These days, saving money is one of the most vital ways to sustain and secure our financial foundation. Most parents might find it difficult to train their kids about money due to lack of spending time with them at home or perhaps, because of too busy with work or they don’t have the time to do it.

Nevertheless, whatever circumstances that we may need to go through in life, all of us need to be aware that it is important to train or teach the young generation about saving from a young age. For parents out there who are still figuring out how to teach your kids about money, here are a few easy ways on how to educate and help them with their money during their childhood and early adulthood years.

1. Teach them the basic math skills early

You don’t have to be a mathematical whizz in order to teach your children about saving. Simple math skills such as counting, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division can help them to comprehend about how to apply and spend the money given to them. By knowing these basic math skills, then only they will know and understand the value of money as these operations are the foundations of all calculations and math problems.

2. Prepare or find a suitable place to save money

As parents, it is vital to teach our kids how to locate or put their money in a safe place. For instance, giving them a saving jar or a piggy bank is another way to guide them to start saving for themselves. At the end of the day, they will notice that the amount of money that they save will increase depending on their saving attitudes. This can be a good activity for them. In this way, they will start thinking to save and spend their pocket money appropriately.

3. Open a bank or saving account for them

We can open a bank or saving account for our kids as soon as they start entering their primary school. In fact, each bank in Malaysia offers various options and services for children’s account. We can bring our kids to the bank or perhaps telling them that we’re going to save the amount of money based on what they save in their piggy bank. As years go by, when they enter their teenage years, we can let them discover and take care of their savings account. In this way, we can teach them about the importance of money management and preparing themselves for their university/college life and surely for the sake of securing their financial future.

4. Let them set their financial goals

Once our kids already owned their piggy bank/saving jars and a saving account, we can assuredly teach our kids on how to save money towards something that they really want. For instance, if they dream to own a gadget or a new toy, we can train them to slowly save for a few weeks or perhaps months. This strategy can instill self-discipline within them from an early age and at the same time educate them about the true value of money in life.

5. Be a role model

There is no doubt that being a parent to our kids, we need to be a good role model for them. We need to show good attitudes and appropriate examples. In other words, we need to practise what we preach so that our kids can learn from us. Apart from providing them a good financial grounding, definitely, we also want to raise them to become a better person.

6. Talk and start a conversation with them

Spending a quality time with our children is a must. It is okay to talk about money with them once in a while. For example, asking about their ambitions and favourite items, what will they do if they will be given a big amount of money and other interesting topics. This strategy not only help parents to educate their children about money lessons, but also strengthen the bonds within their family too.

7. Support their good saving habits using intrinsic and extrinsic motivations

Most parents perhaps only spot the mistakes that their children make. However, we need to be aware that we also need to support their good behaviors and saving habits as well through motivational aspects. Be it intrinsic or extrinsic motivation. Some of the examples are saying encouraging words to them such as “Keep it up”, “Good girl/boy” and giving them a gift for their saving and educational achievements. Kids normally will be happy when their parents notice their good attitudes and of course, any good types of encouragement will forever be ingrained in their minds.