They usually have a far more imaginative mind than adults and are far more open minded. We generally allow our children to explore their imagination through role play, dressing up and playing games. When was the last time, with the possible exception of Halloween, that you saw an adult swash buckling a wooden sword like Captain Jack Sparrow?



It is only when we grow up that we get conditioned by our paradigm. It is this that restricts our ability to dream big dreams like we used to. We tend to see ourselves being practical with our dreams, rather than imaginative. This paradigm is often formed by our parents, friends, schooling and other outside influences.

In the writing of our recommended expenditure control book Control Freak a Recipe for Debt Freedom we were lucky enough to work with some very financially literate people and we noticed they usually had a similar family background that revealed they all had financially smart parents.

They grew up with the subject of money from a very young age. These financially astute adults, with high financial qualifications had been introduced to the cost of living, budgeting and future financial planning from the age of 6 and above. It was this conditioning that put them on the fast track as an adult. This was the seed that we have used to create Kids Money Packs.

By utilising the open mindedness of children when they are still young and unrestricted in their thoughts and actions, parents stand a real chance of having a positive influence on the way they will always value money.

With no current education in schools to teach simple money management to our children, the responsibility lies firmly with parents. If parents have little or no financial skills themselves, their children are likely to grow up into becoming a debt statistic of the future.

With the cost of living rising to the highest levels of all time, there has never been a more important time to raise the awareness of how important learning simple money management techniques are for the next generation.

By endorsing the ethic that effort should be rewarded, too many parents often simply give their children gifts, treats, snacks, computer games, clothes and candy with no effort on the childs part to have earned them in some way. It is this that creates an imbalance in the childs perception that money has little or no value attached and can be the source of many frustrating moments in family life.

It takes effort and consistency on the part of parents to realise that this teaching is their responsibility and without taking the time to install respect of earning money into their childrens lives at a young age, they may well find that their child grows to 30 years old and beyond with nothing but debt to their name.