It's never an easy task to teach your children about something that they don't understand yet, but you know will be important in the future. Parents have said that money is one of the most difficult subjects that they've talked to about with their children, and that they'd much rather talk about anything else. However, it's also worth noting that children who know about saving and money matters are much more likely to be financially successful as they age, and that's worth any amount of trouble that you can go through in order to introduce the principles of saving to them.

Start slowly if you don't have any idea what you're doing, and make sure that you're prepared for questions that you might get. You're not giving your child a lecture on economics - you're just convincing them that it pays off to save money, and you can do that in a number of ways. Here are some methods that you might find to work in your favor:

Get your kid a piggy bank

Sounds silly? Not to your child, it doesn't. Piggy banks are one of the most simplistic ways in which you can instill the need for saving up money. Your kid should know that the more consistent they are and the longer they save, the more money they'll have in their piggy bank. Keep on monitoring their progress. After a few piggy banks are full, it's likely that your child will have learned something.

Move on to saving jars

One your child is accustomed to piggy banks, it's time to take things up a notch by moving them on to saving jars. They can have multiple jars for any number of goals that they have, whether it's saving up for their next video game or action figure, or simply to save up for a birthday present for their friend. This way, they can keep track of their own progress as well, and will know how far they have to go to reach their goals. Help them prioritize their jars so they know where most of their money should go over to. It might even help to put a picture of your kid's goals on each jar so they have a clear idea of which jar will contribute to which one of their goals.

Make time based goals

It might be difficult at first to introduce the aspect of time into the equation when your child is saving up money, but it's going to perfect the idea of what saving is in their minds. By creating deadlines for your child when it comes to saving up for their goals, you'll make it absolutely clear (although perhaps not at first for your child), how saving money works. They might not want to go into any detailed mathematics right off the bat, so try to introduce the concept in a more qualitative way to them. Make small milestones within time limits that you know they'll be able to manage, and then encourage them to meet these milestones within their given time limit.

Start a bank account for your child

This might not be the best idea for children who're too young to understand what a bank is and what's going on in that building when lots of tellers and people. However, if your kid knows what a bank is, and has successfully shown signs of understanding how saving works and how to manage their saving jars in order to meet their goals consistently, then it's time to open up a bank for them. Your bank will likely have an option for minors, and that's the best way to set your child up for their future. Once they get a feel for real banking, they'll keep going and will learn exactly how much money they've got and what they want to do with it.

It might be a little frustrating if your child thinks spending money immediately is more important than saving up for the future, but remember not to give up on them. They're going to require a whole lot of patience to get this down correctly. In due time, they'll learn the value of saving money for their future, and they're going to thank you for it when they've grown up.