The Millionaire Blog

Robert Kiyosaki in his book Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money–That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! makes the statement that most high school graduates have not been taught anything about finances in school.

As a graduate of the New York City School system I can attest to that. It truly is unfortunate. According to the National Center for Education Statistics about 65% of college students will graduate with about $20,000 in debt. Those are year 2000 statisitcs. I’m guessing those number have gone up dramatically.

As parents we need to realize we have to be the ones to teach our children about finances. Don’t leave it up to the schools.

Here are 5 tips for helping you children learn about finances.

1) Put them on commissions: Create a chore list and pay them for the work they do. Pay them faithfully every week. If they don’t do the work you don’t pay.

2) Teach them to Give, Save, and Spend: Give them 3 envelopes and every week they get paid split the money into each envelope. When you go to church they will be giving from their envelope. The save money they will use for big purchases (Barbies, toys). The spend money is for everyday spending.

3) Teach them about credit cards: No matter how you slice it credit card debt is bad. Children sometimes think credit cards are a bottomless bucket of money. Show them how much better it is to purchase with cash.

4) Teach them investing: Though I have not done this yet, open up a ShareBuilder account. Let them invest in things they are familiar with, with your help , of course.

5) Make it fun: Learning should be fun, don’t make it a chore or a sermon.

Here are a couple of recommended products. (These are affiliate links, I do make a small percentage should you make a purchase.)

Give your children the financial head start necessary to thrive in today’s fast paced and changing world. Schools teach children how to work for money. CASHFLOW(r) for Kids(TM) teaches children how to have money work for them. CASHFLOW(r) for Kids(TM) is a complete educational package which includes the book and audio cassette titled “Rich Dad’s Guide to Raising Your Child’s Financial IQ”.

Two fast paced games that improve two valuable math skills–making change and budgeting money. Both are tools kids will use for the rest of their lives.