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How to Teach Your Kids About Money

Should I give my kids an allowance?

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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 give my kids an allowance?

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: 34,328 views

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Transcripts

Speaker: Should I give my children an allowance; if so, at what age should I begin giving an allowance?

Janet Bodnar: I think an allowance is the best hands on learning tool there is for kids and this is a very good transition. Once kid starts, say at the age of six or seven, they are starting to learn about money in school. They are getting a little bit more sophisticated about understanding the whole abstract idea of money, so that if they get five or six dollars a week, they now how far that would go. So, I think that's a good age to start and it really covers that whole elementary middle school age. As I said, I think allowance is a great teaching tool. I always say that kids will spend unlimited amounts of money as long as it's yours. When their money is on the line it's a whole different story and certainly for this middle school years, when they don't have a job of their own, the best way to get money into their hands, to get them that learning tool is with an allowance. So I think it's very important. Giving allowance is very important; you don't have to start at the age of six or seven you can start a little later if you would like, but certainly if you do start that young, you can use it as a foundation on which you can build as the kids get older.

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