Heritage Bank, Ifie Sekibo give five easy tips to teach your kids about money

Money may make the world go round but ensuring your children are financially literate can be difficult, especially when most adults struggle to understand basic finance at the best of times.
Heritage Bank’s MD Ifie Sekibo has been working on improving our kids’ knowledge of money through various school programs but here are five quick and easy steps you can do at home to help your kids navigate their way through finance.

Saving and setting goals
By teaching your kids to set goals and save money you will teach them about financial responsibility, discipline and that hard work eventually pays off. You can start by getting your children to put aside a portion of their allowance so they begin to learn about budgeting. This method works well if your child has set a goal they want to work towards. Heritage Bank has various BUD bank accounts set up that are specially designed for children in different age brackets. Setting up an account will help them save their money as well as get them used to banking processes.

Pocket money
Not everyone can afford to give their children pocket money but no matter how much you give them, parents must make them accountable for the money. Pocket money will allow parents to teach their children life long lessons about how one should use money.

Make learning fun
Learning about the intricacies of finance isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, especially young children who have attention spans like fish. So, if you want to teach you kids about money and acting responsibly you should make it fun. Not only will your children have fun but it’s likely they’ll learn a lot quicker than the usually otherwise would. Games can be as simple as memorizing the various Nigerian denominations or as involved as Monopoly. There is a wide range of apps out there that can help you. You can even download Heritage Bank’s easy to use, safe and secure mobile banking app to educate your children, too.

Mindset
One of the most important things you need to learn when teaching your children about money is that it isn’t a bad or negative thing to do. Changing your mindset will teach your children to respect the power of money and not fear it.

Highs and lows
Another very important lesson you can teach your children revolves around the notion of the carrot and stick. If your kids reach their savings goal or decide to put more money into their savings account then you should reward them. It doesn’t have to be a big reward but if they had been saving for a toy or game then it’s a good idea to reward them by taking them to the shops the day they hit their goal. Conversely if they make a bad decision it’s not wise to bail them out. You should talk to them about the consequences of their actions and then get them to reevaluate and reset their goals because failure isn’t always a bad thing.

If you would like to talk to one of our Heritage Bank professionals please bring your children into one of our friendly branches to discuss what will be the best BUD account for your children.
Alternatively, you can check us out on: http://www.hbng.com/bud/ or call us on: +23412369000