Tips to get your kids involved in the family budget

One resolution many families will try keep in 2021 is staying on top of the family budget. While many uncertainties still abound amid the COVID-19 pandemic, keeping your finances in line are more important than ever. While your thinking about the family budget for the next year, it could also be a perfect time to get your kids involved in budgeting and teaching them about finances.

Here are a few ways to get your kids involved in the family budget in 2021, according to Yahoo Finance:

1. Teach the difference between a want and a need: Before you even begin to get your kids involved in finances or budgeting, it’s important to teach them the difference between something they want and something they need. Show kids how the family prioritizes spending on things like food, rent or mortgage, and healthcare before they buy toys.

2. Ditch the piggy bank for a clear jar: Saving money in a clear jar helps kids visualize actual money they’re saving and the value of the coins or dollars.

3. Help kids save toward a goal: Consider setting a spending goal: something your child wants but will need to save money to acquire.

4. Teach them about opportunity cost: Kids need to learn that money is not infinite and that spending it on one thing means it is no longer available to spend on another.

5. Clip coupons together: While clipping a few coupons may not save your family a ton of money, it engages kids to know what things actually cost and can even serve as a math problem in asking them to figure out how much money you’ll save.