“Even more important – but most neglected – is passing on skills like how to work well with money. Parents tell us however, that they struggle because children seem so smart these days.
“Telling them to 'do their chores just because you said so', usually means there is only one winner - you, the parent. If you love your child enough to want them to win at life, you're going to have to teach them how,” he said.
Mr Martick said one approach parents could take is to find out what motivates your child and to use that as leverage:
1. Find out what motivates your child. For example, perhaps they would love a new bike or hockey stick. Offer to pay them an agreed sum to do selected chores (other than routine tasks like making the bed and cleaning their bedroom). Examples of money earning chores could be washing the car or mowing the lawn.
2. To begin with, encourage easy goals that don't take too long to achieve so that the child can get into the habit of attaining goals. For example, a hockey stick may be more achievable than a new bicycle.
3. Set the rules, including:
* When to do the dishes
* How to do them properly
* The reward they will receive
* How long it will take to reach their goal
4. Use emagineIF to document and track the chores, earnings and goals.
In an effort to make some contribution to changing the money habits of young New Zealanders, Westforce Credit Union recently teamed up with the developers of ‘emagineIF (https://beta.emagineif.com/
"emangineIF helps parents teach their children about money. It shows the correlation between work and earning money and the relationship between goal setting, aspirations and savings towards an end result,” he said.
*Professor James Flynn (http://moreintelligentlife.com/
