Thomas Williams talks about that how in a school children are given an early education of money matters. He says,
“Here are the rules:
Each week, you get a salary of funny money (I think it can vary depending on grades and behavior, but the details aren't important). There are cheap, flashy toys you can buy with your funny money.
Catch number one: You must pay rent on your desk. The rent turns out to be a significant amount of the funny money.
Catch number two: You can save up and buy your desk. This takes several weeks of saving. After you've bought your desk, you no longer pay rent, so you've got more money each week.
Catch number three (my favorite): After you've bought your desk, you can buy another student's desk. They must pay you rent (unless they save up and buy the desk). “
This is an excellent idea. I gave a thought to educating children about money matters a while back. I think educating children on money matters is as important as educating them on other subjects or most of the mathematics which 90% of students won't be using in rest of the life. Most of us don't get any lessons at all on finance matters. We just learn it as we go and most of the times the hard way.I have never been given on any finance lessons in my life, nor from my family and nor from the schools and Universities I have attended. My parents told me one thing and still telling me “save money for future and your family“. Sure this advise has worked satisfactorily for my father, but I don't it will work for me as I am not as content as my father or mother are. Well I wish I had the basics of finance when I was a little kid. Having realised the importance of knowledge of money and finance, I don't think I will be giving the same advise to my kids as my parents did to me. I will make sure that they get very early lessons on finance matters. Sure don't have kids for now, but when I do I will start looking at innovative way to teach them this important lesson of life.
Tejas Patel