It’s been a while since I’ve created a new post. I’ve been very busy working away on some amazing new material to help you with teaching your children and teens about money….

more on that later…. 😉

Today let me share with you a great article submitted to me by Sarah Brooks to get your minds focusing on why we need to teach our children and teens how to budget from as early as possible. In this article Sarah gives us some great reasons why we need to take action and start seriously teaching our children how to manage their money wisely.

Their futures depend on it!

Cheers…Amanda van der Gulik…Excited Life Enthusiast! ;o)

P.S. After you read Sarah’s article and you’re ready to take some immediate action, then click here to get some 7 Free Tools to help you teach your child or teen how to learn how to be in control of their money is a FUN interactive way! Enjoy! (You can’t get access to all 7 of these free gifts anywhere else, it’s a special deal I’ve put together for you and won’t be available for long!)

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5 Reasons Why Kids Should Learn about Budgeting

Initiating financial education with children may seem like jumping ahead to lessons they’ll face later in life, but the value of learning about finances and budgeting goes beyond applications like balancing a checkbook and paying-off student loans.  Financial principles are based on discipline and setting realistic benchmarks for achievement, so they benefit students of any age.

Money matters are not specifically addressed within the educational system, so supplemental approaches are required to set the stage for early budgeting success.  Without lessons aimed at particular rules and strategies, young people coming of age are forced to improvise as they first experience some of the same financial concerns they’ll continue to grapple with throughout their lives.  And today’s young consumers enter financial realms earlier than children once did, committing to contracts for mobile phone service and taking-on car payments during adolescence.

Kids should learn about budgeting in order to manage money efficiently as they grow into adult situations, but the lessons learned are immediately applicable in other areas of their lives, as well.

Create Realistic Expectations

Children go through well-documented stages of development, during which their understanding of life evolves. Relationships, for example, become less one-sided as children age, progressively illustrating to kids that their wants and needs are not at the center of the universe.  Increasingly, as children advance through these stages, they are faced with altered perceptions about what they should expect, as a matter of course.

Lessons about budgeting reinforce these aspects of development, instilling realistic expectations relating to things that cost money.  Once they understand the relationships between earning, budgeting and spending; they begin to adopt realistic viewpoints about the role of money in their lives.

Track Record of Failures

Recent turmoil in the mortgage industry and other financial markets furnishes a strong argument for instilling financial management skills at an early age.  Simply put; many adults fail miserably at basic budgeting, leading them to financial crises difficult to overcome.  While some would argue these failures stem from wantonly irresponsible behavior; ignorance is also at play in many cases of financial mismanagement.  Passing financial knowledge to kids at early ages can only help to mitigate the proliferation of bad financial outcomes among adults.  Prudent budgeting is at the heart of successful money management, so childhood lessons illustrating the value of planning ahead are carried forward into adult situations requiring deft money handling.

Budgeting is About Priorities

Modern kids live in hyper-connected environments that consistently pull them in multiple directions at the same time.  Learning budgeting skills helps people of all ages manage finances responsibly, but the process also instills general know-how establishing priorities.  Once they realize they can’t have everything they want, due to financial limitations, young people are prone to apply similar prioritizing strategies to additional aspects of their lives, outside finances.

Budgets are Motivators

Just as budgets exclude the things you cannot afford, they also illuminate the possibilities for better financial days.  Kids brought up to speed about budgeting principles are armed with realistic financial viewpoints as they grow into more adult roles.  Understanding mobility and the relationships between earning potential and spending habits motivates kids to succeed, in hopes of securing the material comforts they desire.

Avoid Early Mistakes

Financial missteps can have lasting impacts on the records of young people who experience difficulties early-on in their credit lives.  Budgeting education helps young people launch on the best possible trajectory for avoiding pitfalls that can be difficult to overcome as they strive to establish themselves financially.  Conversely, investments and other positive financial moves are most beneficial when they have time to grow, so laying-in budgeting lessons at an early age prepares kids to step-in to adult investments while they are young and holdings have time to grow.

Teaching kids about budgeting prepares them to succeed later in life, but learning the principles behind prudent money management also helps children prioritize and creates realistic expectations in other areas of their lives.

Author Bio:

This is a guest post by Sarah Brooks from Freepeoplesearch.org. She is a Houston based freelance writer and blogger. Questions and comments can be sent to brooks.sarah23 @ gmail.com.

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