Essential Money Skills to Teach Kids

I ran into a couple interesting pieces lately featuring lists of what you should teach your kids about money management. Here's Kiplinger's list of what kids should know before they leave home:

1. How to manage a cash allowance.
2. How to manage a checking account (and an ATM or debit card).
3. How to save for a goal.
4. How to discover the magic of compounding.
5. How to get out of debt (or not).
6. How to compare prices.

For comparison purposes, here's Bankrate's list:

1. Balance a checkbook
2. Budget money
3. Finance college
4. Establish credit
5. Identify wants vs. needs
6. Deal with debt
7. Pay taxes
8. Consider all costs
9. Save for the future
10. Stretch a dollar

They basically cover the same issues (no surprise there) but both are pretty good lists in my opinion. I'm in the process of developing a series to teach my kids the basics of personal finance and here's what my initial list looks like:

1. How to make money
2. Smart shopping and spending less than you earn
3. How to budget
4. Debt and credit cards
5. Taxes
6. Investing (stocks, bonds, compounding, mutual funds)
7. Practical issues (balancing a checkbook, paying bills, filing taxes, etc.)

If I was teaching adults I'd add insurance and estate planning issues to the list as well, but I'm not sure my kids are ready for those issues.

What do you think of these lists (especially mine)? Am I missing anything?

Comments

[Jared]

What about "how to haggle or negotiate"? This is a tactic that can be used in a lot of financial situations, but I don't think my parents ever shared that with me. I knew you were supposed to haggle at the car dealership, but felt that people were cheap if that asked for a discount at other places. I still have a problem with negotiating because I just started doing it a few years ago.

["Mo" Money]

What a good list to teach your children. This is what should be done, we can't rely on the schools to do this job for us. Thanks for the post!

[James]

I know you won't forget philanthropy and giving, but I didn't see it on your list. I have often thought it would be great to have a course on philanthropy/giving in business school programs (maybe even MBA programs).

I think it is important to communicate to kids that just because they see other people with things they wish they could have, does not mean those people are in good financial condition. It may help a kid begin to value financial health as opposed to having "all the right stuff."

[Todd]

That is a great list. I like Jared's addition too. My perception (from travels) is that other countries typically know how to negotiate much better than americans. That is probably because they have needed to more and its a bigger part of their culture. Most stores here won't negotiate. Many stores in foreign countries will.

I would also add start by teaching your kids the "importance of saving". I wish my parents ingrained in me. Many people I know don’t understand why I would want to save so much. Once you embrace the importance of saving, I think all the other things (buget, investing, bargain shopping, etc.) fall into place.

[Dave]

I'm a volunteer educator. My wife and I teach financial literacy classes to kids. I would highly recommend anyone interested in this two programs:

BizWorld, found at http://www.bizworld.org. BizWorld was founded by Tim Draper, a VC. Kids learn math and finance concepts by starting their own friendship bracelet company, or investing in a mock stock/bond/capital market.

Banking on our Future, found at http://www.operationhope.org/smdev/clst4.php?id=172. BooF is run by Operation Hope, and primarily works in inner city schools.

http://www.davidmsudia.com

It's easy to say we should teach our kids about these, but the snag is how. These two programs are excellent devices for introducing kids to managing money, they cost about $100 to buy the programs and can be used again and again, and take up about 20 hours of your time, max.

Note: I'm not affiliated with either of these programs other than being a volunteer facilitator.