Search
Open Account
Apply For Loan
Locations & ATMs
989.777.3620
Contact Us
  • Save & Spend
    • Savings Accounts
    • Checking & Debit Cards
    • Youth and Teen Accounts
    • Open Account
  • Borrow
    • Auto Loans
    • Quick Cash Loan
    • Mortgages
    • Home Equity Loans & Lines of Credit
    • Personal Loans
    • Recreational Loans
    • Personal Line of Credit
    • Student Loans
    • Insurance
    • Credit Cards
    • Open Account
  • Invest
    • Certificates (CDs)
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Securities
    • Retirement & IRAs
    • Wealth Management
    • Estate Planning
    • Insurance
    • Open Account
  • Resources
    • Digital Banking
    • CashBack+
    • Schedule an Appointment
    • Financial Blog
    • Educational Resources
    • Fraud Updates
    • Calculators & Coaches
    • For Sale
    • UFirst Foundation
    • Important Links
    • Scholarships
  • Join
    • Why Choose United Financial
    • Membership Benefits
    • Open Account
    • Schedule an Appointment
  • Businesses
    • Business Services
    • Business Accounts
    • Feature Business
  • About
    • Mission & History
    • Newsletter
    • Community Involvement
    • Fundraiser
    • Credit Union Events
      • United Financial Golf Outing
      • United Financial Walleye Race
    • Hometown Hero Program
    • School Branch
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Member Login
  • Apply For Loan
  • Open Account
  • Save & Spend
    • Savings Accounts
    • Checking & Debit Cards
    • Youth and Teen Accounts
    • Open Account
  • Borrow
    • Auto Loans
    • Quick Cash Loan
    • Mortgages
    • Home Equity Loans & Lines of Credit
    • Personal Loans
    • Recreational Loans
    • Personal Line of Credit
    • Student Loans
    • Insurance
    • Credit Cards
    • Open Account
  • Invest
    • Certificates (CDs)
    • Cryptocurrency
    • Securities
    • Retirement & IRAs
    • Wealth Management
    • Estate Planning
    • Insurance
    • Open Account
  • Resources
    • Digital Banking
    • CashBack+
    • Schedule an Appointment
    • Financial Blog
    • Educational Resources
    • Fraud Updates
    • Calculators & Coaches
    • For Sale
    • UFirst Foundation
    • Important Links
    • Scholarships
  • Join
    • Why Choose United Financial
    • Membership Benefits
    • Open Account
    • Schedule an Appointment
  • Businesses
    • Business Services
    • Business Accounts
    • Feature Business
  • About
    • Mission & History
    • Newsletter
    • Community Involvement
    • Fundraiser
    • Credit Union Events
      • United Financial Golf Outing
      • United Financial Walleye Race
    • Hometown Hero Program
    • School Branch
    • Careers
    • Contact Us
  • Member Login
  • Apply For Loan
  • Open Account

How to Teach Kids to Budget This Summer

by Marketing | Jul 18, 2014 | Financial Tip

Do you want to teach your kids about budgeting this summer? Most youngsters –59%– felt they could be smarter about money, according to a survey this year from broker T. Rowe Price Group, showing there’s plenty of room for improvement. By doing fun budgeting activities with your kids while they’re out of school, you could help them feel more confident about their financial skills. Here are some activities to get you started:

Ages 3-5: Talk about choices

Your little one might not realize it, but he makes lots of choices every day about food, clothes and free time. Making good choices and understanding trade-offs are both important concepts in budgeting and can help your kid manage money more effectively later on.

The next time you’re shopping with your youngster, ask him to help you make shopping decisions. For instance, if the child asks for a set of markers and you notice that a pack with more colors is going on sale soon, ask him if he wants to get it now, or if he’d rather wait to get the larger package later as well as a small treat covered by the savings. These types of questions can help him learn about how having a little patience now can lead to a bigger payoff later on.

Ages 6-7: Make a 3-part budget

If you start giving your young one an allowance at age 6, as family finance expert Mary Hunt suggests, talk to her about how she plans to handle what she receives. Coming up with a budget together can help your child develop the skills to make smarter spending decisions.

For a fun summer activity, help her make customized budgeting jars for to collect money for spending, saving, and giving. Cut slots through the tops of three jars and help her decorate them with stickers or pictures showing her goals for each category. Seeing her goals every day may inspire her to budget more carefully.

Ages 8-12: Tour a credit union

While younger kids might resist the idea of putting money in a savings account, by age 8 or 9 they are often savvier and have a better notion of how financial institutions work. With school out for the summer, now can be a great time to help your child open his first savings account.

Take him on a field trip to your credit union and help him join and open a youth account. Some of these programs, such as United Financial Credit Union’s Dime-A-Saurus Kids Club, offer prizes each time a youngster makes a deposit. Have your child ask questions about fees, interest rates and rewards to help him understand those elements and get motivated to set aside more money in his budget for savings.
 

Ages 13-18: Draw up a clothes and shoes budget

If your teen is making some extra money at a summer job, use the opportunity to give her a little more spending responsibility. When she has to budget for both wants and needs, it will teach her about choosing priorities. Are new sneakers more important than the latest video game?

Leave back-to-school shopping to your teen this year. Before she visits her favorite stores, share shopping strategies with her and help her find coupons online, in circulars and newspapers. Have her create a spending plan and stick to it. By giving her the freedom to buy her own clothes and shoes, she’ll feel more confident about her ability to budget for needs while still saving for the future – skills that will pay dividends for a lifetime.

 

Cherise Fantus, NerdWallet

Recent Posts

  • What are FedNow Payments?
  • How to Start Building Credit Early & Why it Matters
  • United Financial Expands Cryptocurrency to Offer Nine Digital Currencies and Launches a feature for Self-Directed Investing
  • The Earlier, The Better: How Your Early Investments Can Affect Your Financial Future
  • Your 2025 Financial Glow-Up: Resolutions Made Easy with United Financial Credit Union

Recent Comments

  1. United Financial CU Delivers Acts of Kindness to the Community – United Financial Credit Union on United Financial Credit Union Employees Spread Acts of Kindness in their Communities
  2. Celebrating Credit Unions during International Credit Union Month – United Financial Credit Union on 5 Reasons to Switch to United Financial
  3. Why College Students Are Choosing Credit Unions Over Banks – United Financial Credit Union on Off to College? Take United Financial With You!
  4. A Family United-Serving the Community with United Financial Credit Union – United Financial Credit Union on Live, Work, Play: How United Financial Supports Local Communities
  5. Understanding IRAs: Putting your cookies in the right cookie jar – United Financial Credit Union on Intro to Saving Series: Everything You Need to Know about Saving Money

ROUTING NUMBER

United Financial Credit Union Routing Number is 272477241

ABBREVIATIONS

*APR = Annual Percentage Rate **APY = Annual Percentage Yield

Connect With Us

  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow
  • Follow

Accessibility

If you are using a screen reader or other auxiliary aid and are having difficulty with this site, please call 800-772-8728 for assistance.

Home
Contact Us
Locations & Hours
Holiday Closings
Privacy Policy
Disclosures
Accessibility

Copyright. All rights reserved.

Exiting our website

You are now leaving the United Financial Credit Union Web site. The web site you have selected is an external one located on another server. United Financial Credit Union has no responsibility for any external web site. It neither endorses the information, content, presentation, or accuracy nor makes any warranty, express or implied, regarding any external site. Thank you for visiting United Financial Credit Union.

Continue
Stay