There are some subjects that are pretty touchy for parents. Take school, for example. I’m learning this is oftentimes a deeply personal decision with very strong opinions held from every corner. That’s why when talking about a subject like that it’s important, I believe, in the church that we are not advocates for one specific methodology, but instead bear with one another in love and recognize the validity of what people choose for their own family.

The same thing is true about money. So with this post, I don’t mean to say that this is the only way, but merely to describe what seems to be working in principle for us at this point. It’s an important subject nonetheless, not only because as parents we are equipping our kids to live in the world, but because we are equipping them to not live of the world.

Learning about money in the right way is a skill that will help our kids walk that line. Of course, they won’t start to really learn everything there is to know about money until they are earning for themselves. It’s a bit like learning to drive – you only get the real experience when you have passed your test and you’re out on the road by yourself. And the same applies to money. Allow them to make an investment by looking into something like this Bobcat 300 Helium Miner for sale to start the process of crypto mining and earning some money back. Allow them to save or spend as they wish because some will tell you that this is the only real way to learn about money and its value.

So, without further ado, here are three principles we can use when it comes to teaching our kids about finances:

1. Let them earn it.

Some parents choose to give their kids a weekly or monthly amount of money without merit. The reason behind it for some is that it teaches their children about grace. That’s certainly valid, but it’s not the path we’ve chosen as a family. Instead, we have a weekly set of chores that typically get done on Sunday, and the kids get an allowance based on their doing of those chores after the chores have been inspected by an able-bodied parent.

For us, the reason behind earning the allowance is because we see it as an opportunity to try and emphasize the value of work, working hard, being proud of what you’ve accomplished, and also stewarding the resources we have. We try and say often that the reason we take care of our clothes, make our beds, keep the weeds pulled, and a lot of other things is not to make sure our house is neat (although the lovely Jana Kelley does indeed enjoy a neat house); it’s because all these things are resources God has given to us. And one of the ways we express our devotion to Him is by making those resources last. In addition, hard work is not antithetical to the gospel, but instead, is one of the gospel-driven implications of life. We work hard because when we are vacuuming a floor or unloading the dishwasher, we are still working unto the Lord.

2. Let them manage it.

Our kids each have a plastic set of three drawers in their bedrooms along with a piggy bank (or baseball bank, depending on the kiddo). The set of drawers is labeled with “give”, “need” and “spend”, while the piggy bank is labeled as “save.” Not super original, I know, and in fact you can find great resources about how to implement a philosophy like this from Dave Ramsey, Ron Blue, and others.

The top drawer is the give drawer, and for several years, we actually have made the kids recite the philosophy as they distribute their money into those drawers in a particular order. The script goes like this (you can imagine the eye-rolling at doing this every week):

“First I put money into give, because it’s the most important because everything belongs to God. Then I put money into save because I should never spend everything that I make at once, and I need to have money for big things and emergencies. Then comes need for things like socks and underwear. And then is spend. Spend is last because it’s the least important, but I can do what I want with it.”

We also frequently tell our kids that Mommy and Daddy do this same thing every single month, just on a larger scale. And of course it goes without saying that as adults, too, it can become difficult to navigate the financial waters. Especially when it comes to overspending or even investing, it’s so important for us to analyze every aspect of it with a keen eye.

As an example, we see so many people diving into cryptocurrency investments hoping to gain back big, but newer realms like these have to be understood properly before diving in; something as simple as reading up about the platform you wish to invest in (like for this swyftx review click here) can go a long way towards smart financial education. Ultimately, nobody wants to throw all their money away and get nothing back, right? That’s why it’s so important to research before. There are lots of platforms out there, so make sure to look into other people’s BitQT experiences (or BitQT Erfahrungen) to see what they thought about the platform. Hopefully, that will help your children to have lots of money in the future. Being able to handle money can sometimes feel like a lifelong learning. As for children, the principle of having them manage their money hopefully will last them well into adulthood.

3. Let them spend it.

This one is tough because kids want to buy stupid things. Really stupid things. Things that will break literally 7 seconds after they’ve paid for them. But as parents, we feel like we need to have the discipline to let our kids spend from their spend drawer. That’s not to say there aren’t limits to what they can do, but it is to say that the general principle is that you earned this money, you have managed it, and you are responsible to spend it. It’s a good opportunity to encourage them to start thinking about budgeting as their parents do and show them the ways in which they can make their money go further. One of the chief ways of doing this is scouting out sales, deals, coupons, discounts, promo codes, and whatever else to bag a bargain that leaves you with money to spare. Introducing them to this kind of thing will mean they will continue this habit through to adulthood when they’ll be savvy spenders who save money with the help of websites such as Raise.

Interestingly, this is also where the individual personalities of our kids come out. We’ve got one that’s a hoarder, squirreling away every dime and rarely spending anything. We’ve got one that’s a spender that’s got holes in the pockets every time they have money in the spend drawer. And we’ve got one somewhere in between. And for each of them, there is a different teaching opportunity.

For one, there is the opportunity to say that the Lord is not opposed to you enjoying responsibly what you’ve been given. For another, it’s an opportunity to say that not everything is worth spending money on, and you still need to exercise responsibility within the freedom you have.

All in all, though, this simple method has created great talking points for our home. And it’s also made us as parents even more accountable for the way we handle that which has been entrusted to us, be it money, or be it these three little lives.