Money and Kids – What do you do when things are tight?

I am absolutely passionate about the topic of kids and money. I can’t possibly share with you in one article the passion I have as well as the research and LIFE LIVING that I have done on this topic as a mom of 3 ages  – 14, 11, and 7 but I will give you a glimpse in the following sentences.

Not only did we go through “belt-tighting” in our house after my husband nearly died 6 years ago followed by him being out of work for 18 months (leaving us DRY in savings and over $16,000 in medical debt) but we also did again last year when he was furloughed with the state of California.  In response to the furlough, I started Raising CEO Kids to teach families and kids how to follow their passions and CREATE income even when companies might not be hiring.  My oldest two children have done just that and now my 14 yo makes $20-30 an hour fixing computers. My daughter’s income has mostly been allocated, by her choice, to social causes such as kids with cancer and so forth.   As part of Raising CEO Kids, I hosted a teleseries called Cash Savvy Kids. On the Cash Savvy Kids teleseries I interviewed 16 finance experts on the topic of raising financially smart confident kids.  They shared some amazing tips I would love to share with you on teaching kids about finance, sharing with them tough finance topics, as well as how to be creative in creating more income with the resources available to the family.

My Top 7 Tips:

1. Tell them there are “choices” instead of flat out “no”.  For example – We cut the “gift budget” we had and let our kids know that holidays and birthdays would be smaller and they could choose to have us spend the money on gifts for them or on a party or some of both but that the budget would be X amount no matter what they chose.  My daughter prefers her friend time so she got busy budgeting the party of her dreams on an itty bitty budget!  Not only did she learn to budget, she had a blast planning the party and her friends loved it.  She still got plenty of gifts and the life lessons she learned were priceless.
2. Ask them for ways they think the “belt-tightening” can be done.  My kids opted to get rid of the “cable” TV as long as we kept Internet.  They also opted to help make the grocery list and make meals each week so we didn’t eat out.  They opted to do work for mom’s business so that I wouldn’t have to have my VA team do as many hours.  They opted for “staycations” over no vacations at all and more.
3. Say things like, “We are choosing not to spend our money on that right now” rather than “We can’t afford it” or  “How do you plan to create that?” rather than “No you can’t have it.”  My son created the income he need for a $500 video class, an iPod touch, guitar lessons and more.
4. Have family meals together as much as possible.  When times are tough, you need the strength that comes from family “together time”.
5. Encourage them to use THEIR personal gifts to start a business of some sort.  Can they mow lawns? babysit? Walk dogs? Do web or graphic design?  There are just so many options!
6. One bonus tip is that we have ALWAYS encouraged our kids by our example to give 10% to charity off the top! Even when things were SUPER tight we continued to give 10% to charity! This has been HUGE for them as it has show them there are always others who are worse off and that we are going to make it!
7. By all means work as a TEAM in the family to turn the financial MESS into a MESSAGE – a message of hope, possibilities, choices, strength, and a “can do it” attitude.