“Never spend your money before you have earned it.” (Thomas Jefferson)

I have heard from several parents with grown children that managing money is a big problem. They don’t appreciate it, they can’t deal with it, whether it’s a lot or a little, it’s unclassifiable for them, it comes and goes. They ask their parents, they owe friends and colleagues, because no matter how much they earn, it runs out of their hands in a matter of days.

Since we live in a money-dependent, materialistic world today, it is important to be aware of its existence, to learn to manage, assign, and deal with it. According to my experience, teaching the value of money and how to manage it should start at an early age. That’s what “pocket money” is for. Our children are already 1.-2. they know numbers at grade school age, they are able to grasp the value of money. It also helps you learn to count, because if you want to buy something with your money, you need to know how much money you have and how much the thing you want costs. (unfortunately, school bans from cafeterias in lower grades do not favor this practice)

At elementary school age, a small amount per week is enough to gain the first experiences. Determine the exact amount, approx. HUF 3-500, to discuss what you would like to spend it on, what you would buy for yourself. When my sons were young, they usually spent it on sweets and snacks. Of course, they got less of these at home. From time to time, they saved it for a matchbox or a small Lego. Later, mother and father also received small attention on birthdays and name days from this. As the children grew, so did the amount of their pocket money, which they received every two weeks and then monthly.

When they became teenagers, they financed their own mobile top-up and movie tickets. If the specified amount of money ran out prematurely, we did not replace it, it was not “loaned”, although sometimes it was difficult to say no.

At the beginning of the adult years, a simple school notebook comes in handy, in which you can enter monthly income and necessary expenses (water, electricity, gas, internet, telephone, etc. bills) scheduled according to date, of course. This makes it easier to see our options, and we won’t fall behind with payments either.

If we earn more than what we need to live on, (we all hope so) some saving can come in handy. Set aside, collect, set goals, what we want to buy with our money. When we consciously observe our daily and weekly purchases, we realize that there are necessary and less necessary products that have entered our basket. For example, it was shocking to several of my friends and patients to see how much the 1 or 2 packs of cigarettes, soft drinks, and even energy drinks purchased per day added up to on a monthly basis. Putting this amount aside for a few months, she ran for the family’s vacation, not to mention their health. Or the several bags of chips and chocolate bars are an unnecessary expense, and they are not good for our health either. Let’s write a shopping list! This way, we spend less time when shopping, and if we don’t look so much, we collect less unnecessary things. “Shopping” can also cost you a lot if you’re bored and can’t find anything better to do than buy clothes and shoes when you don’t even need them.

This is also a learning process, you have to think it over patiently, you have to be able to resist the temptation several times, until you develop a management and money management that suits your needs.

“Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.” (Oscar Wilde)