Teaching Kids about Money
By Saghir A. Aslam
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
(The following information is provided solely to educate the Muslim community about investing and financial planning. It is hoped that the Ummah will benefit from this effort through greater financial empowerment, enabling the community to live securely with dignity and fulfill their religious and moral obligations forcharitable activities.)
Provide useful tools.
Share budgeting tools with your older children and teens, such as a budget tracking app. High school students should know where their money goes each month so they can prepare for when they are out of the house and are on their own. Set your teen up with a debit card so they can learn to manage the funds in their bank account. Consider adding them as an authorized user on your credit card so they can experience charging items and then paying off the amount due when the statement arrives each month. Banking and credit card apps also may appeal to your teen for easy access in seeing how much they have available and how much they’ve spent.
Add investing to the mix.
Once your children understand the basics of money management, add concepts such as what it means to invest, what companies one might invest in, and how you assess risk with an investment. If they have earned income, consider opening a Roth IRA for them and matching what they contribute to it. This can give them an incentive to save for their future. And they may be more likely to continue to invest when they start seeing real results.
Above all, talk with your children about money. A healthy relationship with money can begin with an open and honest relationship within a family that models good money behaviors.
Let me share with you that my long-term philosophy is that I don’t ask or I don’t tell people or write in the article some items that I do not practice. In this particular case teaching kids about money I took my daughters to wade cook seminar for which I paid a hefty price as it was a Thursday seminar and the speaker told the audience that you can pretend you are investing this money by what I am sharing with you.
One of the best gifts you can give your children is to teach them how to manage money. This statement is true for families across the wealth spectrum.
However, on the other hand I gave my daughters my brokers Walt Hommerding with Wells Fargo and Chris Bevans with Morgan Stanley so they could actually make the real trades and the funds were already deposited in their accounts.
In the three-day seminar, with Allah SWT’s blessings, by doing the actual traders buying and selling short-term investment my daughters made a profit of over $15,000.
That paid for the cost of the seminar for all three of us plus profit in their accounts.
I must share with you that ordinarily I only invest for the long term as I believe that’s the best way to continually come up with good investment returns.
(Saghir A. Aslam only explains strategies and formulas that he has been using. He is merely providing information, and NO ADVICE is given. Mr Aslam does not endorse or recommend any broker, brokerage firm, or any investment at all, nor does he suggest that anyone will earn a profit when or if they purchase stocks, bonds, or any other investments. All stocks or investment vehicles mentioned are for illustrative purposes only. Mr Aslam is not an attorney, accountant, real estate broker, stockbroker, investment advisor, or certified financial planner. Mr Aslam does not have anything for sale.)
