Banking for your 6 year old

5 min readMay 25, 2020

Today banking is our part of life. Most of the proceedings with money is related to banking. Sometimes we hear from our parents or teachers or some people around us use some words when they talk about money as Bank, saving, borrowing, account..

Saving money is the important part of learning. We should learn how to save money or how to spend money. Here’s a small attempt in demystifying “Bank” for a 6 year old.

A small conversation between father and daughter, Dhruti a 6 year old girl who is waiting eagerly for her dad at home in the evening. When dad returned home from office,

“Hi Dad!” said Dhruti. “Hi honey!” replied dad. “How was your day dad?” asked Dhruti, “its pretty good” replied dad.
“Dad, will you have something to drink?” asked Dhruti. “Yes of course, i would like to have some coffee dear” said dad.
“Dad, here is your coffee and I got some milk for me, come on let’s drink” said Dhruti. Both of them are enjoying their hot cup of coffee and milk.
“Dad, Can you buy a bicycle for me please?” asked Dhruti. “Why do you need a bicycle?” asked dad. “Dad, I want to learn bicycle and may be go to school in that”.
“Ok dear! we will buy a bicycle for you but now I don’t have enough money with me. Tomorrow we will go for Bank or ATM to withdraw money from my account and we will buy a bicycle for you.” said dad. “Thank You! Dad”, said Dhruti.

Dhruti’s thoughts are clouded with a tsunami of questions, why do we need to go to bank, what’s an ATM, why is the money only in the bank, why does dad always talk about savings.

She can’t hold further and asked “Dad, what’s Money!”

Money

Something that lets us to buy things we want. We get money by earning(working) or from our parents or grandparents as a gift for our birthdays or on any special occasions. We can save the money in the banks.

“Save the Money in the bank?” asked Dhruti with a confused look.

Bank

A place where it looks after the peoples money and keep it safe. It’s the place where we can save money or borrow money to buy things like bicycle, house, car etc,.

Saving

The money that you keep to spend for later. For example, you will put some money in your piggy banks safe until you get enough money to buy toys, books, chocolates….

“What if I don’t have enough money to save or buy things?” asked the little one.
“Then you borrow, or if you keep money in the bank for long time, you’d get interest on it” said Dad.

Borrowing

Taking money to use with the intention of giving back over a period of time. For example, borrowing of books from library and return back after a period of time, borrowing money from bank to buy house or car and pay back money in a given period of time.

Interest on your savings

This is the money that bank pays you for saving your money in the bank. Its a kind of reward for you not spending your money. The more money you save in the bank and longer you leave without spending, the more money you will get.

When you enter the bank you will hear some more words like account, deposit, withdrawal, ATM, ATM cards…. Let’s see

“Oh wow! we get more money if we save money in the bank? I think, I should save in the bank than in my piggy bank” exclaimed Dhruti. “But how will the bank know that I saved my money in their bank”.

“Ok, let me explain few more things for you” said dad relaxing on the sofa.

Account

It’s a record on your name in the bank. The bank keeps this record to know how much money you have given to the bank. You can put your money in your account when you want to save and you can take out when you need money. The more money you save, the more interest you will get from bank.

Deposit

The money we put in our account to save for later use. When you deposit money in your account your balance in the account goes up.

Withdrawal

The money which we take out from our account when we are in need. When you withdraw money from your account, the balance in your account goes down.

Transaction

Recording of money that is deposited and withdrawn from your account. This is the way banks keep track of every person’s money

ATM- AUTOMATED TELLER MACHINE

It is a machine that has money inside it and let the people who have account in the bank to take money from their accounts or check balances without going to bank.

ATM Cards

It is a plastic card that people use to take money form their accounts using an ATM. To operate this card we have a secret password called PIN ( Personal Identification Number). It is very important that not to share your PIN to others, if you do they can take your money from your account.

“Can I get my own bank account please” she asked. “Yes of course, let’s open a child account for you tomorrow when we go to bank. But for now lets go to sleep, its bed time already” said dad adjusting Dhruti’s blanket.

“Thank you dad, have a good night. I’m so excited about tomorrow!”