(Akiit.com) It’s important to teach your kids how to manage money from a young age, otherwise, they’ll be coming to you every month asking to borrow some when they get older. If you don’t start young, they’ll get into bad habits and it’ll be too late. Until they start teaching it at school, it’s down to you. Sitting them down and telling them that it’s important to be responsible with their money so they can afford to pay all of their bills isn’t going to work. They’ll switch off about five seconds in and it’ll all go straight over their head. Instead, you’ve got to introduce money to them gradually and put them in situations where they learn how to manage it. If you’re worried about your kids financial skills, here are a couple of ways you can teach them fiscal responsibility.
Buy Them Small Investments
The reason that kids struggle with managing money is that they don’t understand the concept of waiting for it to grow. They 
understand that they can have something nice if they spend it right now, but they don’t realize they can have more nice things if they invest that money and watch it grow. You can teach that to them by getting them small investments and helping them to manage it. You can buy silver coins or other precious metals for them and teach them where they can find information on prices. They’ll get excited when they see prices rising, and when prices drop, it’ll teach them how easy it is to lose money. It shows them the importance of investing your money wisely instead of just spending it right away.
Give Them Cash
Whether you should give your kids an allowance or not is a burning question for a lot of parents. Some think that they’re too young to be dealing with money and it will make them feel entitled to handouts. But there is a big upside to giving them some spending money as long as you don’t go overboard. The first few times you give them that money, they’ll probably spend it all right away. Later in the week, they’ll see something they want to buy and they’ll realize that they have to wait. After a few weeks of this, they’ll start to understand that they need to make their money last throughout the week. This is going to carry over into adulthood when they’re trying to stretch their salary out over the month.
Get Help With The Bills
Kids don’t usually realize just how much money you’re spending on all of the bills so they don’t understand the value of money. Next time you sit down to pay all the bills, get the kids to come and help you. Show them just how much it’s all going to cost and let them know how much you earn. They’ll probably be shocked at the percentage of your money that goes on paying for all of their food and heating the house. Parents are sometimes wary about talking to their kids about money because they don’t want to worry them, but it’s a good idea.
Teaching your kids financial responsibility from a young age is vital if you want them to be self-sufficient when they’re older.
Staff Writer; Jerry Parker