Ways to Teach Your Kids About Money on Vacation This Summer

If you’re a parent who has hesitated to include your kids in conversations about family finances, you’re far from alone.

Nicole Stanley, founder of Arise Financial Coaching, says, “Often we miss that opportunity because we think, ‘Oh, they’re kids. They shouldn’t think about money.’ But how we help them think through their first hundred dollars is how they’ll think about money for the rest of their life.”

For many people, summer travel is something you’ve saved up for, a time when your spending habits shift from your day-to-day, and an opportunity to experience different cultures and lifestyles. But that doesn’t mean everything else you’ve taught them about money should go out the window. 

A change in routine can offer fresh perspectives and a new chance to practice money habits kids are already learning at home. In other words, your family’s summer vacation can be the perfect opportunity to teach your kids some powerful money lessons. Here are simple ways to teach your kids about money on vacation this summer.

1. Treat Vacation as Home Away From Home

Vacations are often a time to relax and indulge, but you can still draw a connection between vacation treats and regular saving habits at home.

“When it comes to vacation spending, it should always be an extension of how you’re currently teaching your kids about money at home,” Stanley says. “Vacation is not just this nebulous experience where all money ceases to exist.”

Age-Appropriate Vacation Saving

If your kids get an allowance that’s tied to chores, for example, maybe you give them the opportunity to earn extra cash for the trip before you leave by taking on extra work around the house.

If they’re older, maybe they do odd jobs around the neighborhood or have a summer gig as a camp counselor, and you have them save a certain percentage of their income. They should do that leading up to a trip, rather than spending their entire paycheck on vacation goodies.

Be as open as you can about money, depending on your kids’ ages. Young kids can understand that your choices and habits, like working hard or being patient, help you budget enough money to enjoy some splurges on a trip. Older kids can help plan an itinerary and make choices about how you spend your time and money on vacation. Involving kids in the preparations and planning can set expectations and reduce stress.

2. Set Boundaries Before Kids Put You on the Spot

“One of the toughest things about being a kid, whether you’re five or 16, is when you don’t know the boundaries,” Stanley says. “Talk to your kids beforehand, because when they have clarity, they’ll make better choices.”

The conversation can be as simple as sitting down in the airport or in the car on the way to your destination to talk about expectations for spending during the trip.

Practice Delayed Gratification and Treat Budgets

Stanley recently took her kids, who are three and five, to Disney, where “everything is a gift shop.” Before the trip, she and her husband talked with their kids about how exciting it was going to be and how they were going to buy a special souvenir for each kid. They prepared the kids for the fact that there would be a lot of options and promised they could choose whatever they wanted, as long as it was less than $40.

This strategy allowed them to avoid having to say “no” over and over again, with the kids not understanding why, Stanley says. 

It also empowered the kids to weigh different options when it came to spending. “We told them basically that the first day we went to Disney, we wouldn’t buy anything,” she adds. The kids took in their options, made a list, and made a decision from the list later in the trip.

Offering choices and helping kids avoid impulsive decisions will set them up to avoid tantrums and disappointment.

Supervise Older Kids’ Spending

For older kids who have money saved from a summer or after-school job, set a limit on how much they can spend on the trip.

Maybe you say, “OK, you’re coming in with $1,200, but you can only spend $400 of it max on this trip because we have other things that we need to balance, like the car you want to get in two years,” Stanley says. 

3. Talk About Money in a Positive Light

Part and parcel of traveling away from home is seeing people and lifestyles that are very different from your own.

“The best gift you can give to your kids is that no matter how much money you have for a trip, make the conversations positive,” Stanley says.

Rather than cringing each time you have to say no when you pass a gift shop, candy store, or pricey activity, “focus on what you can say ‘yes’ to, whether it’s small or large,” she adds.

Try to avoid making comments like, “We’ll never be able to afford that,” judging other people’s vacation spending as wasteful, or complaining about how expensive the food is at an amusement park.

What Would You Do With a Million Dollars?

Instead, if you see a beautiful, elaborate beach house, you can say, “Wow, that’s a huge house. I wonder how much houses cost here compared to what they cost at home.” If a house costs $3 million, ask your kids if they would spend that amount that way, or what they would use it for instead.

“It’s a cool opportunity to get to know your kids and what they care about,” Stanley says. “Your job as the parent is to help talk to them about all the different things their money can go toward and help them make choices.”

4. Use What You Can’t Afford to Teach Saving

Of course, there are going to be things that you’d love to give your children on vacation that your family truly can’t afford. But this opens the door for a powerful lesson about delayed gratification and saving.

Say you’re at a beach or lake, and your teenagers see people renting boats for the day and going tubing. But taking out a boat for the day is expensive — and outside your budget.

You can say to your kids, “Man, that would be so fun to do. I would love to have that memory with you. Maybe we can brainstorm on how we could do that another year or how we can save up for that together,” Stanley says.

If they have a job back home, you can have them calculate how many lawns they’d have to mow or driveways they have to shovel to pay for half of that activity, she says. It may really matter to them, and they’ll find a way to make it happen next year. Or they might realize, “Dang, that’s a lot of money. If I have to mow 50 lawns to do it, heck no.”

Reframe Your Kids’ Thinking About Money on Vacation

A lot of parents end up feeling like the Big Bad Wolf of money on vacation — saying “no” over and over, stressing about spending, and ending up with whining, disappointed kids.

But if you involve them in the decision-making in an age-appropriate way, they’ll feel heard, understand that money is about choices, and learn powerful money lessons that will serve them into adulthood.