Money and Finances: A Family Affair
“Financial literacy just means having the financial knowledge to make your money work.”
Buzzwords like financial literacy can feel overwhelming because it encompasses so much but it’s really about having a base knowledge. How to take your income and apply it to your debt, your current and your future financial needs.
As I discussed with Abi and Meghan, on the Gaining Mom-entum podcast, people have a discomfort around talking about money because of their own childhoods. And it doesn’t just include what happens in the home but also how money is talked about in society; boys and girls are talked to very differently when the conversation of money comes up.
But, it’s time to start having normal conversations about money with your entire family, including your kids.
That doesn’t mean they need to know exactly how much debt you have. Instead, collectively come up with a family savings goal or have them participate in some parts of the family budget. Make it fun for them and begin to give them the financial literacy most of us lacked in our childhood.
This helps create a shift in their own money mindset and starts to change the narrative that talking about money is taboo.