Advice on teaching children financial responsibility

Psychologist & Author Lee Hausner, PhD, shares advice for parents on the best method for teaching your children about financial responsibility
How To Teach Children About Money and Financial Responsibility
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Advice on teaching children financial responsibility

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As part of any educational process, parents have a responsibility to teach the next generation, the responsible use of money. It starts with an allowance. The allowance should never be so great that the child can buy whatever he wants or too small that they can't make any money decisions. I like an allowance divided into parts; a part that they can spend immediately, a part that they have to save, delayed gratification, and a part that they give away. You really start that idea that we have a responsibility to the larger world. As a child gets older in High School, I think they should be on a larger allowance. I've always said that they can submit a budget over which the parent has line-item veto; so that the child begins to understand that money is a finite item, and how to manage that. I love the fact that a child have work experience, so that they can see that effort. They can see that in order to obtain material goods. If there is significant money in a family, I want them to learn about investing. How to manage the money. The issue of wealth that goes from shirt sleeve to shirt sleeve, through generations; very often occurred because one generation learned how to make the money, the next generation was not taught how to be responsible stewards of that money. They have a wonderful lifestyle. They go through the money. By the time the third generation comes along, we don't have the money. That concept of how to be responsible and manage money is a learning process that becomes very important in families, and really, the responsibility of every parent.

Psychologist & Author Lee Hausner, PhD, shares advice for parents on the best method for teaching your children about financial responsibility

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Lee Hausner, PhD

Clinical Psychologist & Author

Dr. Lee Hausner is an internationally recognized clinical psychologist, business consultant and family wealth advisor. She served as the senior psychologist for the Beverly Hills Unified School District for 19 years. She is currently the Senior Managing Director for First Foundation Advisors. An acknowledged expert on psychological issues involving wealth and wealth transfer, she was a presenter at the World Economic Forum in Davos-Klosters, Switzerland, and is a frequent participant at the high wealth/private client conferences for major financial institutions. She is a frequent guest on national radio and television and a quoted expert in national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, Times, Forbes, Fortune, Privilege, Town and Country and Worth Magazine.

Dr. Hausner is the co-author with Doug Freeman of A Founder's Guide to the Family Foundation, published by the Council on Foundations and is the author of the seminal work regarding wealth and the family; Children of Paradise: Successful Parenting for Prosperous Families. In addition, Dr. Hausner incorporated her unique six-step transition model for succession in family business in the critically acclaimed family business resource book Hats Off to You 2: Balancing Roles and Creating Success in Family Business, of which she was a co-author.

Dr. Hausner is a graduate of Northwestern University (BA, Psychology), San Francisco State University (MA, Psychology), and Kensington University (PhD, Psychology).

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