Teach Children to Be Smart Spenders

Do your children, nieces, nephews, grands, and other little ones, expect to get what they want every time they go to the store? Do they give you the sad eyes and pouty face and you end up giving in? Well, that’s not healthy, so today we’ll look at teaching children to be smart spenders.

This article is based on an assumption that your children have their own money- perhaps from allowance, birthdays, Christmas, work, etc.  Even if they have their own money, smart spending is still something you want to teach them. 

A Familiar Story

It’s not about being stingy, selfish, and miserly. Picture Ebenezer Scrooge, tightly clinching his purse and straining to pull out a coin to pay Bob Cratchit his wages. It sickened old Scrooge to let that coin go and it sickened us to watch his utter stinginess. Nothing about Scrooges behavior was healthy or biblical. But smart spending is simply about being thrifty, economical, and careful.

Lessons Learned Late

Recently, I asked someone what was one of the main lessons he was learning through his financial improvement journey. He said, he wished he had learned to be more frugal- to be more conscientious when it came to spending money. I haven’t heard too many people say that. A lot of people- and I’m included in that bunch- say, they wish they had learned the importance of saving. What I didn’t see initially was, learning to save meant learning to be frugal; learning to be a smart spender. It’s learning to exercise restraint and not spending up everything you get.

Being a smart spender (frugal) is a principal that the Word of God talks about, even if it doesn’t necessarily use those words. It says, There is precious treasure and oil in the house of the wise [who prepare for the future], But a short-sighted and foolish man swallows it up and wastes it (Proverbs 21:20).

So, teach children to be smart spenders. I wish I had learned this when I was young and therefore encourage you to impress it upon your children. You will still get sad eyes and the pouty face. You might even get crying and a full out tantrum. But, be consistent and they will get used to it. Prayerfully they will learn to exercise restraint; and not to feel like they have to have everything they want just because you can get it or they can get it.

That “I want it now” mentality many times gets worse as time goes on and leads to high debt and credit usage in adulthood. Adults who haven’t learned to develop a healthy relationship with money, haven’t learned to ask the right questions, and haven’t learned health tactics to employ end up broke. It has nothing to do with being stingy, selfish, or miserly, and everything to do with being godly stewards and smart spenders. 

Teach Them to Ask Questions like:

  • “Is it worth it? “
  • “Do I need this now?”
  • ‘Why am I really getting this?”
  • “Is there something better I can (or want to) use this money for?”

Teach Them to Use Tactics Like:

  • Spend only the cash on hand or reserved for incidental spending.
  • If it’s under a certain amount (for example, under $5), then get it now; if it’s more than that, wait a day.
  • If it’s pricey, allow a week to think about it. Sometimes the desire will lessen over time.
  • Think about how God might feel about that purchase.

Conclusion

Teaching smart spending habits is going to take time, just like any other important topic. You’ll have to live it out yourself and also look for opportunities to talk about it and reinforce it in everyday life. This is what Deuteronomy 6:7 is about. The Amplified bibles says it this way, You shall teach them [godly precepts] diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. Just make it part of your every day lives.