Children

Wise Monkey Financial Coaching

What are we giving our children at Christmas?

What are we giving our children at Christmas?

I was chatting to my hairdresser the other day, having the conversation we’re all having at this time of year: “You all set for Christmas? Done your shopping yet?” She said she was all ready, excited for her young children aged 7 and 10, and revealed that her budget was £600 per child.

I left the hairdresser contemplating this, and the wider implications of that kind of spend. It set me thinking about what we’re actually giving our children at Christmas. Every parcel under the Christmas tree is wrapped not just in sparkly paper and ribbons, but in many layers of belief and attitudes and values. While the actual presents may soon be forgotten, these extra layers often stay with people for their whole lives – affecting how they deal with money, love and giving in adulthood.

It's these beliefs and attitudes...

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What’s your attitude to money teaching your kids?

What’s your attitude to money teaching your kids?

If you want your kids to grow up with a healthy attitude to money, the first place to start is to look at your own habits and behaviour with money.

Our beliefs around money - both conscious and unconscious - are mostly informed by what we learn, experience and observe as we grow up. So how you deal with money will undoubtedly influence how your children manage their money as adults. 

I’ve recently been working with a client, Sophie, on her money story and looking at how this feeds into her existing relationship with money. We explored her early experiences with money and began to gain insight into previously unconscious beliefs that had been getting in the way of the results she wants to achieve. Through this work, she slowly began to see how she'd been reinforcing old beliefs through some of the decisions and actions she'd taken. 

As a child, Sophie's parents had gone from running a successful family business, with trappings of wealth, to being declared bankrupt. The family had to move out of the house they owned into rented accommodation. She was able to stay at the school she’d always attended but became increasingly aware of her different financial status compared to her peers.

She recalled one time the embarrassment of having to tell her teacher she wasn’t able to afford a school excursion. And another being ridiculed by other pupils for wearing her summer shoes for school in winter months. 

Sophie's money story was one of scarcity and now, in adulthood, she found herself giving her children, aged six and nine, conflicting messages about money.

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Pay more into your pension to save your child benefit

Pay more into your pension to save your child benefit

The government’s just announced that parents who are higher rate tax payers (currently those earning more than £43,875 a year) will have their child benefit axed from 2013. The benefit will be stopped even if only one parent falls into that tax bracket. This will affect families with only one parent working the most. Hmm… I can see this affecting lots of women.

But… wait for it, there’s some good news.

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Fun money tools designed for kids (but great for adults too!)

Fun money tools designed for kids (but great for adults too!)

While we’re in back to school mode and thinking about financial education how would you like your kids to teach you about the stockmarket?

Or to see them getting enthused by the idea of building wealth when they get older?

Well, thanks to an episode of Radio 4’s Moneybox, I came across this fantastic site where kids can play at trading the stockmarket via a fantasy stock market game . It’s run through an organisation called OINK! – a business newspaper for kids aged 7 to 12 teaching money matters to kids in a fun, off the wall, way.

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