Photo by Kamaji Ogino from Pexels

Children’s day is an occasion to celebrate the joy and grace that children bring to our lives. It’s also an opportunity to equip our children with the awareness that will help them on the path of future financial security.

Here are some numbers, don’t worry these will be easy to follow.

If you invest Rs 10,000 today at an expected annualized return of around 10% –

• Its value after 10 years will be Rs 25,937

• Its value after 20 years will be Rs 1,74,494

• Its value after 30 years will be Rs 30,44,816

What does this have to do with your child and children’s day?

Just imagine, if this children’s day you give your child the gift of investing knowledge. Equip them to understand that saving a little and investing it can generate passive income and wealth on its own. With a simple gesture of investing Rs 10,000 today, you can gift your child Rs 30 lakhs when she is 35 or 40 or 45 years old. incredible, doesn’t it? But this is entirely possible.

The gift

There are two things that a good investment strategy needs, an early start and patience. If you have these two then wealth creation will no longer be a dream.

What makes this even more worth your while is that, once your child sees the benefits of an early start, they will begin their own journey to financial security. By making this small investment, you have not only gifted them a monetary advantage but also the knowledge that can save them from financial stress.

You can make the investment in a suitable mutual fund scheme in your child’s name and then forget about it for 30 years. Instead of showering your child with candy that can harm their teeth or toys that will be forgotten within days, gift them knowledge and awareness.

What more can you do?

To make your gift more than just a one-time gesture, you must also accompany it with a conversation around the importance of passive income and wealth creation. Wealth creation itself is not a one-time action, it’s a journey. The sooner you acclimatise your children to this journey the more useful it will be for them. In your everyday life, this translates as having open money conversations and also getting them to save on a regular basis. Thanks to technological advancements, it’s now easy to make small-sized investments with your phone at your fingertips. Use this as a tool to invest your child’s small savings on a regular basis. Show them the value of these investments at least once every month.

This way, over time, your children will be able to witness the growth of their money and also understand the role that volatility plays in this growth.

Many people struggle with investing in market-linked securities like mutual funds because of a late start and then difficulty in grasping price fluctuations. However, if you start early you can get accustomed to this early too.

These are simple steps to take but the effect can be long-lasting and hugely gainful.

Use this opportunity to teach sharing

Money is one thing, but it can have multiple forms based on the utility it provides. For children, understanding the dynamism that money offers can be transformational. At first, it will always be about fulfilling our own needs. You give your child pocket money and they will save for a toy or some candy or gadget that they wish to buy.

If they have saved well, they may even have some leftover money. Instead of encouraging them to spend it all, why not take this opportunity to teach them some sharing. You can buy 10 dairy milk bars with Rs 100, but after you eat the first 2 or 3, you will realize that the rest don’t tempt you as much anymore. It’s the same with all the things that children want to buy with their saved-up money. There is a joy but after a point, they will reach contentment and spending more beyond that will bring no incremental joy to them.

This extra can then be shared; with their friends or strangers who are perhaps less fortunate. Sharing and giving is a side to money which is often left till the last phase to be discovered. The amazing thing is that sharing always brings a smile, no matter if it is a charitable donation to the underprivileged or sharing a cake with a friend. This joy of sharing can be introduced to your children early in life through the medium of money.

Nudge them to share their extras always. Teach them to save, but also teach them to be generous.

The colour of money remains the same no matter what you use it for.

The gift you can give your child this Children’s Day is the gift of knowledge and awareness about the role that money plays in all our lives.

It is the gift of an early start, the gift of growth and the gift of giving. When all of this is wrapped up in the comfort of your soothing conversations, the gift becomes irresistible and precious.