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How to Teach Your Kids About Money

Should I rely on schools to educate my children about money?

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Janet Bodnar
Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine
www.kiplinger.com  

Janet Bodnar is deputy editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine, for which she has written articles on a wide range of topics, including investing, money management and the economy.

Bodnar is a nationally recognized expert in the field of children's and family finances. Her latest book is Money Smart Women: Everything You Need to Know to Achieve a Lifetime of Financial Security (Kaplan). She speaks frequently on the subject of women and money.

Bodnar's "Money-Smart Kids" column appears regularly in Kiplinger's magazine and at <a>www.kiplinger.com/columns/kids</a>. It was chosen by Moneysmartz.com as one of the top financial columns online. Bodnar is also the kids and money coach on the AOL Coaches site.

Her book Raising Money Smart Kids (Kaplan Publishing) was a finalist in the personal finance category of the Books for a Better Life awards, honoring the best self-improvement books of 2005. It was also a selection of the Washington Post's Color of Money book club.

Bodnar has appeared on Oprah, Today, Good Morning America, The Early Show on CBS, Fox, CNN and PBS. She has done hundreds of radio and TV interviews and appears regularly on WUSA, the CBS-TV affiliate in Washington, D.C., and WTOP, the major all-news radio station in Washington. She is a popular speaker and has been quoted in publications ranging from The Wall Street Journal and Institutional Investor to Parents and Glamour.

Bodnar has been recognized by American University for excellence in personal finance reporting, and by the National Council on Family Relations for her televised reports on children and money. The audio version of her book (read by the author) received three "best of" awards, from Publishers Weekly (business category), Library Journal (nonfiction) and the Audio Publishers Association (educational category).

Prior to joining Kiplinger's, Bodnar worked for The Providence Journal and The Washington Post. She received her master's degree in journalism from Columbia University, where she was also a Knight-Bagehot Fellow in Business and Economics Journalism.

Married, she is the mother of three children.

Should I rely on schools to educate my children about money?

In this video, Deputy Editor of Kiplinger's Personal Finance and author Janet Bodnar answers questions on the many issues surrounding what kids should know about money.

This series: 35,477 views

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Host: Should I rely on my kid's school to educate my children about money?

Janet Bodnar: You can really trust the schools to do it. Now, they are really are, a lot of schools are trying to do a lot with this. There are a number of states that have requirements that some sort of financial education be taught in schools, but what I find is that it's really a very Heramys basis and it very much depends on the classroom teacher. Classroom teachers have lots of demands on their time and sometimes they just can't fit it in or some teachers feel more or less strongly about personal finances. So, some teachers will spend a lot of time on it and sometimes not, but even more important, all the studies that I see show that kids, time and again say, that what they learn about money, most of which, most of the things they learn about money they learn from their parents and not only do they learn from their parents, but they prefer it that way. They actually like to learn from their parents. Parents need to know that they have power. They think, for example, that their kids are going to be influenced by their peers or they are going to be influenced by the media, but really and truly, first and foremost, they are influenced by their parents. You do have power. One study shows that, for example, even talking to teenagers about credit, if a parent talks to teenagers about the subject of credit, when kids go off to college they are less likely to use credit cards and less likely to charge a lot, if they do use credit cards. So, just that conversation that you are having with your kids makes a huge difference. So, it's really your responsibility, but it's a good responsibility.

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