One of the most important tools that we can give our children is the power and knowledge of money management. Skipping this important skill is depriving them of something that will inevitably lead to success in their adult years. Kids are fascinated with money and why not give them their own Kids Budget Binder?
When is the best time to start talking to your kids about money? Now, today! There’s no time like the present. If we don’t teach them how to handle money, save and contribute to society, who will? Schools no longer universally teach this any longer so as parents, we must jump in with both feet and get started.
This binder works great for ages eight and up.
💰 Why This Works
Kids Love Money and Love to Learn – Kids love it when you talk to them about something they are already fascinated with. Using a binder like this helps them see what you are doing for the family’s finances as well. It’s not all “Buy! Buy! Buy!” and it’s a great educational tool to show them the behind the scenes.
Hands-On Experience – This is truly a hands on approach to helping them deal with their own money, whether it is from allowance or from doing odd jobs, babysitting or earning a paycheck from their first job at the grocery store. We owe it to our kids to give them all the tools they need to successfully manage their money.
Useful for Many Ages – Start using this for the 3rd grade eight year olds or even as a newly minted middle schooler. I made this binder to help a wide range of ages. They key to success is to practice, practice, practice.
📝 How to Use
Step One: Start off by printing off the entire binder and putting everything together in a binder for them to set up.
Step Two: Start with having them have the budget binder out all the time so they don’t forget to log in their money transactions.
Step Three: Sit with them each week and go over the binder with them. Take the time to talk to them about how it is going, is it hard, does it work? They can’t figure this out on their own so guide them through the process.
Share, Save, and Spend Guide
The first column on the left is the SHARE column where they will record how much money they put into the SHARE account (deposit) and how much money they withdraw from the account (withdrawal). This helps them start tracking how much they are going to donate to charities or churches.
Help them learn the three ways to use money and how they should balance their priorities. Sharing, Saving, and Spending will be key concepts that they need to learn for the rest of their lives.
Spending Goal Worksheet
At the top of the printable, your kids will put the dollar amount they are setting as a goal for their spending.
For example, let’s assume that they only want to spend $10 this week. The second section is for them to explain why (what is the reasoning behind their goal) so they can be reminded of why they are only spending $10 this week. It will help them recalibrate when they are tempted to spend just a little bit more.
The bottom section has them write out what they need to say “no” to this week to keep the spending at the goal at the top of the sheet. This could be no to Starbucks, no to candy, no to going to the movies. They will decide (with your coaching) and then work towards that goal.
Make sure you review it with your child after a week and talk about it. What worked well? What didn’t? How did they handle adversity? Were they able to achieve their spending goal? Was it worth their sacrifices?
These are questions we tackle every day as adults, and to give your child a jump-start on it is a fantastic gift you can help them with.
Spend Rules Page
Have them set up their own spending rules for needs and wants. This is a great time to have them start working on needs vs wants and what it feels like to have that money come out of their own cash rather than mom’s pocketbook.
Needs are things like food, or clothes that they are responsible for providing.
Wants are just about everything else. Candy bars, movie tickets, lipstick, a comic book, etc. You get the idea. You’d be surprised how many young folks need some help in determining what is REALLY a need vs a want.
‘Saving For’ Worksheet
This is one of my favorite ones for kids, teaching them to write down and track what they are saving their money towards. Kids’ brains are so busy that they often forget that they are working towards a new lego set or tickets to a show. Tracking progress helps them see the dedication they need to work towards a financial goal.
We have the same problem as adults, right? We know we should be saving, but sometimes we lose focus on the purpose. It’s always good to keep this on hand as a refresher on your goals.
Goal Sheet
They can use this one to write on each line what their goals are and how much they need to complete those goals. This is a bigger picture and after longer thoughts, they will often cross things out that no matter mean anything to them. But what is more important is that kids are learning to set financial goals and watching their progress towards that.
Notes Page
We all love having goal sheets to work off of but adding in a general notes section is great for brain dumps, thoughts, questions or ideas on their budgeting. You can use this as a weekly round up of how it went and where the kids need to go in the future.
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Download Binder
All you need to do now is to download it, print off the sheets and place everything in a three-ring binder. Now it is up to you and your child to start working on their very own kids’ budget.
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