Smart Money

How to make banking and finances real for children, and help them save

CHILDREN DON’T LEARN BY what we say; instead, they learn by what we do. When it comes to money, they see us magically swiping a bank card to pay for all sorts of lovely things, or withdrawing cash from an ATM.

The challenge around teaching children about finances is that it’s all done in the background, behind the scenes: a silent bank transfer paying those retirement annuities, a secret EFT paying debts, and soundless debit orders paying for family expenses. In some families, mum and dad speak in hushed tones around the family budget (I remember it being that way when I was a child). It’s all too abstract, and young kids don’t get to see the ‘transaction’ of saving.

I remember as a child, going into the bank with my mum, barely able to see over the counter as the nice lady in the uniform took my hard-to-part-with savings and banked it into a savings book (I may be showing my age here). I held onto that savings book with such pride, and constantly checked the balance for growth. It was a tangible thing and I understood when my parents said I had to save 10% of my pocket money for a rainy day (how I prayed for rain back then!). Eventually, that initial banking experience led to the purchase of my first car in my early 20s, and she was all mine!