Top Kids Activities for Global Money Week

This year, Global Money Week runs from the 25th to the 31st of March 2019. Let’s look at ways you could get your children to engage with the wonderful world of finance.

Since 2012, the team behind Global Money Week have aimed to raise financial awareness across the world through annual events and partnerships. Supporting organisations in the past include VISA, MasterCard and the New York Stock Exchange.

Why is it important?

We think Global Money Week say it best:

The earlier children learn about money, savings and investment, the better they manage their personal finances throughout their lives. These skills help children and youth to understand the difference between earning, saving and spending, making them better money managers, who are able to budget and have healthier financial habits. It also helps children understand how to manage money at an early age and teaches them how to make better decisions regarding student loans, housing, first car, travel, and other expenses.
 

GlobalMoneyWeek.org FAQs >>

Activities for your kids:

🌍 Save money - and the planet

What’s the cost of leaving the lights on or leaving the TV running in the background? These things translate to your electricity bill, so it can be useful to help your kids understand where electricity comes from and how much is paid for it?

Challenge them to think about the following questions:

1. Why is electricity important?
2. How much is spent on electricity at home?
3. What can be done to lower electricity costs?

Then you can share the rough monthly estimate so they can compare it to their assumptions.

Remembering to switch off the lights in a room once you leave it won’t immediately save enough money for you to go on holiday, but it will add up in the long run and make a difference both to the bills and the environment!

🎯 Set goals for any outstanding Needs & Wants

Get your children thinking about the various objects, places and services that currently exist in their lives – as well as those they’re aware of but might not have access to. From that list, have them work out what’s a need and what’s a want.

Once they’ve done that, they can start thinking about how they can save up for some of these things. You can also have them apply SMART criteria to put their action plan in place:

• Specific: the goal shouldn’t be too broad, for instance “I want to save money” isn’t vert specific whereas “I’m going to put aside £1 of my allowance weekly” is!
• Measurable: something you can measure and check whether it’s been successful or not.
• Action oriented: they can put a clear action in place to accomplish this plan
• Realistic: it’s something that can be achieved with the time and resources available
• Time-bound: they’ve set a deadline for when they expect to achieve it by

Not only is SMART a great tool for staying focused on outcomes, it’s also something that will come in handy as they go through life.

Interested to learn more about this? Check out our Primer on Talking about Needs and Wants!

🎫 Near a city? Make a museum visit!

The team behind Global Money Week regularly partner with a wide range of banks, financial institutions and museums around the world to put on activities especially for children. Check out what’s on at the venues nearest to you and see what they’ve got to offer!

In 2016, Citi Money Bank in London encouraged more than 300 students to challenge their knowledge on topics such as inflation throughout the ages, financial crises and historical savings strategies, while also having the chance to explore their exhibitions.

If you’re planning a visit to a nearby museum anyway, there’s always a lot to enjoy regardless of any events they’re holding.

🏦 Saving as a child vs. saving as an adult

Get your kids thinking about what they’re saving for at the moment.

• How are they saving for it?
• How are they doing it?
• How long do they think it will take before they reach their goal?
• If they didn’t choose to buy what they’re saving for, is there something else they could do with the money?

Now, ask them why they think adults save money.

• What kinds of things are parents saving for
• How are they saving?
• Where are they saving?

They should now have built up a list of different savings opportunities and reasons. Together, you can create some categories to list them under.

For example: you could have ‘personal use’ for items like a new phone and ‘unexpected events’ for things like if a car needs urgent repair.

This is a great kickstarter in helping your kids prepare for the future and deciding what matters most to them when it comes to money. This can even help in inspire some excellent savings habits.

Compound interest is a great way to save up and the earlier you understand compound interest, the earlier you can start making the most of it! Learn more by reading our Primer here.