Tag Archives: money

Money Lessons For Your Children

Money habits can be instilled in children at a very young age. These habits turn into core behaviors that shape the way your child will handle money throughout their life. For this reason, it’s crucial to start teaching a few of these money lessons to your kiddos earlier rather than later.

Work With Your Budget

If your child wants to buy a Barbie and her Dream House, you’ll have to work with your child to show them how a budget works. They may not have enough money to spend on both items. If they do, they shouldn’t spend it all and be left with no savings. Teaching them to keep some money in savings and budget correctly is a great lesson!

Don’t Spend It Right Away

Once a kid gets a few dollars, they instantly want to buy a candy bar with it. Teaching them to be patient and think before they act will make them super savers and allow them to grow in other aspects of life as well.

Create a Wish List

Encourage your child to make a wish list of everything they want. Over time, they’ll get more excited to save in order to buy the items they’ve been working towards.

Let Your Child Make Decisions

Give your child a couple dollars at the grocery store and have them pick out which fruit they’d like for the week. You could also let them tap into their own funds and choose something to buy on their own. Allowing them to see they have control over their money and the power to spend it will teach them the value of the dollar.

Work Is Rewarding

Give your child an allowance for chores they do around the house. Showing them that hard work pays off will allow them to gain a strong work ethic.

Money Is Not Everything

There are many people out there who get caught up in the value of money. While teaching financial lessons to your child, it’s important to remind them to stay humble, as money doesn’t mean everything.

Teach a Choice

There are four choices when it comes to your money: spend, save, donate and invest. Explain these terms to your child and allow them to choose what percentage of their allowance goes to each of the four choices.

Raising your baby with fantastic financial finesse will allow them to go far as they age. Work with your child to implement a few of these lessons, so they can be on the fast track to saving success!

6 Money Themed Activities for Preschoolers

Is four years old too early to be learning money management? We don’t believe so! There are many American adults who still struggle with understanding their own finances and keeping a budget. By starting their education early on, you will build their confidence and familiarity with money in order to build a stable foundation for the future. The question is, how do you make it engaging for preschoolers? Here are our 6 favorite money themed activities for your youngsters!

Learning About Coins: Time to Sort

To begin teaching little ones about money management, it’s important for them to learn the money itself! A great place to start is to build their familiarity with coins. Grab a muffin tin and ten nickels, dimes, quarters and pennies. Challenge your preschooler to sort each of the coins and teach them the names. You could teach them how to make a pattern in each tin. For an additional challenge, you can label each muffin space with a value where the student can match to each coin’s value. Show them that ten pennies have the same value as a dime and so on.

Playing Store

Use the materials you already have around such as play food or simple toys. Label each item with a price tag of five, ten, fifteen or twenty-five cents. Play pretend by giving each student a certain amount of change and teaching them that items always have a value that is exchanged for money. This can help them with counting and remembering the worth of coins.

Clip Coupons

Sure, you might take the more tech-savvy approach when it comes to coupons, but the old-fashioned practice of clipping coupons is a fun hands-on way to teach youngsters the worth of items. Once you have the coupons of interest, take them to the store with you and make a game out of finding the items. This is a helpful way to teach them about the importance of saving money.

DIY Piggy Bank

Every child should have a piggy bank! Whether it’s a simply decorated jar or a paper mache pig, it is a smart way to teach them about saving early!

The Allowance Game

If you want to teach children that in order to get money, they need to work for it, there is no better time to start an allowance. For a preschooler, you can have them do simple tasks around the house. They can “purchase” items from your own DIY store in the home. You can purchase candy or small toys that the child can exchange their earnings for. Let them know the value of each item and clearly explain what they would need to do in order to earn this.

The Dollar Dance

To teach preschoolers about bills, grab some ones, fives, tens and twenties. Throw them in a hat and draw one at random. Whatever value you draw, have the child do something X many times. For example, if you drew a $5 bill, you could have them spin in a circle five times. This will help them to become familiar with the value of each bill and where it is located.

These are all good ways to start teaching today’s youth not only about money but how to manage it well. Starting young will give them the confidence they need to be successful with their purchase and investment decisions in the future. Open a savings account for your little one today to teach them more about money!

Money Advice Gone Wrong

gonewrong

Sometimes the best intentions can lend themselves to producing the worst results. While many friends and family members may offer quick solutions to your financial anguish, often times, the best education, is understanding those lessons first hand. At Iowa State Bank we’d like to showcase several of the most common pieces of advice we hear, and what you can do to remedy these particular miscommunications.

Bad Advice #1: You have to go to college to get a decent job.

While a college degree does open additional doors, it is not required for many well-paying jobs available around the nation. Social figures like Mike Rowe, have made it their personal mission to spread the message that you can earn a living without having to sink into debt. Whether you’re interested in IT, manufacturing, grocery management, or other skilled work, you can find numerous positions through technical training or management programs, and avoid the majority of debt most four year college students incur.

Bad Advice #2: Having debt is okay if you pay your minimum payments.

While it is important to make installments on your loans or debts, eliminating them all together should be the desired end goal. Did you know that when credit reporting companies review your credit score, there are five factors considered? The two most important factors are your payment history and your debt to income ratio. If your monthly debt payments require more than 43 percent of your income, that may raise a flag to any future potential lenders.

Bad Advice #3: To build your credit score you need to purchase everything on your credit card.

While it certainly helps to have a long and healthy track record associated with your credit card usage; having an on time payment history is far more important. This payment history represents the largest factor of your credit score, which the reporting bureaus track. By never spending more than you have, you can make certain you are able to pay your bill in full each and every month. This action may have the potential to help foster growth for your credit score.

Bad Advice #4: Retirement savings can wait.

Contrary to what many young adults think, right now is the most important time to start saving for retirement. While later in life you might have more disposable income to save, you’ll also have less time before you need those funds. Once compound interest enters any equation, time becomes the most valuable commodity for growing your wealth. For instance, if you saved the Roth IRA maximum of $5,500/year starting at age 25, you’d have $1.17 Million by the time you’re 65. Who wouldn’t want to capitalize on those kinds of savings?

We think you can tackle any piece of advice with a few grains of salt. If you’re curious what your next financial move should be, stop by Iowa State Bank and speak to one of our dedicated personal bankers. Our team of financial experts is here to help you and your family succeed; get started today!