With all the different ways that you are preparing your family for possible emergencies, are you taking the time to prepare your children for life as adults? It is surprising to see the number of young adults who struggle with the basic skills that they need to survive out on their own. I am listing five of the most important.
1) Teach your child how to budget. This includes writing a budget, sticking to it, tracking where the money is going, and analyzing the results. Along with this you need to teach your children the dangers of using credit and credit cards. So many young adults graduate from college with thousands of dollars in credit card debt, and nothing much to show for it.
2) Teach your child how to balance a checkbook. This really is an important skill. I worked as a bank teller to put myself through school. My branch catered to the college students. Several times each week students would come in, confused as to how they had overdrawn, baffled by the overdraft fees and other penalties and unsure of what to do next. They soon learned that an ATM balance is not very accurate.
3) Teach your child how to cook. This will save him a lot of money. It will also give him the opportunity to graduate with better health, than if he had fast food every day for every meal. You can do this by assigning your children to cook a meal once a week.
4) Teach your child the value of work. Many children go through life and feel that everything should be handed to them on a platter. Sometime reality will hit them, and they will realize in order to achieve the things they want, they need to work for them. The younger they learn this the better off they will be.
5) Teach your children to do the laundry. This is a mundane chore. But an essential one. Sitting down one day with your child and explaining the concept of sorting loads by color and which temperature of water to use will save them the headache of ruining their clothes later on.