Topic: How to teach a child to save? - page 2. (Read 381 times)

₁LOL, but the OP is not wrong, though; all he wants is the best future for his cousin. After all, you said it all: one of the best lessons to teach a child is how to save, so that when they grow up, it will help them manage their financial life more effectively. The OP is just seeking people's opinions here, and probably he will act based on the advice he gets from the random comments he gets on this topic.

₂About that, and like I said above, OP will act based on the opinion he chooses here, and you are not wrong in advising that he should start by consulting the child's parents first. I completely agree with that opinion of yours. @OP, since he's not your child, if you try to take my first advice without consulting his parents, if they get to find out, they may really not be happy with you, if not for anything, but for not letting them know first.

₃You are absolutely correct 💯, mate. The Bible says, "Train up a child in a way that when they are old they will not depart from the part you have taught them." So, if they learn good lessons in their childhood, when they grow up, they will make use of those lessons and probably excel with them if it's so beneficial.

Children mean children. They don't know about economic literacy. They will learn it over time. They need a free childhood life.

It's good that he is not your child at least, if you feel like you are in a position to guide him right then go challenge his parent, coming on here to talk about this wont change anything, and if the parent are the mean type they will take a bite on your body with harsh words like, what's your business?

Anyways, I have seen people taking peoples problem too serious, like it's their own, do not be like this, instead, find a way to talk to the parent in a manner that won't get on their nerves, hope you get that?

The best lesson to give a child at a very young age is how to save money, there are mamy saving boxes in my family for the little ones and they make use of it when they have anything to want for themselves, though sometimes when kids are spending money on food or snacks that doesn't mean they will grow to be foodie and not learn anything else.

It will get to a point where they will learn and grow up, society of today isn't even allowing this, kids grow up faster in today's world, sometime, you will hear kids saying I'm a fully grown up  .

The problem here is not the child; if there is actually a problem, the parent is okay with it. You see it as a problem and a waste of resources, but the parent who is giving the child $100 for a weekly allowance sees it as giving their child the best in order for them not to lack a thing, to be very comfortable, to enjoy their childhood, and not to feel uncomfortable among their playmates. That amount of money is considered huge depending on your income, and it's also considered small depending on what you earn.
How to Save You said, "How can you teach someone who was brought up to always grab and have what they need, when they need it?" That they actually don't need those things at that time, and you trying to teach the child how to be economically at that stage might feel like you are trying to force the child to forget his home brought up.

Left to me alone, it's really unwise and useless to even attempt that. You, as the nephew, for whom I believe the child gives you a lot of respect, can only try to advise the child to limit its spending, but let me ask you, what will you tell the child to be doing with the money he should be saving from his or her weekly allowance, knowing that the parent has enough to foot all his bills and a child of that age has little to worry about other than eating food, playing video games, and having fun? The more the child grows up, the more he will make up his mind and limit himself to things that he will actually spend money on without anyone telling him about them, because he will realize that those things are actually unnecessary and then try to put an end to them.

Teaching kids about money is one of the most best educational foundation that parents can provide. It is good to teach our child  to save money since childhood, as we all know what parents teach their child it's wil give good result at last. So, we should make their habits not to spend much money and one of the greatest gift you can give to their child is to prepared  them to be responsible, empowered adults around money.

Just as Jawhead999 has said, since he's just your cousin, I think it will be a bit difficult, mostly if you are not the one taking care of the child. If the parents decide to give the child $100 per week, that's because they want him to spend it on anything he needs. Although you can teach him how to save by first teaching him a bit of theory about how to save and how important it is to save, For example, you can tell him that if he develops the habit of saving, it will help him get things for himself any time his parents don't send him weekly pocket money. After trying to convince him with the idea of saving, you can let him practicalize it by creating a safe for him with the house in the old-school way. It could be an empty cane with a cover, and you will ask him to save at least $20 every week from the $100 he gets. I think that will help.

I don’t know why you are complaining about the child spending anyhow, you are not his parents, and I don’t think his parents are complaining about how the boy is spending, if it’s affecting them in anyway they will have cut down the amount they are giving him. When I was young I also spent money anyhow, but now i know what life is really all about. It’s better if you can just leave the boy, when it’s time he will start saving, I don’t think their is anything you will tell the boy that he will listen, he is still a kid But let me ask you, what do you even want the boy to be saving for?

