How to teach your kids the value of money... without it feeling like a lesson

One thing all parents know is their kids love to play games. Games turn chores into willing participation. How many times have kids fallen for the “I bet you can’t take out the rubbish in less than 30 seconds” game or the “I bet you can’t finish your beans before me” game? Sadly, these games don’t last forever. And you won’t see “I bet you can’t get home from the party before 10pm” working for the average 16-year-old! But the good news is, there are different ways to get your kids to do things they don’t particularly want to, like teaching them how to save money. I’ve made a list of some of my methods – and the best part, they don’t even realise they’re being taught!

Recruit

Not quite as serious as it sounds, the idea of recruiting your kids to help on different jobs can be a lot of fun – and great for their education. Kids love to feel valued. So if you include them in a job and make them feel like they’re vital to it, they’ll throw themselves at the task. Tell them you need help filling up the car. Tell them how much you want to put in and then make them yell “STOP” when the meter reaches the total. Then get them to pay, by swiping the card and enter the amount owing. They’ll feel important. And they’ll love it.

Addition

To kids, money appears to come out of thin air. You push a few buttons at the ATM and money comes out, or you swipe a card and you’ve paid for your groceries. It’s hard for them to understand the value of money when it seems so readily available. Tell them you have a finite amount of money you want to spend. Ask them all the things you need to buy from the shop and get them to help you construct a shopping list. Then, as you walk around the shopping centre, get them to add up all the things as you go with a calculator (or without, if they’re old enough). At the checkout, get them to try and guess how much it will cost and watch the different items add up on the screen. Apart from being a great lesson in maths, it will teach your kids about budgeting. And it certainly makes shopping a whole lot more fun for them.

Make it tangible

Another great way to teach kids about money is to take them to the farmers’ markets – the perfect way to make them more familiar with the other side of the consumer process. Many kids struggle to understand the link between the work done to produce something, and the money it costs. But at the farmers’ markets, the farmers themselves are standing right in front of them – so the act of swapping potatoes with money is a much more immediate and tangible transaction. Your kids will understand that this man grew these potatoes, so we’re giving him money in exchange for all his work. You can even take the lesson a bit further, and tell them the money he’s getting can be used to buy other things like much-needed supplies for his farm. Tell your child what you need and get them to ask the farmer for “five potatoes please”, then get them to pay – it’s a great way to involve them and make a payment transaction feel real for them.

Computer games are great (sometimes)

I’m not the biggest fan of video games in general, but when the games are teaching kids real life skills – like the value of money and financial literacy –I’m all for it. I work for CommBank and soondiscovered the CommBank’s kids site, Coinland.

Coinland is like an online theme park designed especially for young kids to help them learn about the value of money. There are lots of activities and games for kids that improve their financial literacy – teaching them the importance of saving. It works wonders. My kids love it. And I have to admit I’ve had a sneaky go myself (just for research reasons of course). So as you can see, there are plenty of tricks parents have up their sleeve once the “I bet you can’t” games wears off. Try these for yourself, and let me know any other methods you use that I might have missed!

Lyn McGrath is the Executive General Manager of Retail Sales for Commonwealth Bank, but more importantly she’s the mother of two.