The benefits of work…actually, when I thought about writing this blog, I didn’t think of touting the importance of a strong worth ethic and how we can teach that to our children. In reality, I wanted to write about preparing our kids for work in the real world not only by explaining to them about salary and making an income, but also helping them to understand the value of the “benefits” that may or may not be included in a job they might take.
I think we owe it to our children to help them to understand the often murky world of perks and benefits. After all, we teach them about the paycheck and savings and such, why shouldn’t we help them understand health care benefits, retirement savings, transportation reimbursement and other realities of working a traditional job in the modern world?
Of course, this probably isn’t a discussion for a parent to have with the average five-year-old, but as our children get older and start to look at what sort of work they will be doing–or even consider taking their first part-time job, as parents, we can help them understand more about what an entire compensation package might look like and how to consider the value of that when taking or keeping a job.
As we are explaining other grown-up concepts to our kids, especially things having to do with finances and budgeting and financial planning, we can also share what we know (and I know that it can be confusing and complicating even for the smartest and most benefit-savvy adult) about evaluating health and dental insurance packages, how to figure the value of perks and benefits that come along with a job in addition to the annual salary or hourly wage, and what sort of benefits are useful and valuable and which are fluff. The more prepared we can help our kids be for the work world, the better.
See Also: Counting Money and Making Change
Encouraging Kids to Think for Themselves
How Much Information About Finances Should We Share With Our Kids?