Teaching children the value of saving

Good money habits take years to develop and it’s never too young to start learning! Here are a few tips we’ve provided to help you get your young ones set up with good financial habits early in life.

Here's our top tips for helping smaller people get their money smarts. 

1. Help them to set a savings goal

You might like to help your children set their own achievable savings targets rather than setting targets for them. If they have set their own targets, they will be more likely to want to work towards them. Key to this is ensuring that the goal is within reach – perhaps they might want to try and save up for something special, e.g. a piece of sports equipment, a particular gadget, or a video game.

2. Help them to build a plan

Once they have set a goal, you can work with them to build a plan around how to get there. Help them understand how much needs to be saved each week and each month in order to ultimately meet the goal. This also provides a great opportunity to do some maths calculations as a team!

3. Help them to stay focused on their financial goals

Staying focused will likely be the most challenging part, as children may lose interest over the prospect over savings targets. Think of creative ways to maintain a high level of interest in the activity. For instance, you might like to make up a visual guide of where they are in their savings goals and stick it to the fridge, so that they are reminded of how close they are to meeting their goal. If their goal is still a way off, you may like to consider incentivising them with smaller rewards along the way, ensuring that their savings experience is a positive one.

4. Celebrating when a goal is reached

Acknowledge the big day and ensure that your child receives an appropriate amount of positive reinforcement for reaching their goal. That said, it is also important that children understand that saving is an ongoing process and doesn’t end once a goal has been met. This is an important lesson to instil from a young age.

The WAW Star Saver account is the perfect way to get your children started in financial literacy.  With a great bonus interest rate for regular deposits, you can work with your children in learning the necessary valuable skills for saving and money management.