Kids tend to be good little businessmen, willing to do whatever they can to make some money. The five tips in this article will help you impress upon your children the value of the money they earn.
1. Find work around the house. Apart from normal chores, additional jobs can be chosen based on age and what needs to be done to care for the home. Inventing some job just because a child wants to earn money is really no different from pulling cash straight from your wallet and putting it into the child’s eager hands. Payment should be reasonable. For example, paying children forty or fifty dollars to clean out closets is not realistic, while ten normally would be.
2. Start a needed service in your neighborhood. Parents have the responsibility of upkeep inside and outside the house. As soon as your child is old enough, they can begin a lawn care business. You will need to help them. Create flyers and deliver them door-to-door or put them in mailboxes. State your services and the fee. Elderly neighbors and those that are too busy to do the work make ideal clients. Monitor your child at each job. Only help when they need you to pitch in.
3. Create crafts to sell on eBay. Your child may be the type that enjoys making crafts. If they have the knack, there is a market to sell their wares. EBay offers a no-pressure situation where kids can see business in action. Follow the policies for setting up an account. If they are too young, you may have to own the account. Take pictures of the items and assist your child in writing a description of them for a viewing audience. Selling on eBay introduces kids to the art of owning and maintaining a business.
4. Enlist their help in monitoring younger siblings. A child of seven or eight is old enough to keep an eye on a three year old while you are in the house. This is not a babysitting job, but a monitoring one. If you need to cook dinner or finish some other household chore, hire your youngster to keep an eye on their brothers and/or sisters while you do so.
Don’t confuse them with lots of rules. Just make sure they understand the important things. The younger child has to be followed and watched at all times, toys shouldn’t be in their mouths, and they have to be protected from dangerous things in the home, like the stove.
5. Hold a yard sale. If a child wants some extra cash, they can get rid of toys and clothing that they don’t play with or can no longer wear. Enter the yard sale. Yard sales are an excellent way for kids to make a few bucks and clean their rooms at the same time. Instead of throwing away these items or storing them in the attic, let others derive the same benefit that your child received from them.
As kids learn about the value of money, they will progressively ask to do more work. These tips are a great place to start, but adding more ideas will help you help your youngsters grow to be financially responsible adults.