Teaching kids about managing money can be handled in various ways. You and your spouse were likely raised with different thoughts about money. As parents, we want to provide for our families and hope we instill a value system to enable our children to make good decisions, manage their lives, and especially manage their finances well.
We are going to talk about the fundamentals, beginning with stewardship. As defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary, stewardship is “the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.” All that we have, is entrusted to our care. Our families, friends, careers, and our finances. Stewardship is a mindset and leads to thoughtful spending. Have you thought about your finances in this way before? We are to properly steward our money. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense.
Let’s relate stewardship to learning a new sport. We don’t start playing a new sport and become an expert immediately. We have to start at the beginning, learning the fundamentals. Consider learning the game of basketball and one of the best players of all time, Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan didn’t start out as a star. He started by learning how to dribble, shoot, and pass the ball. As he got better at those three fundamentals of the game, his coaches taught him more advanced skills, like how to run plays. As he practiced his game, he got better and better. As he got better, he played more minutes in the game and scored more points. Stewarding money is no different. If we learn the basics of managing our money we get better at spending, saving, and staying out of debt. Take some time as you think about whether you are being a good steward with your money. Are you thoughtfully spending your money on the things that matter most to you? Are you saving enough for your future? Are you staying out of debt? Since we are beginning a new year, think about how you are stewarding the money entrusted to your care. You better believe that if Michael Jordan made some errors is his game, he made the necessary adjustments during practice so he was better by game time. Well, it’s a good time to evaluate your financial game, make the necessary adjustments, and make this year your best ever, financially speaking.
