Trigger Topics to Avoid When Talking Money With Your Kids
The struggles of parenting are real, regardless of how old your kids are. While money experts everywhere are talking about how we can teach small children healthy financial habits and make sure they have the right set of life skills to thrive, the conversation doesn’t stop once they’re out of the nest.
In some cases, it continues for years and the teachable moments transform into minutes of lectures on lifestyle habits, spending, and general assumptions on how they should be managing their money.
Here are a couple of hot-button conversations to steer clear of and a neat guide to how you can approach your concerns nonetheless without sparking an argument.
Lifestyle spending
It’s typical for some parents to realize a bit too late that they should have talked more about budgeting when their children were teenagers. The moments may have come and gone, though, or they might just have forgotten about your valuable advice. It happens. No young adult likes to be lectured on how they spend their money, however, and you can easily turn your thoughtful advice into something worse if you don’t mind your steps.
When you’re dazed and confused at the amount your grown-up children spend on meals out, for example, approach this mindless spending by making the advice more general. Don’t point to the time they showed up with expensive bottles of wine and takeaway – it will just throw the conversation off-track.
Ask them if they prioritise money for homemade meals, for example, and explain that you just want them to stay healthy even if they don’t eat at home anymore. Besides, you can save a lot of money by not eating takeaway, right?
Savings and Debt
Student loans are a hot-button topic for any recent graduate, and you’d be wise to avoid this topic altogether. The exception is, of course, if you know that they’re missing payments and that the debt is accumulating. Start by talking about your own problems with debt and how you found your way out, have a look at consolidatingdebt.co, for example, and point out how much interest they’ll be able to make by investing in savings as early on as possible.
Accommodation
When you want your children to live in a safe neighborhood, you’re not harming anyone by voicing your concerns. Most young adults appreciate that their parents still worry a bit about them – what they may not appreciate are comments on how much they pay in rent.
Housing is expensive, and it’s no fun for anyone to pay a lot in rent each month; approach the subject by talking about how they can save up for buying an apartment instead and have a look at zerohedge.com for some surprising numbers.
A conversation like this has a purpose and you can even sneak in a few of your concerns on how much they pay in rent. When you make the conversation constructive, they might even agree with you, rather than having to brush off another comment on how much money they spend.
The best way to continue to find valuable moments of teaching and help your children to learn better habits is to set an excellent example to them. None of us are perfect and everyone experience financial difficulties from time to time; teach them better habits by talking about your own experiences, and give them the tools to find their own way.
