Pocket money is an important opportunity for parents to provide their children with financial guidance for responsible financial conduct that will be required in the future. Through pocket money, children can practice budget management, delayed gratification, future planning, building priorities and the need to give up, which also sometimes encounters us in life. In addition, pocket money is the basis for defining boundaries and relationships for financial assistance of parents, today when the children are small and in the future.

So how do you teach children to use pocket money wisely?

Eight candles to illuminate pocket money for children (and one sun):

1. Discourse – Giving pocket money to a child is an opportunity for a discourse on the subject of money: money is not a dirty word and it is necessary to understand what money is, where it comes from and how it is spent.
2. Defining the framework of pocket money – each age has its own unique needs. And like the well-known saying about the children and the troubles with the children, so do the sums and expenses. When providing pocket money, it is necessary to define in cooperation with the children the amount of pocket money and the frequency with which it is given.
3. Rules of use of pocket money – Each home has its own rules and rules of conduct. When providing pocket money, it is necessary to define what pocket money is used for, what can be bought in it and what cannot be bought. A clear definition of the rules will help deal with common claims from children, such as “This is my money and I will buy whatever I want with it.”
4. Need and want – Pocket money is a great way to learn priorities in spending. There are things we need to buy and there are things we want to buy. Defining needs and wants at an early age will help the child in adulthood notice and prioritize his expenses.
5. Wise consumerism – pocket money is an opportunity to provide tools: price comparison, consumer decisions, discourse on brands and their true value, analysis of sales promotions and understanding the consumer meaning behind the advertisements.
6. Budget management – pocket money is a budget that must be managed: it is necessary to plan the pocket money, to know how much there is, what the money was spent on and how much is left. Each child according to his age.
7. Independence for the child – pocket money is a tool for children to experience freedom of decision and independence, and an opportunity for the parent to practice “letting go” of control. All of course within the limits defined for the use of pocket money.
8. Encouragement for saving and investing – Giving pocket money is an excellent opportunity to teach the child a chapter in the value and importance of saving and that proper money management can bring more money.
9. Shemesh – a rule that illuminates everyone: Pocket money is our way to become an effective parent who prepares his children to successfully cope with their tasks as adults financially and in general. Check at each stage what your goal is in this area and whether you have advanced your children and given them tools for coping with the reality in which they will live their lives as adults.

Giving pocket money, done in the right way, is an opportunity and an excellent tool for empowerment and moral and financial education, through which our children will be able in the future to continue to bless the miracles that our ancestors had and to promise them and their children wonders, joy and applause.