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Piggy Bank for Kids: Teach Your Kids the Art of Saving

How are you approaching the subject of money with your children? Do you give them allowances? Do you wish there was an easier way to teach your kids about spending and saving their money? 

If you do give an allowance, do you give it in fixed amounts on a regular basis? Or are the allowances based on jobs and chores around the house?

If your children receive money for their birthdays or holidays, are they saving it? Or are they spending it as soon as they can? 

Do extra coins go into a ceramic piggy bank for kids at home? Or do your kids have bank accounts set up in their names? Do they set goals and then save up for them? 

There are so many questions to ask, and with them come so many opportunities to teach your kids about money, how they can manage it, and what good spending and saving habits look like. 

Piggy Bank for Kids

A piggy bank for kids is an excellent thing to have when teaching your children the art of saving money because it gives them an easy way to save.

Tell your children that their goal is to fill the piggy bank up with coins and dollars, so there’s no room left inside the piggy bank.  

Inform them that the piggy bank for kids is designed for them to save their money and that as they continue to save their money, the amount of money inside the piggy bank will grow. 

Open A Bank Account

After the piggy bank for kids has been filled, take your kids to the bank to open a savings account for them. Let them count the money inside the piggy bank before it gets deposited into the account; this is, so they have a better understanding of the amount of money they’ve saved. 

After the money, every coin, has been deposited, show them the receipt with the final amount and inform them about the concept of interest. This can help teach them more about money management as well. 

Knowing about interest can be a great motivator for your children if they know that their money will continue to grow over time if they don’t touch it. 

Savings Jars

Saving Jars

If your children want a new toy, inform them that they need to save for it. To do this, give them a savings jar for every one of their wanted items and provide them with opportunities to make small allowances each week to encourage saving.

You can also make it more fun by allowing them to choose a more personalized piggy bank for saving pocket money. 

Make a Timeline

As a child, the idea of time and money can be difficult to understand. Research has been done that shows that the impact of an hour of financial lessons fades after five months. To make the message stay with them, financial education should be ongoing and timely. 

If you’re aware that your child gets a check for $30 for their birthday every year, the best time to discuss budgeting is before they receive that check. 

A way to keep finance lessons going is to make a timeline so your child can visualize when they’ll reach their financial goal.

Let’s pretend that you give your child five dollars per week, and they want to save fifty dollars. If they were to save up 100 percent of their allowance, they would reach their goal of fifty dollars in ten weeks or roughly three months. 

You can start doing a visualization by getting out a long piece of paper and some markers. Start with $0 on one side of the paper and $50 on the other side.

Create checkpoints along the piece of paper for when they reach 25 percent, 50 percent, and 74 percent of the goal. 

Every time that an amount is saved, draw a line to illustrate how much they’ve saved. Let your children know that they’ll receive small rewards with every checkpoint they reach. 

Giving them small rewards will encourage your children to keep saving. Visuals also help illustrate their savings goals and how the money will grow. 

Be an Example

Kids learn best by example, so a great way for you to teach your kids about saving is to save your money. Create your own savings jar that you put money into every week.

When you’re out shopping, show your kids how to pick between various prices and tell them why buying one item is a better option than the other. 

Repeat the message that you’re saving a portion of the paycheck every single time you get paid to help save for their future. 

Teach your children about how and why you’re saving for their future educational needs. 

Talk with Your Kids

A crucial thing to do is talk to your kids about money and how important saving money is. Money doesn’t need to be a taboo or scary subject. Use financial conversations as teachable moments.

You can use an innocent question such as, “are we rich?” to emphasize family values, such as responsible spending and hard work. 

Let your kids know that they’ll have an allowance, but it’s up to them to save for what they want. Additionally, show them how their money can grow over time if they continue to save it. 

Father and Daughter with Piggy Bank

Image source: RawPixel

Also, talk to them about the differences between needs and wants, and make sure to let your children know that you’re always open to talk about money and how you can help them save money. Ask them what they want to save up for and ask them what they want their future to look like. 

Asking questions is a great way to get them to think long-term and have a good relationship with money. Informing them that you’re always available to talk about money can also encourage them to ask questions on their own to keep learning. 

Teaching children about saving money can seem like a difficult task, but using the tips described above can make your child’s understanding of money more accessible and fun.

Remember that piggy banks for kids are the best way to start teaching your kids the art of saving money.