Debt Is A Trap

We place so much focus on teaching our children the rights and wrongs of the world, no drugs, no drinking, stay in school but I see that we are missing teaching some basic principles and helping them build healthy financial habits. It should be our goal to bring a better life to the table for the generations to come, Right? I don’t think it is ever too late to begin to influence aspects of our children’s lives so consider this.

I have seen many different types of ways that children are either given money or earn it before they are able to obtain gainful employment. I feel strongly that a majority of today’s youth lack any sense of the value of money nor do they fully understand what it takes to obtain it. I feel, (myself included) that we are encouraging the next generation to enter into the same debt burdened, credit happy society. I did not teach my children to save like I wish that I had. Here is an example of a plan that one family did to begin to enlighten their children toward the value of money. Anytime one of the family members were gifted or earned money, the entire family celebrated the deposit of 10% of the amount into a savings account. It was a big deal to everyone in the family and all knew how much was being deposited toward their future.
The children were all able to purchase their first vehicle by paying cash for them. Mom and Dad did not tell them but when it came time to shop for a car and the amount that was planned for the purchase was matched. The new driver was then able to purchase twice the vehicle than was expected. The more the child was willing to commit to the purchase the nicer the vehicle. Now none of them ran out and bought a sports car, they had learned over time the value of money and made purchases that were sensible and economical.

The moral of the story is if we are teaching our youth to look out for their financial future, I would be that we too will increase our awareness of working to become debt free.