Money matters!

As we enter another financial year, I thought I would share my thoughts on the way I see how kids view money. To kids, fortunate enough to be within good positive home lives, I’m not convinced money really matters that much. Clearly, the older they get the more they become aware and the greater they understand (especially when they want something expensive) but as youngsters - it’s just something Mum and Dad deal with. Many parents teach restraint and understand the ‘delaying gratification’ approach as demonstrated by the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment in the 1970’s. However, the actual understanding money bit is interesting to watch too.

A colleague and good friend of mine mentioned an interesting point to me about cash machines. You will notice that it says ‘Free Cash’ on a cash machine. This is exactly how kids think. “Go on Dad, get some free cash!!!” Or “free the cash Dad, the poor cash trapped in there - let it free”.

It can seem very clear cut to them. What else could it mean - “say what you see” a ‘catchy’ phrase from a well known quiz show.

I remember sitting down with our two and watching the excellent Martin Lewis of Money Savings Expert fame. He did a piece on educating kids about money and checking they knew all the terms and what they mean: mortgage, credit card, loan, income tax, VAT etc. It was really interesting to see what they understood. Obviously, they were totally bored and thought I was a complete ogre for forcing them to watch the show. “We know all this Dad. You’ve told us before and we are taught it at school”. The continual comment throughout the show.

However, from a reasonably young age, they do understand all this pretty well and the schools are probably doing a good job at including this within the curriculum. Our two had something called social and moral studies as part of their general studies curriculum - this include elements on money and financial awareness.

I think sometimes, they just overlook the fact something costs ‘this much’ and parents would be better served spending that money on something important - like food - or wine! To them it’s just money, a thing you buy other things with......

You don’t even really see money much today, it’s just a blip on a card reader or swipe across a device using Apple Pay or something similar. When I was younger, it was a full scale journey to the bank to get money or you were handed a massive pile of copper coins which filled your pocket, or your Mum ‘cashing’ a cheque at the local shop - written out to simply ‘CASH’. Who was this ‘CASH’ person. As for cheques; writing on a bit of paper and handing it over to someone for something you wanted. Sounds more like an IOU in Monopoly!!!

I also don’t think us parents tell our kids enough; how much we earn and how much things cost to just ‘keep the lights on’. All the bills, insurances, food, clothes, fuel, transport, a holiday every now and then. That’s without the latest PlayStation or new iPhone.

I remember when the kids were young and we used to have a “guess the price” game just whilst eating dinner. If I recall, on one occasion, my daughter thought a pint of milk was £3 but a chicken only £2. “You don’t have to take the effort to milk the chicken, you just grow it and eat it”. I see the logic! That’s why anything prepared, like salads or grated cheese is more expensive, someone has to do something with it, which costs extra - clever.

They also laugh at how we adults use money on things. Take ebay for instance. I get why that’s strange as I seem to turn into some kind of penny pinching ninja. “How can I bid 50p less to try and win this...?” It seems really strange, your whole attitude changes. In normal circumstances you wouldn’t even bat an eyelid to paying 50p extra but get on ebay and it’s “no way, that’s definitely not worth that”. What!! How mad can I be? It’s no surprise money can confuse the kids... Why can money be ‘more valuable’ at different times and for different things??!!

So, this is my conclusion. Tell them; tell them about all the things we do with ‘money’ what it is, how it works, what we do with it and how we properly get it and keep it and use it - why it’s important.

Basically - money matters!