Wealth and Children

Wealth - if you don't have it yourself, then you can do your best to make sure that future generations, that your children specifically, have money.

First off, try to educate your children about money and the value of money as soon as you can. Make them realise how important it is to budget and to spend and use money sensibly. For instance encourage them to open a bank account to put in their pocket money and to ensure that they understand that it is not always good to spend money as soon as they get it.

If you encourage savings habits early in life then they are more likely to take these into adult life and manage their money well when they get older.

One of the best things you can do is start investing for your kids as soon as they are born. Putting money into the stock market is a good way to do this as historically, over a period of time, the income from the stock market has been attractive. Whilst over the short term it can be very volatile, over long periods of time you tend to get a much better picture as the general trend historically has been up over long periods of time.

Even investing small amounts such as £20 a month over the course of sixty years or so can lead to there being a million pounds accrued at the end of that period - not bad!

The bottom line is that if you want your children to be wealthy, then there are two important factors: one is saving for them as soon as possible and letting time do the rest. The second is to educate them to the value of money early on in life and get them to take an interest in money and saving their pennies where they can.

Whilst you aren't aiming to build mini Scrooges, being sensible with money will stand them in good stead later in life, and the steady investment of small sums over a long period of time will lead to there being serious money for them along the line.