Children are the future champions of every nation and this planet. So educating the children about Personal Finance at a young age can do a lot of good. Of course, some people opine children should not think of money and focus on their academics. While there is some logic in this, exposing them to Personal Finance, will not distract them from academics.
Exposure to Personal Finance at a young age can clearly give them a few advantages:
- They will lean about ‘Financial Intelligence’ not taught in any curriculum. In fact, giving them this education will catapult their finance, when they start to earn.
- They will learn to save. I am amazed by the lovely ad of Bank of India depicting a young boy safely taking his piggy bank and officer at the bank helping him to safely keep in a locker. If we can create the need for saving at a tender age, we need not teach them the concept of, 'pay yourself first'.
- They will develop accounting knowledge and a feel for numbers. Gradually they will start reading financial newspapers or query elders and start learning accounting and finance. In fact, their questions will make some of the elders learn new concepts, consolidate their existing thoughts as well as improve on their practice.
- Children will utilise the Power of Compounding very early. You may recall that Albert Einstein called this as the greatest power. When we give them examples like chess board story they will be inspired. This will definitely help them in their ‘Path to Prosperity’.
- They will learn the concept of passive income, which will result in their better application towards passive income. In fact, it will be to our joy, when the young champions beat us in the game of developing passive income!
- There is a good chance that some of them may even become entrepreneurs with their exposure to finance. You will appreciate that every nation needs more entrepreneurs for economic growth.
It is clear that the advantages of giving personal education to children clearly outweigh the minor disadvantage of making them money conscious at a young age. If you objectively think, money consciousness at young age is an advantage. After all, we hear many parents complaining that their children seem to know the price of everything and value of nothing. We can definitely work towards reversing this trend. Hopefully, many parents will thank us!!
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