CPDJan 7 2021

How to teach your children 'saving is cool'

  • Explain why people are financially ill-prepared
  • Identify ways to help children understand money better
  • Identify ways to teach children about savings
  • Explain why people are financially ill-prepared
  • Identify ways to help children understand money better
  • Identify ways to teach children about savings
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How to teach your children 'saving is cool'
Photo: Asdii Wang via Pexels

Last year was not the best year for keeping New Year's resolutions. 

If anyone did manage to stay the course through Covid-19 and everything that lockdown brought with it, they perhaps deserve to be in the New Year's Honours List; the majority of us probably gave up the Couch to 5k and started on the Couch to 5th show on Netflix half way through the first lockdown.

But while there are of course virtues in making resolutions to read more, to get physically healthy and to learn new things, perhaps the one that many people neglect is to get their finances in good health.

Last year we saw alarming statistics from debt charities, high street banks and life and pension providers alike showing the rise in household debt.

For example, a study published in December by money.co.uk revealed  51 per cent of UK adults got into debt in 2020. The average amount of debt owed in the UK in 2020 is £9,246 per person.

However, more than one in 10 people said their new debt was caused by reduced income due to being put on furlough, according to money.co.uk's Coronavirus Debt Index.

And, with the increase in unemployment levels to 2.6m in the UK- nearly the 3m we saw in the 1980s - it is clear that something needs to be done about getting our finances in good working order. 

People who have enjoyed a decent income in recent years should have also enjoyed a decent level of savings - but research last year from MoneyFarm suggests 15 per cent of people in the UK have no savings at all, while one in three people have less than £1,500 put away. 

Go back to basics. Teach children what income, expenditure and debt are - these are the three key principles. -- Jason Green

The research showed more than 40 per cent of Britons do not have enough put away to support themselves for a month in the absence of income.

In December last year, Schroders Personal Wealth's Money and Mind report revealed people were seriously lacking when it comes to financial planning for the future. 

The report, produced in conjunction with Warwick Business School, used a scoring system for the financial health of individuals.

When it comes to financial planning and for protecting against the unexpected,the nation scored just 3 and for planning for the future it was only slightly higher at 5. 

Adults seem to be really bad at planning ahead, creating a budget and getting into good savings habits, and a lack of good financial education has often been cited as the reason for people's financial ill-preparedness.

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