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How to Teach Your Kids About Money

What are some everyday ways to teach 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.

What are some everyday ways to teach 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: 35,466 views

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Host: What are some everyday ways to teach my children about money?

Janet Bodnar: You don't have to actually sit your child at your knee and take it a special hour a day to talk about finances because there are just going to be a lot of natural opportunities. If you and your spouse for example are discussing whether to get the old car fixed or to buy a new car, that's a learning experience for the kids because they are going to be listening in on this. You are going to be discussing this on the way to soccer practice. The kids want a new video game system and you say, "Well, do you really need a new video game system? Is the old one going to work just as well? Do you need a new one? Who is going to pay for it? Should this be on your dime or should it on our dime?

"These are just financial lessons that you can teach your kids just in everyday car conversation. If you are going to the grocery store with your kids make it a learning experience. Certainly, older kids can help you shop. They can take a part of your list, they can compare prices that you see on the supermarket shelves or do your own taste test between the store brand soft drink and the leading national brand soft drink and buy both of them, take them home, see if the kids can tell the difference. Those are fun things to do and they can decide is it worth the extra money or is it not worth the extra money.

Those are fun things you can do, playing games with your kids, board games like traditional games like Monopoly or the Game of Life or fun things that you can do with your kids that teach them about money and reading books about money. Even in the Berenstain Bears which is a very popular series for younger kids have a couple of good books on the subject of personal finance, read them.

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