This year, I want to be more intentional on how we manage our money. To be honest, we haven't been great stewards of our funds over the last few years. When you're starting out in self-employment, it feels really difficult to put aside savings rather than spending everything you earn. One of our dreams is to take a family trip out of Canada soon, so with a new mindset and the help of ATB Prosper, we're starting to save our funds so that we can make this dream a reality. Let me share with you how we're saving our money this year, plus a couple ideas on how you can teach your kids about money management!
At the beginning of this month, I opened up a TFSA (Tax Free Savings Account) with ATB Prosper. I was able to do it all online after taking a short survey on the ATB Prosper website that determined what sort of investment account would be right for me. I was really impressed with the simplicity of the process and that I could start my savings account online. With young kids at home, I simply don't have the time (or the desire, really!) to sit in a bank office and have a long meeting.
I filled out the form on the website, and I only had to chat on the phone with an investment adviser for a few minutes a couple of days later to confirm some details for my account setup. Since then, the money I've determined to save in our new TFSA is automatically moved from my bank account to the investment account, and we're on our way to saving up for our big adventure!
Now that I'm on the right track with our savings, I want to be intentional on how I talk about money with my kids too. Here are some fun and simple ways that I'm helping teach our girls about money, and how you can too!
DIY "Spend, Save & Give" Money Jars
These three money jars are simple and fun to make, and they're a great way to teach your kids about money management. You can determine what percentage of their allowance goes towards spending, saving and giving, and have them put their money in the corresponding jars each week.
Watch my video below to see how to make these mason jar piggy banks:
Play Money & Shopping Games
Another fun way to teach kids about money is to play some shopping related games with them. We love to play with the market stand we have in the basement, and I've designed some cute play money that helps my girls learn.
I'll explain to them that each item in their market costs money, and then we'll use our pretend money to "buy" the items. I've also included a pretend credit and debit card in their play money set so that we can have conversations about how those work. You can make the shopping games really simple or more complicated depending on your child's age.
You can download our "Flower Fairy Play Money" for FREE by clicking here or on the image below:
Those are just a couple of the simple ways I've chosen to help teach my girls about money management this year, along with trying to be a good example of money stewardship by saving more!
How do YOU teach your kids about money?
If you're interested in learning more about investing money with ATB Prosper (available in Alberta), please make sure to click here and check out their simple investment process.
Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by ATB Prosper. As always, all of the opinions here are my own. This post also contains affiliate links.
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