66% of 18-24 year olds are saving regularly each month. This is fantastic new to me. I was part of the credit generation and learned the hard way that saving was important.
On average they save just over £200 per month according to the Disposable Income Index, a report commissioned by Scottish Friendly (follow Scottish Friendly on twitter)
This got me thinking about ways to encourage my kids to become savers too and ways to encourage your kids to save.
- Make it visual. This is why saving pennies in a jam jar or glass bottle is so effective. Or have a savings chart with stars and stickers. Children can see how much they are saving and it makes them want to save more.
- Set a good example - talk about saving and how you save up and plan for important purchases.
- Incentivise it - Pay them interest on their savings or offer bonus when they reach a certain stage.
- Set a goal - give them something achievable to focus on. This will obviously vary from child to child.
- Take it out of their hands. My boys only get half of their pocket money in their hands, the rest goes straight into the bank.
- Open a bank account with them and actively use it. Make sure it is a book account, so they have to go in to a branch to pay in and take out their money. This way they have to plan spending within banks timescales and again learn that spending is not about instant gratification.
- Save smaller denominations to demonstrate how every penny counts. The boys both have a large vodka bottle that they fill with pennies and once a year they exchange it for holiday spending money. It really adds up and Mini is always on the lookout for peoples dropped coins when we are out and about.
- Teach your children that buying an experience (ie a trip to a theme park) brings much more happiness than a products (such as an ice cream). Saving for the experience may take longer or be harder, but it makes memories and makes the experiences so much better
- Teach them the value of money, by using money as a maths tool.
- Work out how much they need to save each week to buy a special something before a certain date, and then they can see that they have some money left, but they also get buy their big item. It’s just small scale practice for when they’re adults wanting a car, house or holiday
I would love to hear your tips for encouraging saving in children.
We need to start doing this with our two. They both have bank accounts but they can't psychically see the money in there. We should start with a penny pot and then make it a fun trip to take their pennies to the bank. We are also thinking about starting to give them pocket money but have no idea how much is an acceptable amount for their ages?
ReplyDelete