Let the kids go nuts with cash
Use acorns to help your child become a Savvy Saver
A third of people in the UK have problem debts and more than 16 million of us have less than £100 in savings.
It is reckoned four million people are one month away from bankruptcy.
That is the shocking state of our finances – with millions of people living hand to mouth with no financial cushion to fall back on.
It would take just one financial stumble to cause disaster.
Money worries cause heartache and can devastate lives.
We also need to ensure that our children don’t end up struggling when they grow up. That’s why we have teamed up with Rob Gardner, children’s author and co-founder of Redington, the fourth largest pensions consultancy firm in the UK, to create a fun four-part series, Savvy Savers, to help parents teach children vital lessons about money.
This could be the best financial start you could give your children – the know-how to be smart with their cash and to be able to manage money throughout their lives. But at what age should you start? The answer is it’s a lot sooner than most people think. Children learn their money saving habits by the age of seven, so making a start before they start school makes lots of sense.
With millions of children currently facing a bleak financial future, Rob is passionate about making a difference, by lobbying government to put financial education on the primary school curriculum, and creating fun and engaging tools for parents and teachers to have conversations about the concepts of money early on.
He does this through his writing and his financial literacy charity RedSTART, which teaches school pupils about important money concepts with fun, interactive games.
Rob said: “By the end of primary school, children have already formed their understanding of saving and spending – a startling fact when financial education isn’t on the national curriculum and money pressures on young adults have grown in recent years.
“While the Government has a duty to educate our children, the biggest influence on their financial future starts at home. The lessons we teach our children will impact them for the rest of their lives.
“But with so many parents having never learned the important skills of planning, saving and growing their money themselves, it’s no wonder they feel more equipped to talk about the birds and the bees than they do about budgets.
“As a father of two young daughters, I believe every child has the potential for a secure future, with the right education. The key is to engage them in their own personal finances from a young age – and to make it fun.”
HOW DO I GET INVOLVED?
Our new Savvy Savers guide will give you everything you need to teach children the most important financial concepts – these are earning, saving and growing their own money.
Each week we’ll focus on a different money lesson, with interactive activities to try at home, plus additional resources online at mirror.co.uk/acorns.
WEEK ONE: BUDGET YOUR ACORNS
This week is all about teaching budgeting skills and thinking ahead – and that a bit of restraint can reap bigger rewards. Budgeting is one of the fundamentals of understanding money, something many adults still struggle with.
Getting children used to making small choices that will affect their present and their tomorrow, no matter how trivial it seems, teaches an important life skill that can be applied to their finances as they grow older.
HOW IT WORKS:
Create a play currency. You can download our cut-out-and-keep acorns at mirror.co.uk/acorns, or you could use playing cards, buttons or Monopoly money.
Give yourself and your child a ‘bank’ each – a glass jar would work well as you can both see how many acorns you have.
Together with your child, decide 10 treats that your child likes and create a ‘value’ for these. For example: An episode of Peppa Pig: one acorn. A sweet treat like chocolate: three acorns.
It’s important to explain the acorns
The lessons we teach children will impact the rest of their lives
system with your child and get them to buy into it. It’ll be fun and it will also put them in control of what they do with their money, and when.
Write the treats and values down together, then stick the list somewhere you can all see it. We have created a downloadable chart to help at mirror.co.uk/acorns.
At the start of the week, give them 20-30 acorns. It is up to your child how they spend them, but when they run out, they run out!
At first, your child will likely not think ahead and will want to spend their acorns frivolously. It’s OK if they get it wrong. We all do. Feeling the emotions of what it’s like to spend all your acorns in one go and not have any more for later in the week is part of the lesson.
It’s an opportunity for them to really think about what they want – how many episodes or treats is enough for the day? This teaches budgeting and how they can make the best use of their acorns throughout the week.
Only by running out of acorns will they realise they need to think ahead, for example, “If I spend now, I might not have enough for tomorrow” – this is the key for budgeting skills.
Throughout the week, ask your child questions about their experience of using the acorn currency, and why you are playing this new game at home, to ensure they understand. We’ve created a sheet of questions you can use as an example, and sheets at mirror.co.uk/acorns. Rob says: “Any child can pick up the basics. The response to my money lessons book for four to sixyear-olds, Save Your Acorns, has shown that a small change can make a big difference. “That’s why I’ve partnered with Tricia Phillips at the Daily Mirror and we have created this easy to follow and family fun series that will help teach children three key concepts about money – how to earn it, how to save it and how to grow it.”