Make Saving a Habit for Your Children - Peter Vickers Business Group

8Sep

Make Saving a Habit for Your Children - Peter Vickers Business Group

finance | 8 Sep 2016 |

It’s never too soon to start saving and in many cases even if you double your deposits at a later date you may never catch up to people who start saving earlier. An understanding of compound interest can encourage young people to start saving now! But good saving and spending habits don’t have to be introduced when the child is old enough to understand compound interest. You can start around the time they start school.

Pocket money: children around 6 or 7 can be encouraged to spend a little of their pocket money now and save the rest for something they really want, discouraging instant gratification and enabling them to experience that rewarding feeling when you purchase something you’ve been longing for. It’s important that the award is achievable to encourage the saving behaviour and the benefits of the lollies vs toys be felt!

Allowances and earnings: some families introduce allowances for their children for helping with household chores, which makes them feel as if they are contributing to family life. It also gives you the opportunity to start talking about saving and investing. Kids can be encouraged to save say 10 or 20% and then choose to spend or save the rest. You could also double the amount they choose to save, to incentivise them to save a larger portion.

Saving also gives an opportunity to learn about investment and shares as well as the rules
attached to borrowing money. 11-16 years is the time when economic understanding and activity
increases.

Introduce investing concepts and the power of compound interest: as your child begins to earn more money, with a part-time job or baby-sitting and lawn mowing, it’s a good time to introduce them to a bank! This presents a good opportunity to shop around and look at where the best savings rates are, again re-enforcing the concept of compound interest. A savings account is more formal and encourages good money management practices. When money is given as a gift for birthdays or special occasions, some of it can be saved for more expensive items or something that they may want in the future. They quickly understand compound interest and how powerful it can be.

Get teens started investing in shares. Introduce the concept of investing by encouraging them to choose a company that owns a brand they’re interested in…it may be sports related, a games manufacturer or owner of high fashion labels then look at that company’s performance over a few months and consider the reasons why there may have been growth, a fall or fluctuations in the share price. Perhaps consider recognisable brands such as Telstra, Woolworths, CBA, Kathmandu, Billabong, Event Hospitality and Entertainment and A2 Milk.

Suggest a company whose products or services they use, that appears to be growing and has scope for further growth. This encourages an analysis of the market and target audience. It also helps if it’s a company that they feel passionate about or at least like, which will encourage share tracking and this can be related to activities which the company may be engaged in or external factors affecting the company.

If you haven’t the time or patience to help your younger family members, or have the usual
family issues with regard to teaching your own child, why not introduce Heather Leung. Heather is a senior financial analyst who can meet with your young people, explain the basics of investing and help them to set up a Commsec account and purchase their first shares.

Our “Get Started: Introduction to Investing in Shares” has a fixed advisory fee of $220.00 and is available until you’re 25 years of age. And the first 10 equity trades with CommSec have no brokerage fee!

Call Heather Leung on 02 9496 2300 to make an appointment.

This service would make a great present for a young relative and could set them on the road to an early retirement!

Role Models: adults in the house need to set a good example as children emulate behaviour and your attitudes towards saving and spending are likely to become theirs!

Good savings habits pay good dividends for a lifetime. Don’t let your children become adults who wish they’d started saving sooner.

ASIC’s compound interest calculator is an easy tool to help explain the compounding effect of interest to your teens. www.moneysmart.gov.au

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