To a large degree, parents hold in their hands the destiny of their children.  The lessons they teach both by precept and example may have eternal consequences for their children.  This section addressed two important questions:  “What are those things that will make for happiness?” and “What must children learn to become a blessing to the world?”  I delineated those things as the spiritual and temporal things we should teach our children as we teach them about financial responsibility.

It is critically important to teach children financial responsibility.   If you do not teach your children, who will?  Parents have the responsibility to teach their children.

There are seven principles of financial responsibility that we discussed.  While these are not the only principles, they are important ones.  They include the following:  teach by example individually, teach by example as a couple, pay an honest tithe and generous offerings, teach family members early the importance of working and earning, teach children to make money decisions in keeping with their capacities to understand, teach family members to contribute to the total family welfare, and teach family members that paying financial obligations is part of integrity and honesty development.

The final area discussed was when to teach financial responsibility.  I discussed ideas of teaching both the spiritual and temporal.  I discussed what to teach young children, pre-teenagers, teenagers, college students and older children, and married children.

Now that you have completed this section, ask yourself the following questions:

1.   Do you understand the importance of teaching your children?
2.   Do you understand some thoughts on how you teach children financial responsibility?
3.   Do you understand some thoughts on when you teach children financial responsibility?