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The Top Gifts to Teach Your Kids About Saving

Every parent wants their kids to be successful in life. Many put a lot of work and effort into saving for them. But even armed with a great education and minimal student loans, anyone can wind up struggling with money. What can benefit kids best is an education in financial literacy.

Unfortunately, most American parents themselves get failing grades at financial literacy and many are deeply in debt. You may need to give yourself a primer in financial literacy – but there are still ways you can help teach your kids about managing their finances and give them the gift of future savings. Below are some of the top gifts you can give your kids to teach them about the value of saving money and investing it.

#1 Silver Coins

Precious metals are a great way to start teaching kids about how investing and trading work. As a commodity, it makes the most intuitive sense, so you can start early on and still impart an important lesson. It’s also really easy to get excited about. You can actually hold and see it, and look up silver prices to see how the investment is doing.

You’ll find that silver coins are great gifts for kids when you want to impart a lesson about finances. You’ll also be able to find a wide range of silver coins, including collectible coins featuring pop culture characters that your kids love. Or you can stick to no-nonsense silver coins like the Canadian Silver Maple Leaf or the Silver Eagle from the U.S. Mint.

#2 Savings Bonds

A classic, responsible investment that achieves two goals: setting aside some money that will at least keep up with inflation and teaching your kids about how money grows when you invest it. A savings bond is a loan to the U.S. government under your child’s name that can be redeemed at any point after a year or can be left to continue earning interest. When you hear about governments running deficits, savings bonds are one of the places where the money comes from.

#3 Shares

There are now ways to buy shares and give them to your kids, including buying fractional shares. A great way to get kids interested in investing in stocks is to buy a share of a company that they would know. Incidentally, Disney is a solid buy pretty much anytime, but lately has done a lot to expand its media properties.

#4 A Savings Account

Simple, straightforward, but so much better than a checking account. As your kids get older, they need to have their own bank account. Set them up with a savings account and consider incentivizing them to contribute to it. If they were getting an allowance as little kids, turn it into a matching contribution once they get after-school jobs.

#5 Automated Investing Accounts

You can go one step further and open them an automatic investing account such as Wealthsimple. This is a great way to start automatically investing and saving.

Financial literacy can change your life. Poor financial decisions can lead to years of money problems and alter the course of your future. Give your kids every resource you can; don’t just save for them, teaching them about saving.

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