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Teaching My Kids About Financial Literacy + Ipad Giveaway

  July 15

This post may contain affiliate links.

bookreview-giveaway1It’s always been important to me to have children who are financially literate. I’ve often said that understanding money is one of the most important things in the world.

Now, people argue with me and say, “No, Cat. Family and friends are the most important thing in the world,” but notice I didn’t say money is the most important but understanding money. Because you see, the people who have a hard time with money are at risk for losing their homes, losing their families, and putting their children in bad situations. You have to be able to support and sustain your life in order to enjoy those beautiful family members and friends.

Furthermore, money is a taboo topic. People get awkward talking about it. I’m still not sure why, but it’s my job as a mom to make sure my two kids not only understand money but are comfortable using it, investing it, and talking about it. I wish I would have had a better understanding of investing from a much earlier age, so along with teaching our kids to be good people (#1 priority) teaching them about money runs a close second.

I enjoy looking up to other moms who have taken the initiative and done this before me. One person who has been an inspiration to me is financial advisor Shannon Ryan, who writes the blog The Heavy Purse.

Shannon is a big proponent of teaching kids about money from a very early age. She explains that our money habits start very young, and we often emulate what our parents do. Her father began teaching her about money as a teenager, and even then he had to undo some of her habits.

Shannon recently wrote a children’s book called The Lemonade Stand. It’s a really cute book that teaches kids how to spend, save, and share. I especially love the sharing aspect and really liked Shannon’s example of donating to the animal shelter. In the future, I look forward to learning more from Shannon about how to teach our children about finance, and I’d especially love some tips on teaching them how to invest in future books.

To celebrate Shannon’s book launch, I (along with several other blogger co-hosts) am giving away an iPad mini!

The giveaway runs from July 14-31, 2014 and is open worldwide.*

* A winner located outside of the United States will receive a cash equivalent prize via PayPal.

Enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Co-hosted by Are Ya Gonna Eat That, Broke Millennial, Budget and The Beach, Budget Blonde, Budgeting for More, Busy Mom Budgets, Cash Cow Couple, Cents and Sensibility, Club Thrifty, Color Me Frugal, Debt Debs, Debt Roundup, Disease Called Debt, Eat Laugh Purr, Enemy of Debt, Eyes on the Dollar, Femme Frugality, Financially Blonde, Frugal Rules, Living Richly Cheaply, Luke 1428, Making Sense of Cents, Money Saving Dude, Monster Piggy Bank, Not Now Mom’s Busy, Reach Financial Independence, Shoeaholic No More, Stacking Benjamins, Tackling Our Debt, The Broke and Beautiful Life, The Finance Girl, The Frugal Farmer, The Random Path, Thrifty Dad, VeegMama and Young Adult Money.

15 responses to “Teaching My Kids About Financial Literacy + Ipad Giveaway

  1. We try to teach the boys how to save by encouraging them to save for things they want, living by the same example by not splurging on the little frivolous items. We also sit down with them and discuss how things like savings, budget and credit exist and work.

    1. Love it, Cassie! You are doing all the right things. Being a good financial role model is one of the most important things you can do, because they are watching and will mimic what they see. And it sounds like you’re being a great role model for them!

  2. Thanks for your wonderful review, Cat! I truly appreciate your support and I agree wholeheartedly with you – helping my girls understand money is one of my top goals as a parent. Every day I see the outcome of NOT talking to kids about money and even incredibly successful and intelligent people don’t know how to manage their finances properly and make good decisions with their money. Sharing is an important family value in our home and in my opinion one of the best ways to avoid creating entitled kids. I’ll keep in mind your investing needs, right now for my children’s book I was looking at teaching them about credit cards. 🙂 Thanks again for your support, my friend!

  3. My kids are still pretty little – but I’ve been thinking about teaching them to not make my mistakes. I will need to check out this book for ideas on how to do that.

    1. I started talking to my girls when they were about 3 years old, Very simple conversations, of course, but I wanted to make sure money was never taboo or an uncomfortable topic in my family. Young kids, in particular, really pick up the emotions around money, so that is something to be conscious of how you speak about money in front of them. Talking to your kids about your mistakes when age-appropriate is so important. Please check out my book and I hope you enjoy it!

  4. I totally agree with you:-) I’m a fellow financial writer and financial literacy fanatic!

  5. I grew up watching my mother and father struggle and get in over their heads with bills. Between a foreclosure and a bankruptcy I really have seen it all. Unfortunately I saw myself picking up some of the same habits in my youth with money management. Now that i’m older (late twenties) I see the value of money, saving, and retirement. I wish I would have had more money lessons growing up and I think it’s great to teach kids and set that financially responsible example that our youth today can really look up to.

  6. Its really important to get kids on the right side of the world of finances from an early age. If they start thinking about money in the right way early on, they are likely to have the tools needed to succeed later!

  7. I bet your beans are going to love that book! Do you read to them yet? My daughter started at two months for my grandson’s bedtime routine and he just loves it! So precious to watch!!

  8. My daughter is still a baby, but I plan on teaching her about saving by setting up a savings “match” system like my 401K with her allowance.

  9. Financial literacy is incredibly important. I think this should ideally be taught at home to get the best lessons, but it should also be given attention in schools. I say that it should be taught in schools because frankly, there are many folks who simply don’t have any understanding of personal finance, so in those cases it would be like the blind leading the blind. I know you don’t fit into that category at all 🙂

  10. I can’t wait to teach my children about money early on. I’m learning as I go and I have had to make a lot of mistakes along the way.

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