By Tashi McQueen
AFRO Staff Writer
tmcqueen@afro.com
For many Americans, a conversation about money can be stressful, overwhelming and uncomfortable. Thinking about when and how to have that financial conversation with kids can be even more difficult, especially if no one in the family has a good relationship with money.
“We have to teach them to be their own financial safety net,” said Ebony Beckford, a financial literacy advocate and founder of Fin Lit Kids. “Statistically, most families don’t have $500 saved for an immediate emergency.”
Beckford and Sharita Humphrey, a financial consultant, offered their advice on simple ways parents can have healthy conversations about money with their kids. Fin Lit Kids is a company that provides financial literacy resources for children ages three to seven. The organization focuses on parents and students in kindergarten through second grade.
Humphrey suggested parents start teaching their children about money as soon as their kids can have basic conversations.
“I started teaching my little one at two years old about money,” said Humphrey. “Just enough time for him to comprehend that when mommy took the dollar away, he spent it, and when he put it away in his little wallet, that means he was saving it.”
Humphrey said it’s about “starting that pattern” and showing them that the items they desire often come with a cost.
Beckford, who began teaching her daughter about money around age three, echoed Humphrey’s sentiments.
“Research shows that most kids start to recognize that money has a value at around three, and the spending habits that impact our decision-making as adults start to form by age seven,” said Beckford.
Humphrey said talking about savings and budgeting is a great place to begin with children.
She suggested parents put together a realistic budget with their children to help them start tracking and earning their own money. She advises putting them on a payment schedule and giving them a specific date so the child can plan for it with their budget as they would in the working world.
Beckford shared a few tools parents can use to help their children budget, save, invest and more.
Beckford highlighted her book, “Madison’s First Budget,” which helps teach youth that “money is not something that we just take and get anything that we want, but we have to have a strategy for it.”
The book presents open-ended questions that naturally present opportunities for parents to talk about money with their children. Through Fin Lit Kids, she has various fun and engaging activities, such as U.S. coin flashcards, a money-matching card game and a collection of financial literacy songs on YouTube.
There will also soon be a bingo game where parents and children can build out their financial vocabulary as a family.
Humphrey encourages chores and allowances in Black households to teach healthy money practices.
“In Black households, especially for those who may not have come from a lot, when we come into a situation where we feel like we’ve made it, we want to give our children everything that we didn’t have,” she said. “We want to be able to set them up for future financial success, but giving without boundaries is crippling, especially financially.”
“If they never learn to stand on their own financial two feet, then what’s going to happen if you’re not able to or you’re not there?” she added.
Humphrey shared advice for parents who want to take steps to educate their children about money but do not have a healthy relationship with finances themselves.
“Have those difficult but important money conversations,” she said. “Be the financial trailblazer in your family.”
