week is half their age. So following this rule, if you have a seven-year-old, she would receive $3.50 weekly allowance.

Using this as a starting point, there are other things to consider as well such as what your budget can afford and your expectations for how the allowance is to be used. In other words, does your child need to pull out a certain amount for tithing or long-term savings? Will he be paying for school lunches? Once these are decided, adjust the allowance accordingly. The following table gives a general outline of some possible expenses your child should become responsible for.

Kids are going to spend a lot of their adult life working to earn money. So it's a good idea to give them hands-on experiences while they are still hanging out with you. With you they can learn about effort, time management, fair pay, and work ethic. And the bonus is that when kids have had to work hard to earn their money, it has more value to them and they tend to make better choices about what they do with it.

Depending on their age, the types of jobs kids can do come in many forms. Young kids can weed the garden while older kids mow the lawn. You decide reasonable fees to pay your kids and offer them a list of jobs that they can choose from.

Another way for kids to earn additional money is to tap into their talents and skills. Do they love animals? How about starting a pet-care business? Are they great at playing the guitar? What about teaching beginning guitar lessons? This helps encourage their entrepreneurial spirits and could be the start of a great career!

If your child is working to earn money to reach a goal, there is absolutely nothing like seeing the sense of satisfaction and pride on his face when his goal is achieved. We can't deny our kids the opportunity to experience this kind of success.