Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) November 28, 2013
The National Financial Educators Council (NFEC) provides practical tips for parents that are interested in teaching children about money while Black Friday shopping. To support parents, the NFEC’s latest innovation – SavingsFund – helps families save for their child’s future and provides a complimentary financial education.
Parents are busy and many forget to teach their children about money. The consequences of teaching personal finance lessons to our children before they leave home can be devastating. They can be seen daily in the media: bankruptcies, foreclosures and debt problems are just some of the problems associated with not having a financial education.
The National Financial Educators Council, a personal finance company, bankrolled the development of SavingsFund from their social enterprise business model. The 3 tips covered briefly below can be found on SavingsFund.com. They can be a fun activity to do with your children and the lessons can give them an advantage that can benefit them for years to come.
Before shopping on Black Friday, sit down with your kids and set a budget. List those items you wish to purchase. Decide upon the maximum amount you want to spend shopping and set a spending goal that will challenge you to find great deals. Take a moment to explain to your children that with each purchase that you will be making it limits other purchases you are able to make. This tip can improve your child’s financial capability while helping you stay within your shopping budget.
Leverage the time while you are shopping to teach your kids about the marketing messages surrounding them. From the moment our newborn is exposed to media outlets, they are inundated with advertiser’s messages to “buy, buy, buy”. As you shop and look at the different marketing messages, teach them to evaluate the advertising by asking ‘what are they trying to convince me of’, ‘who are they targeting’ and ‘what does this goal of this ad’. Following this tip can help your child evaluate advertisements logically, instead of emotionally, and may help them avoid purchasing things that they haven’t thought through.
During the checkout process offers another valuable opportunity to continue teaching financial literacy lessons with your children. If you are making a purchase with a debit or credit card, take a moment to explain the difference between the cards. This conversation can branch into how credit card companies make their money and the importance of keeping debt levels low.
These tips were meant to break the ice and help you to open up the lines of communication with your kids on the topic of money. Share simple strategies with our kids can motivate them to save money, build good credit, avoid debt, start investing young, and achieve a state of financial independence. The NFEC has a complimentary guide available to help you in your efforts – ‘Family Money Talks – Ten Talks You Must Have with Your Children’.
Providing our kids financial literacy lessons can help you feel an instant boost in confidence that you children are prepared for the financial real world. Leveraging Black Friday and other events gives us reminders that we need to teach kids about money. Longer lasting results of a financial literacy based conversations will be seen over time, as the recipients translate the lessons they learned into their daily lives.
The National Financial Educators Council is dedicated in teaching children about money. Their stated mission is to empower people with the financial literacy skills they need to live their own personal American Dream.