Teach Good Money Habits to Your Kids: Age 6 - 9

As children enter school and begin to have more friends their own age, they will typically want to buy more items. Combine that with the influence of TV commericials and peer pressure and it is time to give them their own allowance if you haven't already done so. A general rule of thumb is to give the child $1 per week for each year they are old. For example, a six year old would recieve $6 per week while a nine year old would receive $9 per week. Adjust the amount to your budget and your child's needs.

Just like in the adult real world where you can get charged money for disobeying the laws (speeding tickets, etc.), pick one item to charge your kid for within the house to teach this concept. Base your fine on how much the child has and what behaviors you want to reinforce. Typically, the fine should be around 25 cents though. Some ideas of behaviors that this will work well with include: turning off the lights when you leave a room, not swearing, picking up dirty clothes, and keeping their room tidy. Every time you see them not following the rule, you can fine them the set amount (the money should come out of their allowance money).

Take them along with you on your grocery shopping trips and have them help watch prices on different items. If you make a game out of it, it will be fun for them and keep them from getting bored while shopping too. Give them a small list of items and a $20 bill. Ask them to look at the prices on the items before putting them in the cart and to make sure that everything is less than $20 on their list.

While you will still need to be the primary account holder, you can add their name to a savings account and let them start saving money in it. Help them save by putting the first $50 into the account for them (or whatever the minimum amount is). Then, give them an incentive to save more money by either matching whatever they add to the account or rewarding them in some other way for saving money.