Do you ever find yourself in the midst of paying bills, when your kids ask you what you’re doing? The answer is far from simple, and you may not have the time to explain the ins and outs of why you pay your insurance premium every six months instead of every month, or why you purchase insurance, at all. Before bedtime on a school night might not be the time to launch into an exposé on insurance premiums, but at some point, you’ll want to teach them about finances and insurance and how it all makes sense. When that time comes, here are some resources that just might help.
Money Sense
Before kids can begin to understand insurance, they have to understand a little bit about finances, in general. This website offers lessons suitable for primary grades as well as for upper elementary students starting to plan their spending and savings and beginning to learn how to shop around and invest. It also offers middle school students opportunities to begin thinking about living independently, from banking and budgeting to evaluating advertising and buying their first home.
Insurance and Risk Management
Back in the days of “Little House on the Prairie,” if you had a rough year for farming, you had to move or find another source of income, or rely on your neighbors. Unfortunately, if it was a bad year for you, it was probably a bad year for them, too. Thankfully, today, we have insurance. Instead of a “necessary evil,” our kids can begin to grasp the benefits that insurance offers. In this lesson for high school students about identifying and managing risk, kids are taught about various ways to minimize the impact of risk and how insurance is only one way to help us manage our risks in order to protect our assets.
Auto Insurance
This thorough lesson (downloadable PDF) informs teen drivers about the difference between liability and collision coverage, the role that credit scores play in determining premiums, and more. Instead of simply complaining about the legal requirements or accepting the first estimate they see, teens can become equipped to understand and dialog about the details of auto insurance — and take the steps needed to keep premiums as low as possible.
Health Insurance
Here’s a kid-friendly summary (downloadable PDF) of health insurance: “a business that collects money from many people, many who won’t become ill, so that the impact on those who do become ill is minimized.” The accompanying activity is something from which many adults could also probably benefit.
At the end of the day, we do want our kids doing more than merely paying their bills; we want them to understand where their money is going and why and to avoid making unnecessary expenditures and taking unwise risks with their money that limit their choices, later on.
Nicholas Agency
The Nicholas Insurance Agency, led by Greg Nicholas, is a family owned business serving the York county, Pennsylvania region. In the insurance business since 1981, Greg Nicholas helps families, businesses and individuals understand the value of different insurance products and make wise decisions when selecting the best insurance products for their specific situations.
Offering exclusively Allstate insurance products, the Nicholas Agency provides auto, homeowners, rental and landlord insurance as well as life & disability, recreational vehicle, motorcycle and personal liability insurance.
For more information, visit our two York, PA locations at Westgate Plaza or York Marketplace or call us at (717) 764-2024.
Image credits: Top © Piotr Przeszlo/Fotolia; 2nd © Marzanna Syncerz/Fotolia; 3rd © nacroba/Fotolia; 4th © diego cervo/Fotolia; 5th © Spotmatik/Fotolia
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