Last night was the weekly UK Money Bloggers Twitter chat which was all about financial education. It was a really interesting discussion and I was overwhelmed by the number of people who joined in to share their thoughts.
Financial education for our children is clearly an emotive subject as so many of you shared your thoughts with us and although you’ll be able to read a full write up on the UK Money Bloggers site in the next day or so, I wanted to share with you today what my thoughts were on each of the questions….
Q1 Financial Education is part of the curriculum now but are we doing enough to educate our children about money? #MondayMoneyUK
I personally don’t think schools are doing enough to teach our children about money and there are a lot of areas that could be improved in my opinion. Even small changes to the curriculum and the way it’s taught could make huge difference!
Things like food technology in secondary school could be improved by teaching kids about the basics of meal planning and what they can cook with the most basic of ingredients. I feel like every week I’m having to go buy foods that I wouldn’t normally buy for their cookery classes at school. Last week I had to buy five different types of ‘unusual’ fruit for Miss Frugal’s class who were making an exotic fruit salad, not only did this cost a small fortune but it also did nothing to prepare her for cooking in the real world!
Q2 As parents, what can we do to help our children to prepare children for when they’ll need to manage their own money? #MondayMoneyUK
Even if schools did teach a full financial education curriculum, I’d still feel like it was my responsibility to teach them as much as I can at home. I’m finding that the best way to do this is at my children’s ages is to give them some control – they both get pocketmoney and we involve them in family decisions about money (to a certain degree).
Q3 What do you think the right age for children to have a debit card of their own is & how do you encourage responsible use? #MondayMoneyUK
My two have had GoHenry debit cards for a few years now. I chose the GoHenry cards over a bank account because of the control I have using the parents app. I can see when and where money is being spent and get a notification on my phone every time the card is used. They have the child’s version of the app which is really good for helping them budget and save. The best thing is that I can top up and the money is instantly available for them to spend which is great when Miss Frugal is shopping and sees something she knows I’ll like. 😉
Encouraging responsible use is a difficult one as there’s no point me dictating what can and can’t be bought because that’s not teaching them to think for themselves. What I do is make sure that their pocketmoney is paid on a set day every month and once it’s gone, it’s gone. Once they realised that I wasn’t going to give them little top ups through the month they soon started to be more careful.
Q4 Should we encourage older children to earn their own money with a part time job or should they focus on their education? #MondayMoneyUK
Personally, I think they should be concentrating on their education although I can see the benefits of them having a job. I had one myself as soon as I started college and loved the feeling of independence but looking back, it definitely took time away from my education and I don’t want that for my children.
Q5 If you could teach your child one thing about managing their money, what would it be ? #MondayMoneyUK
My big thing is teaching the kids to cook and to help me to meal plan because that saves money every week but after reading everyone else’s ideas last night, I know there’s so much I can do to help my two learn all they need to know to help them become financially savvy when they leave home.
Thanks again to all those who joined in last night.
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