We believe experiential learning is most effective in teaching financial concepts, though we accept each child learns differently.
Here are four concepts to introduce to your children or loved ones:
- Counting coins and dollars to learn their value and how more units or heavier weight, does not mean more money.
- Exchange of goods and services. Earning money through selling a product or service or create a simple business plan.
- Saving for a goal. Define saving and interest earned. Have student set a savings goal to purchase an item. Open a bank account with them.
- Introduce the basics of borrowing by demonstrating the concept of credit and interest paid by giving the child a loan to purchase an item or pay for an activity. One might add them as an authorized user on your credit card and give them a lower spending limit, until they reach 18 when they can have their own.
The Federal Reserve has resources available to all to teach finance and economic concepts to children and youth from kindergarten to university/college age. See econlowdown.org
Please let us know if you are interested in having a personal finance course delivered for your children or organization, courtesy of the Coroebus Foundation.
Note: There are mounting headwinds against using the term financial literacy in philanthropy, banking and financial circles. We can focus on learning personal finance fundamentals as a strong foundation to build healthy habits so that the next generation may prosper.
