Activities to teach your kids about savings!

5 Activities to teach your kids about savings!

1. Start up a saving jar / piggy bank

A piggy bank can be a great way to teach your kids the importance of saving, while giving them an easy way to do it.  Tell your kids that the goal is to fill up the piggy bank with dollars and coins, until there is no room.  Illustrate that the piggy bank is for saving money for the future and that the more they save, the more their money will grow. 

2. Open a bank account

Once the piggy bank is full, take your child to the bank to open up a savings account for them.  Have them count how much money is going to be deposited, so they can have a physical understanding of how much money they have.  Show them the final number and reinforce the idea of interest.

It can provide a great source of motivation for your kids if they understand that their money will grow over time as long as they don’t touch it.

3. Set a realistic goal

Let’s say you give them five dollars a week and they want to save up fifty dollars.  If they saved one hundred percent of their allowance, they’d reach their goal in ten weeks, or roughly three months.

Start by getting a long piece of paper and a marker.  Have $0 on one side and $50 (or whatever goal amount) on the other side.  Create checkpoints on the paper for when they reach 25%, 50% and 75% of their goal.

Every time an amount is saved, draw a line illustrating how much was saved.  Let your kids know that they will get small rewards at each checkpoint.

4. Create a reward system

Small rewards can encourage kids to keep going.  Visuals are also helpful in illustrating their savings goals and how their money is growing. Let them learn how to manage their own money by teaching them the 80/20 rule, where 20% is meant to be saved. 80% of the money can be used to purchase toys or things they like.

5. Dollar-Dollar matching

Parents can further encourage and support their child's saving habit by matching dollar to dollar for how much their kids have saved. This will give their kids further motivation to save even more as they see the "double" effect.

All in all, parents should incept the savings habits into their kids from young so that they will have a good habit of saving from young. Otherwise, parents can consider creating or opening up savings account or purchasing savings insurance to generate interest and hold till their kid is matured enough to take over the account. This serves as a safety net / capital for their kids education or other purposes.