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Parenting

16th Sep 2021

Study finds mothers are more likely to teach boys about budgeting than fathers

Melissa Carton

Do you talk to your children about money?

Making a family budget doesn’t always have to be strict, it also gives you a chance to teach your kids valuable personal finance lessons.

A recent survey asked over 1,000 parents about their spending choices when it comes to their children.

How much money do they spend on their kids in a month? Do they disclose financial information with their kids, and if so, how honest are they?

Here’s what they found and it’s pretty interesting.

Among the results it was found that mothers are more likely to teach boys about budgeting than fathers.

On the other hand girls were as likely to be taught about money from their fathers then they are their mothers.

It was also discovered during the survey that four in every five parents spend money on their children when they are rewarding their hard work, with nearly one in every two parents spending money on their children when bribing them to change their behavior.

Out of the over 1,000 parents questions, those who made less than $35,000 were the most comfortable speaking to their children about their finances.

The Parental Spending Choices survey revealed that more than four in five divorced parents said they stick to a strict family budget when managing their finances, while three in five married parents said the same.

It was also found that 86 per cent of parents are very happy due to the honesty about finances with their children, while 3 per cent said that they were ‘not at all’ happy.

Both of my children have both started receiving weekly pocket money, and while I have told them not to spend all their money in one go (especially on sweets), I definitely think a more in depth chat about how to manage their money might be needed.

Have you started discussing money management with your children yet?