Open this photo in gallery:Kids around age 12 are probably ready for a debit card, which will give them hands-on experience.LUCIA VAZQUEZ/The New York Times News ServicePlease log in to bookmark this story.January is a natural time of year to review finances. For parents, there’s the responsibility of paying for the day-to-day needs of children saving for their education, and teaching them money management skills. So take some time to check in on how you’re doing in these areas. Are there any changes you can make to fine-tune the financial aspect of parenting in 2025?Review your child-related expenses – how much are you actually spending?There’s no doubt that kids are expensive. And in the busyness of life, it’s easy to lose track of just how much we are spending. There are child-related expenses that are non-negotiable but there are many costs we can control. One pricey discretionary expense is kids’ activities: lessons, sports teams, classes and other extracurriculars can add up. If you are finding the cost and time involved aren’t giving you big benefits, consider embracing fewer activities. One obvious place to cut costs during the teenagers years is on cellphones, either by getting a used phone or a plan with limited data. Other ideas include planning simple birthday parties that don’t cost a bomb, buying big-ticket items such as bikes, scooters and skateboards secondhand, and taking simple family vacations.Check in your education savings planYour child is one calendar year closer to attending postsecondary education. January is a good time to review how much you expect you will need to contribute to your kids’ education. For older kids, you might know what they plan to do after high school – if that’s the case, put some numbers together to estimate what the total cost will be and compare that to how much you’ve saved already to see how far you still have to go. If you have no idea what kind of schooling your child will pursue, set yourself an annual savings target that you can review later on. Most importantly, try to take full advantage of the government’s Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG). This means contributing $2,500 a year to a Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) to get the annual maximum grant of $500 (up to a lifetime limit of $7,200). If you haven’t been contributing this amount in past years, you can catch up on the missed grants by contributing more than $2,500 a year – but note that you can only catch up on grants one year at a time, so it requires a bit of planning.Give your kids the chance to develop their money management skillsMany of our financial habits were formed when we were children. How our parents handled money and what messages they taught us shape our financial identity and habits as adults. Now that we are parents, we have the responsibility of teaching our kids about money. An effective way to do this is to give them autonomy by having their own bank account. When your child
Mer. Gen 15th, 2025
