saving money at an early age

東吳大學教學資源中心 學生學習資源組

Saving Money at an Early Age Eric Gau

Nowadays, many parents strive to give their kids every luxury their hearts could ever desire. Gifts and presents that the parents never had as children are given with a free hand to their kids. While generous and done with the child's benefit and happiness in mind, this inevitably leads to children who always get what they want and do not understand the value of things. Later, as they grow up, they have a sense of entitlement, that they deserve things without having to work for them. They become spoiled. This is why all children should be encouraged to begin saving from an early age, to prevent this kind of behavior. Most children receive some form of allowance, a monthly or weekly sum of money given for doing household chores around the house, or sometimes simply for being good, or even occasionally given automatically, whether the child was good or not. As soon as the first allowance is given, parents should begin teaching their children about the benefits of saving. Instead of buying everything that the kids want for them, the children should be taught to save their allowances, slowly building up enough money to buy what they want for themselves. This will both prevent parents from spoiling their children with openhanded generosity and give the children a sense of accomplishment. They bought what they wanted for themselves, using money they saved. Over time, this understanding of delayed gratification, putting off the pleasures of the present (not buying that piece of candy that is tempting them in the store) to get greater pleasure in the future (buying that new toy that costs much more, but something that will last much longer), will become more useful as they have to balance schoolwork...