Early-childhood saving

Today’s money question comes from a parent who asked: “What’s the first thing I should do to teach my children the basics of saving and investing? I made a horrible mistake with my oldest son, who seems to ignore all wisdom when handling his finances and I would like to do better for my younger children by providing them with useful information early.”

Capital & Credit boss Ryland Campbell advises: “When I was young, I was the chairman of the School Savings Programme that used to be operated in Jamaica, both in St Elizabeth and when I came to Kingston. In order to encourage and establish the basic background by which young people can understand the value and importance of money, you must teach your young child to save.

“Whatever you give them for school or any other purpose, you should teach that child to recognise that it is from that savings that they’re going to be able to build their own future. In my view, the best thing a parent can do for a child is to teach that child the value and importance of money and help that child to start a little savings programme somehow so that by the time that child becomes an adolescent, that child would have a sum of money put away for a specific purpose.”