It doesn’t matter where your family is financially stable, or you’re a single parent that works hard to make ends meet. One important life lesson you must instill in your children is how to be frugal. It’s worth doing so from an early age as it sets them up for life when they grow up.

When your offspring know how to manage their money carefully, even from kindergarten age, they will make sound financial decisions when they must earn a living and fend for themselves. The following are five reasons that explain why this is such a good idea:

1. They Learn About Delayed Gratification

There’s no denying that delayed gratification is an important life lesson to teach your children. They learn that it’s better to resist the temptation of immediate pleasure, such as a new material possession, in the hopes of long-term value.

Delayed gratification teaches kids that it’s better to save up and wait for the things they want or make do with what they’ve already got. Without delayed gratification, children will grow up unable to resist impulse purchases and ultimately end up in a lot of debt.

2. They Learn How to Save Money

Some parents give their children a small amount of money each week as “pocket money.” If you teach your offspring to be frugal with their pocket money, they’ll realize they can purchase items of great value, such as a new bicycle,  if they’ve saved for a while.

It’s a life lesson they can take into adulthood, and it means they will be less likely to “cheat” and buy everything on a credit card or take out a loan to get what they want.

3. They’ll Understand How to Manage Their Finances

If your parents taught you about the importance of frugality, you’d have likely managed to understand how to budget for your expenses when you moved out of home and were studying for your college degree.

You will also have learned how to manage your finances after landing your first job, and you want to instill that into your children as they grow up. If your kids don’t understand frugality, they’ll end up broke most of the time and even have a mountain of debt to their names.

4. Frugality Teaches Kids How to Be Happy

The sad truth is that some of today’s youngsters feel that the key to happiness is having access to lots of money, irrespective of the source. Frugality teaches children how to be happy with what they’ve got and how it’s so rewarding to wait and save for anything else.

5. Kids Also Learn About Creativity

Lastly, it might seem like an odd concept. But, children can learn about creativity by being frugal with money.

For example, instead of buying something new, they can use creative ideas to refresh something they already own, such as painting a toy or putting new clothes on a doll.