What (and why) you should be teaching your children about money

Bruce Whitfield talks to financial adviser Warren Ingram about the role of parents, and schools, in teaching money management. How often have you heard people lament that our education system should include teaching kids about money? Well, Warren Ingram (personal financial Adviser and Executive Director of Galileo Capital) says many financially successful people learned their earliest money lessons at home, around the dinner table. Doesn't that exclude those children growing up in households that don't have a good relationship with money, probably the majority in South Africa? Ingram and Bruce Whitfield debate this important topic on The Money Show. © rawpixel/123rf.com  [Relying on schools] means you're outsourcing the problem, unfortunately. Like most things with education it can't be one or the other. It needs to be both. Warren Ingram, Personal financial adviser and executive director - Galileo Capital Money is partly an educational issue he acknowledges, but it's also partly a behavioural one. That's the thing that parents need to instill in children - the behavioural habits we all need to be good with money over our lifetime. Warren Ingram, Personal financial adviser and executive director - Galileo Capital In families that don't have access to the formal financial system, kids can still be taught about the basics like money going in and going out of the household. We can measure that, we can count it... We need to find ways to make sure that what comes in is always slightly more than what goes out. Warren Ingram, Personal financial adviser and executive director - Galileo Capital That's a behaviour that we need to learn. It's things I think parents don't discuss with their children. Warren Ingram, Personal financial adviser and executive director - Galileo Capital If you feel inadequate about your own financial affairs, your openness to discussing money with your children is that much more limited, I would argue? Bruce Whitfield, The Money Show host It's a good point, but it sounds like another excuse! Warren Ingram, Personal financial adviser and executive director - Galileo Capital If your job is to teach your children life skills says Ingram, remember that money management is a life skill. Listen to the insightful discussion and Ingram's tips below: This article first appeared on CapeTalk : What (and why) you should be teaching your children about money