Have you ever dreamt of owning a really fast car – or taking a month-long vacation – or buying season tickets to the ballet? As adults, we have savings goals that often require some pretty big sums of money to fulfill our wishes. We have learned to save to buy a home, maybe start our own business, or be ready for a long retirement. It turns out that those who are successful in meeting financial goals are really good at saving money. And we’re willing to bet these folks got into the habit of saving money early on. Like, when they were kids!

So where do you begin with your kids? Unless they were born with frugal genes, they probably prefer spending money to saving it. Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with wanting material things. Having a goal serves as incentive for achieving it. So let your kids dream of things they want, as long as they understand that it’s up to them to make it happen.