There may come a time in your life where you aren’t making the money that you need to live comfortably. If you’re dealing with this on your own, you might just feel the need to buckle down on your spending and handle the debt collection calls until you’re able to make it through this time. But if you have other people relying on you financially, like a family, knowing how to deal with this as a family unit can be a little more challenging, especially when it comes to your kids. 

To help you see how you can best deal with this, here are three tips for speaking with your kids about family financial issues. 

Try Not To Frighten Them

If you feel that the time has come that you need to address your family financial issues with your children, your main goal should be not to frighten them with the things that you say. While things might be a little scary for you at this point in time, you don’t need to put this amount of stress and fear into your child, if you can help it.

Rather, when speaking with your kids about your financial troubles, try to stay as calm as possible. If you’re feeling emotional, you might need to wait a few days until you can think about and speak about what’s going on without becoming overly emotional. If your kids see that you’re sad and scared, they will become sad and scared as well. But since making them sad and scared isn’t your intention, you should do everything in your power to not let this happen as you have this conversation. 

Speak To Them Based On Their Understanding

What you say to your kids about your financial issues should vary based on how old your children are and what they understand about the world around them.

For little kids, you might just want to share that you won’t be able to buy as many things as you have before. For your older kids, you might want to share more about what’s going on and why this is happening. Be ready to address questions, but don’t share too much that your kids don’t need to know or won’t understand. 

Share How Things Will Be Changing

What your kids will be most concerned with is how your changing financial situation will impact them and their way of life. If you’re going to have to make changes to your budget, share this with your kids so that they have adequate expectations about what you can afford and what you can’t afford at this time. 

If your family is having financial issues, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you learn how to speak with your kids about this change in your situation.