Diana Ser: Family & money

In an Instagram post, Diana shared the four main elements to her money parenting strategy she applies to when teaching her kids about managing finances: Budgeting, Experience, Accountability and Delaying gratification, or BEAD.

1. Budgeting

The mum-of-three said one of the first things kids should learn about money is budgeting. 

Learning to budget or how to allocate your money properly allows kids to prioritise their needs over their wants. In addition, budgeting also ensures that money is not only allocated to spending but saving as well. 

2. Experience

Similar to all aspects of life, there are a lot of things better learnt through time and experience. According to Diana, it is important that parents give their kids the opportunity of handling money on their own.

For example, when her kids need or wants to buy some thing, she would some times allow them to buy the thing themselves so that they can experience and understand how to use money and how to spend it well. 

Diana also takes the opportunity of teaching her kids the true value of money by explaining to them how parents need to work first before earning money to spend.

“[To have money], mum and dad needs to work. And money is what buys the stuff. That’s the practical value of a paycheck.”

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3. Accountability

One of the ways Diana teaches her kids about accountability is by allowing them to take responsibility of the money given to them.

Sharing one incident when one of her daughters asked for money to buy a green pen, Diana said she gave her two dollars and told her, “I don’t know how much a green pen is but please bring back the change and I want to see the receipt.”

With the need to produce the receipt and the change from her purchase, the experience allows Diana’s daughter to be accountable for the money she was given.

According to Diana, this allows her kids to experience independently buying what they need while learning to be accountable for how much they will spend and how much they need to return as change.

4. Delaying gratification

Delaying gratification is important especially nowadays with how easy it is to buy online in an impulse. According to Diana, it is important to teach kids about this because a lot of the things nowadays are available instantly.

“There was one time, I was sitting in front of a computer putting stuff into my cart and my daughter saw me and she was like ‘whoa, mummy, you’re buying a lot of stuff.’ But I turned off the computer without checking out. My daughter asked me, ‘what did you do that for? you have loads of stuff in your cart,’ and I said ‘well, putting them in the cart felt like I actually accomplished something,” Diana quipped.

Citing this example of how online shopping allows her to add things to her cart easily, Diana said understanding the importance of delaying gratification allows her to not check out immediately but instead sleep on it and get back to her shopping cart with a clear mind and decide what she really needs and wants to buy.

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Bonus: Keeping a savings bank

On the topic of teaching kids about financial responsibily, Diana shared that she and her husband, James Lye, keep a “savings bank” where they can put their extra change in.

“[My husband] started this tradition of having a savings bank,” Diana shared. “It comes in many forms,” Diana added, showing how theirs is an like a glass frame which allows their kids to see how many coins have been saved. 

“Having one where they can see the coins, they get really excited,” Diana said. The celebrity mum also shared that James would once in a while gather their kids in a “some sort of ceremony wherein they deposit the money in the bank so they know themselves how gratifying it feels.” Diana admitted that she initially found how her husband’s way of “ritualising it” as something “melodramatic” but eventually realised how much good it does for her kids.

“It’s very good for the children and I am very sure they will remember this when they grow up.”

Finally, Diana noted that when telling kids to save their money or talking to them about other financial responsibilities, parents have to be explicit in what they mean for their child to fully understand the concept of money. 

To watch the full video of the panel with Diana Ser, click here.