The 5 Money Parenting styles: Which one do you follow?

What kind of money parent are you? Take our 2-min quiz to find out.

All parents share the same goal: to see their children grow up to be confident, compassionate adults who are capable of fulfilling their potential while remaining resilient in times of adversity. How we achieve this goal, however, can be wildly different from parent to parent.

Parenting styles are very diverse. Some parents strictly control every aspect of their child’s life from screen time to soccer practice. Others envelop their children with hugs and live and let live.

A subset of parenting, money parenting involves educating children about attitudes on money, and teaching them the financial habits they need to help them succeed in life.

Saving money is just the beginning. Money parenting includes teaching children about how to make money, how to spend it wisely, how to invest, as well as how to give back.

The Asia Money Parenting survey was commissioned by Eastspring Investments and involved 10,000 parents from 9 Asian markets. It surveyed their habits and practices involving financial attitudes and money parenting.

To understand them better, we have classified these parents into 5 personas according to: 1) how important they view money parenting to be and 2) how active they are in money parenting.

Interested to know what persona you are? Take our 2-min quiz here, or read on to find out about these 5 personas.

Freestylers believe that real-life experience is the best way for a child to learn how to manage money. They are confident that their child will figure out everything in their own way and therefore need little guidance about how to handle or manage money.

These parents want their child to understand the concept of what money can buy through their own encounters and experiences, including bad ones. This is all part of growing up and learning about real life. They want their child to spend their own money, buy items for themselves, and learn how much things cost.

Freestylers are most likely to say, “There is no substitute for real life experience. A child has to learn by trial and error. They’ll soon understand how to handle their money.”

Similar to Freestylers, Facilitators also see real life experience as important. However, they also think that some parental guidance is required in teaching their children about financial matters, so they take steps to prepare their children for the future.

Some of the things Facilitators are likely to do is open a savings account for their children when they are born, or encourage their children to take up a part-time job. Facilitators believe these experiences can help their children become financially self-sufficient in the future.

Nurturers see money parenting as a serious matter. They devote much time to caring for their children, and providing guidance and clear advice to teach their child proper values relating to money, such as the difference between a want and a need.

They practise what they believe in as well. Nurturers are knowledgeable on financial matters (a large number of them own an investment property), and yet they still educate themselves regularly on financial matters so they can be a better teacher.

The Go-getters are confident in their financial knowledge, and their ability to pass this on to their child. They also purchase investment products for them at an early age. Their ultimate goal? For their children to be successful money managers.

They actively engage their children with:

• Lessons of different money management techniques
• A rewards system when they complete tasks
• Games that involve money, such as Monopoly
• Investment concepts and options for their future

Balancers — you guessed it — strike a balance between teaching money matters and learning through experience. They are neither uninvolved parents, nor are they too involved. They’re not demanding, but neither are they uncaring. They are also moderate in their views on the importance of money parenting.

Balancers teach that money is important, but also encourage their children to invest in other facets of life like play. Their children are therefore very familiar with experiences that mix learning and playing, such as education through fun activities and games. It’s all about the balance.

There is no right or wrong money parenting style. No matter what money parenting persona you are, remember that we all share the same goal to give our children the best start in life.

What’s most encouraging is seeing that almost all Asian parents value money parenting. Whatever your money parenting style, the ultimate winner is your children.