Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

Mike Smith:
Chuck, can you lay out what sort of financial parents should teach their children at various age levels?

Chuck Bentley:
Well, I absolutely can, Mike. They need to start by 2 years old. It’s never too early to start learning God’s financial principles. The first thing they need to learn is that they don’t own everything. You know children start out by saying “It’s mine, it’s mine,” so God’s ownership is essential as a very first lesson.

Next we need to teach them generosity and charity. Children naturally want to claim everything as their own and learning generosity at an early age is an important lesson that will stay with them the rest of their life. I also think that delayed gratification—learning to wait for small things—will develop their character in a way that will impact their financial management as well.

Then by the age of five we think children should learn to work, to do chores, to earn some money around the house. Then to have a system for allocating those resources so that they can begin to understand the basics, like giving, saving, spending, and investing.

Mike:
Chuck, thanks so much for those interesting insights! This is such an important topic for all of our families to address. Until next time, I’m Mike Smith.