My nine-year-old daughter, Matilda, has a piggy bank overflowing with coins and no clear idea what to do with them. That’s not surprising—physical cash is almost invisible in our household. Like many families today, I rarely carry bills or coins; most purchases happen by card, online, or with my phone. While Matilda notices how I spend (and, admittedly, how easily I part with money), explaining bigger ideas like financial security, goal-setting and balanced money habits feels more challenging.
I want Matilda to grow up with practical financial literacy and healthy money habits. To help, I reached out to two money professionals for straightforward guidance on teaching children the basics of earning, saving, spending and giving. Below are their six best tips, rewritten in clear, actionable language you can use at home.
How to teach kids about money
1. Share your spending strategies
Begin by making everyday money decisions visible. Explain simple transactions—like tapping a phone at the drive-through—or why you choose one grocery item over another. If you order groceries online, have young children sit with you while you compare products, check prices and clip coupons. In stores, point out how you judge shampoo by price and volume to find the best value. Older kids can learn about loyalty programs, store selection and recurring choices. These short, honest conversations add up over time and build a child’s financial intuition.
2. Offer a good old-fashioned allowance (or hybrid allowance)
An allowance remains one of the clearest ways to teach money management. Giving children a regular amount—weekly is common—creates natural opportunities to discuss banking, saving and even simple concepts like taxes. Many families start allowances between ages eight and twelve, and using a basic bank account or a family finance app can deepen the lesson by showing how transfers and balances work.
Some parents worry that paying for household chores turns responsibilities into transactions. If that concerns you, try a hybrid approach: give a modest weekly allowance that’s separate from daily family duties, and then offer optional, paid tasks for extra earnings. Those paid tasks can be occasional projects beyond normal chores—organizing a storage closet, mowing the lawn, or other age-appropriate jobs. This balances the idea of contributing to the household with learning that extra work can earn extra money.
3. Create a beginner budget
Introduce saving from the start. Young children can save for a toy, and older kids can set bigger goals, like a new tablet or bicycle. Teach them to track money coming in and going out—this can be done with a simple app, a spreadsheet, or physical envelopes or jars labeled “spend,” “save” and “give.” Encourage autonomy: let kids make choices about how to allocate their money, and allow them to experience the natural consequences of those choices. Making mistakes is a powerful teacher when the stakes are low.
4. Encourage money-making opportunities
Provide chances for kids to earn on their own. A neighborhood bake sale, car wash, spring yard sale or fundraising event teaches planning, pricing, negotiation and customer service. These activities require children to organize items, assign prices, promote the sale and handle transactions, which can give pre-teens and teens meaningful financial autonomy. Start with adult support for younger kids and gradually increase their responsibility as they grow.
5. Include social responsibility
If charitable giving is a family value, involve children early in decisions about donating. Talk about why you give, how much to contribute, and which causes matter to your family. Make charitable giving part of a regular conversation—annually around the holidays, quarterly, or whenever your family decides to review financial priorities. Teaching the connection between money and social good helps children develop empathy alongside fiscal awareness.
6. Make learning about money fun
Children learn best through play, so turn financial lessons into games. There are family-friendly apps and tools that offer short lessons and supervised spending cards for older children, but simple board games like Monopoly or The Game of Life also teach basic concepts in an entertaining way. You can gamify chores, set saving challenges, or create a reward chart tied to financial goals. The key is to make money conversations regular and engaging without making them feel like lectures.
Personally, I plan to wait until Matilda is ten or older before opening a bank account for her. Until then, her unicorn piggy bank will hold coins—and our conversations will focus on what those coins are worth, how she might use them, and what she might want to save toward. Small, consistent lessons in real situations will help her build both a coin collection and a growing understanding of money she can carry into adulthood.
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