Involve your kids too in money, family finances

In India, discussing money is a sensitive topic and that too before kids. It’s not surprising that most of the parents avoid talking about it. But the times are changing therefore, children also need to understand from beginning the understanding of money and family finances.

For most of us, this may sound a bit impractical, but the idea is to teach kids about money to let them deal with money smartly when they grow into teenagers-- the transition phase of their life when they are prone to be influenced by outworld impressions.

Therefore, the question arises when to involve them. The right time generally is when they go beyond fifth standard. This is the time they are charmed by gadgets, branded clothes and other fashion items and start discussing these things in their age group. Parents need to understand their sensitivity and act at this juncture to inculcate in them good habits along with knowing the value for money.

This is not an easy task as most of us believe in merely fulfilling wish of their kids what they had failed to have in their childhood. When the world is turning into a global village, the erstwhile mentality needs to be changed. But the moot point is how to make your child financially literate.

Generally, parents believe that concept of piggy banks and talks of early savings are enough for this grooming, but they now need to go beyond as kids are turning out to be smarter in this age of gadgets and digitisation.

Nowadays, schools too touch upon economics or basic finance courses, but home and parents still fare better in financial literacy of kids.

It simply means to make them understand about:
- How to manage income, expenses and savings
- How to plan their pocket i.e. budget
- How to manage assets, which can be termed a real financial planning
- How to cope with risk, and need to have insurance 
- How to make investments for better utilisation of money 

These are a few tips, which if parents can follow, will certainly bear fruit and they can see their kids handling situations smartly while growing up. 

But at the same time, kids should also be given worldly advices like: 
-Goals and priorities in life
-Understanding the values about money
-And the virtues of hard work

One cannot say that these are the final words, as parents on their own can devise variegated interactive ways to groom their kids with financial literacy to make them a practical or better worldly creature.