Your children learn from you - what you do and what you say. And they really learn when they get to participate in the conversation.
Does your family ever talk about money? Do you make any financial decisions together? I'm not necessarily talking about big decisions, but ones that are within their understanding. For younger kids it might be having a discussion about how much ice cream costs at the ice cream truck versus buying a box of ice cream at the store. As they get older, it might be having a budget to go out to eat and how that might influence the decision of which restaurant.
If you give your children an allowance, how much or how often you give it, and what you expect them to pay for out of that allowance is a decision each family makes in their own way. No matter how you handle this, it is a great opportunity to talk about money. Remember, it's their money and this is a safe place for them to learn from mistakes. If they spend all their lunch money on candy, maybe it means they have to make lunch to take to school. If they spend all their money that was supposed to be for an after-school activity on a new shirt, maybe it means they have to pick up some more chores to earn the money for the activity, or else they don't get to participate. However it is that you manage it with your family, this is their safest place to learn the consequences of overspending and the value of saving for the bigger items.
As they get older, you can talk about credit cards, credit score, or other topics that show up in the news or in other conversations that make it a smooth transition to a dinner time conversation. Or maybe you make it a point one day a week or one day a month to talk about a particular money topic, chosen by a different person each time. If you can't come up with an idea, you can use my blog posts or videos as a starting place for discussion.
If you don't talk about money, don't be surprised if your children don't learn about money.
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