From Tikkies to contactless payments: students use various payment methods. According to experts, this makes it harder for them to learn the value of money. How do you make your child financially resilient?
Young people need supervision and help, says Annelou van Noort, specialist in financial education, to NU.nl. “Twenty Tikkies a month is very common for many teenagers, while they often have no idea how much that is exactly.” This was also shown earlier this month by research from budget institute Nibud.
Paying with cash is less common than it used to be: the majority now goes digitally. And where you used to receive a monthly overview with bank statements in the mailbox, financial overviews are now only in your banking app.
Teenagers today have less awareness of the value of money and how much they spend, Van Noort notes. This is also due to artificial intelligence, YouTubers and influencers. “It is quite unclear: what is the truth? Who can you still trust?”
Providing information to your child about, for example, crypto is therefore of great importance. “If you get into something, make sure you really dive into it first. What are the risks? Can I afford to lose the money?”
Not Everyone Goes To Bali
Your child can get a distorted view of reality through social media. “You often only see the extremes: the success and the blunders. Then your brain thinks that’s the average,” Van Noort explains. “As a result, children start comparing themselves to others.”
Influencers have a lot of influence on the financial choices of a student, Van Noort warns. “My advice to parents is: take that role back.” You can first of all start a conversation with your child. “And not in the sense of: twenty Tikkies is too much. But: what do you spend your money on? Have you ever regretted your purchase? What do you think is important?”
Open conversations with peers can also be valuable for your child. Students then see that they are not the only ones without a swimming pool in the garden. “Not everyone goes to Bali and there is nothing wrong with that.”
Don’t look over your child’s shoulder
You can monitor your child’s account until their eighteenth birthday. However, there is a danger that you will get too close to your child. Van Noort compares it to Magister, the school system in which parents can monitor their child’s performance. “Do you check every day what your child spends and on whom? Are you on top of it?” From that attitude you cannot have a positive money conversation. “Ultimately, your child makes different choices than you do. That is not necessarily good or bad.”
Use that monitoring function as a tool and not as a control tool, Van Noort advises. As an example, she cites her own son, who received a free pair of boxer shorts through a promotion. “He didn’t realize that something was debited monthly afterwards. It wasn’t such a large amount, so you quickly overlook it.”
Because Van Noort went through the statements in the app together with her son, she was able to intercept the amounts.
Share Your Money Blunders
As a parent, you also have a role model. “Children unconsciously learn a lot from you,” says Van Noort. “If you go to the store with a shopping list with three items and you come back with ten things, there is basically nothing wrong with that. But then also explain how you came to that choice.”
That means: be open about the fact that you too can fall into temptation. If you ever make a real money blunder, share that story with your child. “Not to laugh it off, like: haha, I did this or that wrong. But: damn, I fell for it.”
No Money is no money
What about lending money to your child? Is that possible or not? “With a cool sweater that my daughter can’t afford, I teach her: if you don’t have the money now, you just can’t buy it.” Be clear about this as a parent.
“Tell your children: I’m just not lending you money for this situation. They might not like you for a while, but so be it. Also tell them that it’s not about the fact that that sweater is not to your taste.”
Also a learning side to borrowing
However, lending money to your child can also be educational, Nibud believes. Lending money involves several factors, says spokesperson Karin Radstaak. How much money do you lend? What arrangement do you make?
“Suppose you lend your child 10 euros and say: I want to get it back in two months. And your child receives 10 euros pocket money per month. It then has 5 euros less for two months.” Your child then learns that a loan also means that you temporarily receive less money. “As a parent, it does require you to organize this strictly, and you can’t start doing it as standard,” Radstaak warns. “But it can help your child understand how a loan works.”