The best way to teach kids financial literacy is in the context of their everyday lives. Here’s this month’s teachable moment:

The season for gift buying and giving is behind us and we’ve headed into the season of returns and exchanges. Admittedly, not as exciting as shopping for great deals on presents, the mundane tasks that are required in order to effectively manage money need to be addressed for a solid financial foundation to be built. Enter receipt management.

The first teachable moment comes when your child receives a receipt from buying or receiving a gift. Instead of you hanging on to the receipt, turn the responsibility over to him. Have him write ‘RECEIPTS’ on the outside of an envelope or file folder and “file” the receipt. Choose a safe location to keep the filed receipts, preferably next to his bank statements (yes, those need to be filed, too!). As kids get older, they’ll need to create separate files for different receipt categories such as ‘CELL PHONE’ and ‘CAR’.

The second teachable moment comes when your child actually needs to use one of those filed receipts. With you at his side, have him complete the return/exchange transaction with the salesperson. To solidify the importance of keeping receipts, have him ask the salesperson what would have happened if he had shown up without a receipt. He’ll learn that most stores will not give full credit without a receipt, and some won’t even take the item back. That’s lost money.

Teaching your child how to keep track of his receipts may not earn you Parent of the Year Award…until that $500 stereo he just bought stops working.