Over the July 4th holiday, I read a magazine article about discussing money with your kids. Since I'm a new parent, I'm always interested to know how others have found success (or failure) in introducing concepts about money to their children.

One section of the article was about allowances, which is always a helpful discussion for families with young children. The author suggested not to give allowances for household chores kids would regularly be expected to do, but instead, to give an allowance for helping with other tasks around the house that are outside of the norm, such as a one-time clean up of the garage or yard. The question always arises: how much of an allowance do I give? Of course,  the amount depends on each family's budget, but the author suggested giving $1 for each year old the child is each month (5 year old receives $5 per month, 10 year old receives $10, etc.). This seemed like a great place to start and a great way to get kids involved in learning about work and how to earn money. 

However, it does seem some parents never have a conversation with their kids about money or saving. The good news is that it's never too late. Even if your kids are adults now and you think they would benefit from meeting with a financial advisor, bring them along to one of your meetings or have them call us. We'd be happy to sit down with them to discuss how we might be able to help. 

Also, if you have any stories to share about how you discussed money with your kids, we'd love to hear those too!