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This
article is actually an interview with Janet Bodnar, deputy editor of
Kiplinger’s Personal Finance magazine and author of Raising Money
Smart Kids. To start off, Scouting asks her to set the stage for why a
sound money management foundation is important to parenting and raising
children.
Bodnar: So that someday they can function independently. You want to
teach them that money is a useful tool, that it can be used for
practical things. But you don’t want them to get too emotionally tied up
with it, or be afraid of it, or hoard it, or covet it, or overspend. You
just want them to have a healthy attitude toward money.
Key points:
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Different values may be important to different families; educate
yourself so that you can impart those values accordingly.
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Think “age appropriate.” Young children may think an ATM prints money
for the taking, as opposed to the concept you’ll need to teach them
about the need to fill it up first, like a piggy bank.
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Allowances should not be linked to chores.
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How do you answer the question of an outside job during the school year?
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Should you give “advances” on allowances?
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Regardless of the financial system you choose to work with your child to
create, it is important that that system not be too complicated or
difficult to manage.
Bodnar emphases that “You don’t have to share the details of your personal
finances with your kids,” which is often a particular struggle for parents
coming out of divorce.
Bold, underline, and put an exclamation point after this if you feel
inclined to share any financial information you may know or think you know
about your former spouse.
Do
not discuss child support or alimony with your children.
—posted by Dell Deaton @9:57 AM EST 10/14/2008
OS 2531.80
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