Finance For Kids

meer53

I'm quite happy to teach my kids about finance, i wouldn't expect school to do this ? It's up to you OP to give your daughter the "right real life information" (although i don't really understand what you mean by this) that she doesn't get in school. These days too many lazy parents feel school should teach absolutely everything and that they don't have to bother.

colsten

So far, you have all given the wrong answers. The correct answer is that an app is needed, and you should just have asked for the name of the app. It probably costs as little as £1.59, and it will transform your life, and the lives of your children.


Honest. It will.

mgdavid

colsten wrote: »

So far, you have all given the wrong answers. The correct answer is that an app is needed, and you should just have asked for the name of the app. It probably costs as little as £1.59, and it will transform your life, and the lives of your children.


Honest. It will.

I fear you have been seduced by Figgerty; saying things in big bold red type does not make them fact!!!

colsten

mgdavid wrote: »

I fear you have been seduced by Figgerty; saying things in big bold red type does not make them fact!!!

Not Figgerty this time. T'was the OP in this thread that encouraged me.

[Deleted User]

I can only speak from personal experience as the child (my son hasn't even hit 2 yet, so he's only just learning to post pennies in a money box!), but...

When I was a kid, I was kept sheltered from finances. As a result, I ended up with the stereotypical belief that "mummy and daddy can afford anything", and was confused as to why other kids got to holiday abroad, had expensive new things, and so on, when we didn't. I thought I'd been bad somehow.

My learning came from sneaking off to the local Lloyds one day (I think I was about 10 or 11), opening a young'uns ("Headway"?) account, and learning by reading the literature and doing it myself. Still, I didn't know how a cheque worked, what household bills needed paying (I didn't even realise they were a "thing"), and so on.

I think that the important things that need to be taught are that there are essentials that MUST be paid for, nice things that CAN be paid for, and over-marketed crap that SHOULDN'T be paid for - simplified example: if you buy loads of crap, you can't have any nice things, and you can't pay your rent.

enthusiasticsaver

No we don't need an app to teach kids about finance. What they need is sensible advice and life skills from their parents. I had a discussion yesterday with a very good friend whose two daughters grew up with mine and they are now four lovely girls in their late 20s, all hard working, financially solvent, independent adults. My friend reminded me of some advice I gave her when our eldest daughters were both 13. We had recently opened up a junior bank account with Barclays bank for both our daughters who were 13 and 11 at the time. We started to give them both monthly allowances and sat down with them and taught them about budgeting and gave them both a notebook which they loved at that time. Essentially a spending diary. We said this allowance, which I think was the child benefit we received was to cover all their discretionary spends - ie clothes for out of school, entertainment, pocket money etc and they had to make it last the month. We also suggested they put a proportion in their Barclays accounts along with birthday money etc for larger items giving them the incentive to save. We paid for school uniforms, swimming lessons etc and trips and shoes separately. Nothing else and if they ran out of money then they could not do whatever it was they wanted - be that a trip to the cinema, packets of sweets or magazine. It taught them they sometimes had to wait to buy stuff and these lessons came in handy when they got their first weekend jobs at 16. No app needed. Just sensible advice, their first bank account and a spending diary which helped their maths skills too.

strandedinaber

I think we need more financial education, absolutely. I was taught how to manage money by my parents and a little in school, but that's less likely now as the curriculum is tightly squeezed. I agree that parents should take the lead on this, but ultimately if they weren't taught how to manage money, through no fault of their own, then they are going to struggle to teach their kids. And child homelessness is rising. Not all kids have parents to teach them.

Mobile applications have two key advantages: they're there all the time, and they can be designed in ways which make learning more interesting. For example, I have an app on my phone which reminds me to drink water - and when I drink water, I also tap a button which feeds a virtual plant. When I don't drink water, I have a visual representation of my lack of care for my body; my virtual plant is dying. Similarly, if you give a kid a game of Sims, most of them will buy the fanciest stuff possible, and then not have enough money to pay the bills for the week. These games provide a risk-free, accessible, and fun way of highlighting that actions (like not drinking enough water, or spending all your money) have consequences (like the virtual plant dying, or the repo man coming to take all your Sim's nice new stuff away).

So, do I think that an app teaching kids about money management is important? Yes. Absolutely. Because if apps are being developed, then there's a market for them. When apps are developed, it will be because people are starting to consider financial education for kids.

Do I think that that's the only way that they can learn about financial management? Nope. And unless you're an app developer who can create apps, then you might want to look at alternatives.

Katiehound

Oh dear... in my day there wasn't spare money- or credit cards.
You saved up for things with something called pocket money (if you were lucky!) Some friends got off buses one stop early at the fare stage so that they could save- pence! and walked the last bit- which mounted up over the term.
We had Saturday jobs... the prize one in my area was to work in good old M&S.
I remember having a Post Office book.
We weren't taught anything about finance at school, actually I don't remember being taught anything about it at home- budgeting was a way of life! But it stood me in good stead.

I think OP needs to rise to the challenge of teaching her child about finance and opening a savings account / whatever would be a good step. School is not omnipotent, it does not teach all life skills!
You might find some interesting items here to help:
https://www.nationwideeducation.co.uk/

Anthorn

mgdavid wrote: »

100% wrong in my experience. If you were right then the OP wouldn't need to ask the question and all youngsters would be completely savvy and worldly-wise. Schools still do what schools do (impart academic knowledge to a testable standard); it's too many parents who in recent generations seem to have been delinquent and neglected their responsibilities towards their children.

That's completely ridiculous and out of touch with the real world!

Start with a child's peers and then look at whether they have more influence over a child than the parents. That's a good starting point.

Money_maker

Katiehound wrote: »

Oh dear... in my day there wasn't spare money- or credit cards.

Or smartphones or tablets to push under their noses when the little darlings moaned they were bored.

Much of todays debt doesn't stem from financial ignorance but the need to 'keep up with the joneses', put a car on finance cos its not really like having a loan. Oh, we must get the latest gadget. We have a new house to furnish - it must all be NEW. It's the attitudes which are wrong, society has taught the new generation that they can have it all.

I dont want the schools to waste time teaching the financial skills that I and other parents can pass on. I want to be able to go into a shop and find a worker who can add two prices together and calculate the change from a ten pound note in their head. Thats what our young people need to learn, the basics.