It's the start of the New Year - the time when people everywhere makes lists and goals of things they want to accomplish and achieve in the new year.  Working on the family finances is a resolution every family should consider, and taking a fabulous family vacation is a goal that every single member of the family can get in the spirit of saving for!  Depending on your kids' ages, here are some suggestions for getting them involved in the travel budgeting process:

Toddlers & Preschoolers

Get them in the spirit of saving by having them save spare change in the house (also consider bringing cans and bottles in for recycling if your state charges a deposit fee) for vacation souvenirs.  You can even supplement their stash - the most important thing is that they learn how saving small amounts leads to large rewards.  Visit this post to learn about how I successfully did this with my daughter.

Grade Schoolers

Teach your kids how to make financial choices and trade offs by making vacation decisions together.  Sit down with all of the travel information you've gathered and really decide on how you want to spend your money.  Do you want to stay at a more expensive hotel?  Or perhaps stay more days at a more reasonable hotel?  Talk about the choices and then vote as a family.

Older Kids

Let your older children actually do the vacation research, and then present the family with different options.  Give them a budget to work with, and hold them accountable to actually track the spending to the budget.  This is such a great way to give your kids the financial tools that they will use for their whole lives.

Do you have any other tips?  Post a comment below!

< Prev		Next >