Teaching children to save is very difficult because they do not understand how difficult it is to earn money, so no matter how much advice they give, they will never understand. The best way is to give them experience, if they ask for money, then provide them with a job, and only when they complete the job will they get the money. That way, they'll know how hard it is to make money and appreciate it more than just sitting around explaining it to them. I always use this method with my children.

Piggy bank is good but the child has no idea about it and also not given an orientation of savings how do you think the child will adhere to store his weekly stipends into savings box or piggy bank.

For a baby of 8 years mate, I don't still see any reason they should give $100 no matter the country of the residents if is $10 or $20 maybe even $50 there's no problems with that talk less of $100, such amount can be given to someone above 10 years to 16 years then is fine but for a baby of 8 years menh I don't encourage that.

I have to laugh when I read your story , 8 years old is a very, very young age and still has to be called a child, which means he still doesn't know anything about where to get money or regular income in his life. So don't blame him when he starts spending as much as $10 a day just to buy ice cream because it was born from his own desire that he still can't think about making money.

Apart from that, you also don't need to spend more time teaching your nephew about economic literacy because he won't understand it so the time you spend on it will also be wasted even though you need to limit it in a number of bad ways so as not to make him accustomed to doing things that are not good, but you don't need to limit him to eating food, including consuming ice cream even though it tastes bad and he doesn't eat it all the way.

There is not a bad book on finance for children "A Dog called Money" by Bodo Schäfer. I'd say that it talks to kids simply about complicated things. You can read it with your nephew and then you can play with virtual investing with him, showing how it works. Children learn through games so main thing is to find proper financial game and while playing to explain how finance work. If you can show it with game example your nephew probably can learn it better than just with explanations.

A good measure is to buy them a piggy bank, as well as explaining to them the importance of saving. Although I don't see much of a future for piggy banks due to the trend towards digitalisation of payments, but the child uses cash, so it could be useful for him.


It is not an abuse. You don't know where the child lives or the financial situation of the parents. The OP speaks in $, so if they live in the US, maybe their parents' household income is $100,000 or more, so it is not unusual in their environment for children to be given similar amounts. This would also explain why children do not worry about saving if they live in an environment of abundance.

It all depends on the parents, the parents are willing to give their child money because they had enough to be giving their child at all cost. You as the uncle or relatives you can encourage them to be saving or reduces their expenditures at all cost because if they got used or addicted to it it became another case and might possibly leads to criminal practice whereby may keep stealing his parents money without their concepts.

From my country conversion rate that is about 74,400 Naira and is much to give for a 8 years old baby. It's an abuse of money and also teaching the baby how to live a wasteful life because by the time the baby may have come of age, $1k can't even take good care of him or her for the week which is not encouraging at all. But nevertheless, if the parents are willing to keep doing that I will suggest you should stay away from the baby otherwise you are inviting problems to yourself.

It's very funny, but I have the same nieces) the children are used to technology and there is nothing to deny themselves, it's impossible to teach and retrain, only over time they will understand when they start working themselves.

There is this practice we used during childhood and it works greatly to cut down our spending,  it is called a saving box,  this can come in any size depending on how much you want to stock in there in cash,  it comes in different makes and designs some are made with steel and ions with a code lock and a space to slide into it the cash while the code will remain unknown until it reaches the time to open the box.

The adult that the kid trusts will have the code to the box and will only open it when the agreed time is reached,

It's your nephew, not your child and his parents willing to give $100 to his child, it's none of your business

If you have a child, I feel bad with him because he can't enjoy what he want. It's really normal for a child to spend money without think about it since 8 years old kid still not have to learn about saving. Let him enjoy and use his money, maybe when he's already reach 12 years old, you can teach about good and bad things.

 My 8-year-old nephew spends a lot of pocket money, spends irrationally, for example, the other day he bought ice cream that cost $ 10, moreover, I told him that perhaps the taste was not the same for the beautiful packaging, which he spat on and bought, as a result I finished eating. They give him 100 dollars for a week, and of course he does not know where the money comes from and how, he has already gotten used to living from childhood spending on nonsense. How to teach children economic literacy?