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Practical Tips: An Easy Way to Teach Your Kid to Save

You might have read a thousand articles advising you to teach your kid to save money. They tell you about the advantages of teaching her at a young age. Therefore we are not going to hammer that into your head again because you already know about it.

What we are discussing is a simple technique to teach her how to do it. It is like training them to save without them ever realizing that they are actually being taught the art of saving.

The Birthday Gift Training Program

Don’t worry this is not a boot camp. We are just using her birthday to teach her the first lessons of saving. Birthdays are very important for a child. They look forward to that day when she can be the little princess. Therefore, you could use it to your advantage.

Tell your child that she can buy anything she likes if she can save half the money for the gift she likes to have. Give her an incentive. Tell her that you will pay half the price of the gift. The important thing that you must realize is that you must be able to get her confidence and make her go along with you. Or else she will think that you are being a miser and do not love her anymore. Well, we don’t want pain and tears, so play your part well.

You do not tell her to save for her own birthday gift and walk away. That is becoming very unsupportive. Instead, give her ideas about how to save that kind of money. After she gets the hang of it, she will surprise you by finding ways to save that you couldn’t see.

Start Saving Early: Tell her that early bird surely catches the prey. Your advice number one should be that she should start saving as soon as possible. You can ask her to put her money saved in a piggy bank or help her start a savings bank account. Supporting her throughout and congratulating on her growing savings will surely encourage her to stick on with it.
Every Rupee Counts: Remind your child that each and every Rupee is important and she must not overlook any opportunity that comes her way to save. It will help her to become aware about where all she is overspending. She begins to save her pocket money given by you and the money given by other relatives. She will also decline to spend unnecessarily during shopping with you and award her by giving an amount thus saved to be deposited in her piggy bank.
Divert Gifts to Piggy Bank: During festivals like Diwali, Raksha Bandan etc, she is sure to get gifts from relatives and friends. If the gifts are not emotionally binding, she could sell it and use the money to fill her piggy bank. She might be ready to forsake her small gifts for the ‘The Gift’ on her birthday.
Motivate Your Child: Keep motivating her through out the time she is saving. Increase her pocket money if she is sticking to her saving schedule. This will be a boost for her to save more. She will be motivated to save money in the correct way rather than go looking for short cuts to make money later on in life.

Go with her to shop for her birthday gift. It is sure going to be the best birthday gift she ever got and she knows it. So make it special for her. Throw a party so and ask her to invite over her friends. Let her enjoy that day because she has surely earned it.

By throwing a party you teach her one last lesson. Saving surely gives you rewards in the long run.

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