Talk Money Week 2021: Why Should We Be Talking to Young People About Money?

This week is ‘Talk Money Week,’ a week set out to encourage conversations about money, something that is really important for our physical, mental and financial wellbeing.

Conversations about money with children are especially important in enabling young people to have the right skills and knowledge of how to effectively manage their money both now and in the future. Research has shown children who have grown up with parents/carers who engage in conversations about money from a young age, tend to do better with their own money when they get older.

As adults, making decisions about our money is something that we all have to do regularly. We decide how much of our salary we want to save, whether certain purchases are financially smart, how much we want to budget for a new items and so many more. The financial decisions that we make and how we choose to manage our money have big consequences and so learning how to do this well is really important for our wellbeing.

Learning about money from a young age, is therefore a great way to develop positive financial habits, equipping children with the right tools for how to manage their money and make big decisions when they become adults.

Giving children the financial responsibility to make their own saving and spending choices is a great way to create learning opportunities from a young age on how to best manage their own money. Whether it be through pocket money they’ve made from chores around the house, or money they’ve earned from a job, encouraging children to independently make their own decisions can help develop positive financial habits from an early age.

Here at MyPocketSkill we give young people the opportunity to ‘Earn, Save and Learn.’ Through the money they have earned by completing tasks such as tutoring, babysitting, music coaching and social media jobs, teens are able to save their money directly on the platform, towards savings goals they have set themselves. By doing this, young people are learning the value of money, by having put in the time and effort to earn it, and the importance of managing it well through saving.

We spoke to Sho, a young person on the platform doing tutoring, about his experience saving with MyPocketSkill and why he thinks it’s important.

“I haven’t really been taught about money at school, but through tutoring with MyPocketSkill, I’ve now had experience with saving money, learning the best ways to spend your money and how to budget and make sure you’re not spending your money on things that are not going to really benefit you. Through MyPocketSkill, I have been able to save towards certain goals to make sure I have discipline with how I spend my money.

I think it’s important for young people to talk and learn about money, so you’re getting ready for when you turn 18 and older and when you become independent at university for example. Money becomes a big thing especially when it comes to saving and I think if you don’t have prior knowledge in these areas, when you start earning money, it’s easier to get into bad habits of spending all your money instantly.”

You can find out more about Talk Money Week and MyPocketSkill here.