Financial Literacy for Kids: Ways to Teach Kids About Money
Teach your kids about money and better financial habits. Start teaching financial literacy for kids at home & access our resource list today!
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Financial Resources for Kids: Best Ways to Teach Kids Financial Literacy
Is your wallet more mystifying to your child than the lost city of Atlantis?
It can feel intimidating, sure. But that’s okay. You’re not alone in this journey of teaching them about money.
It’s a big world, after all, and teaching your kids how to navigate it financially is no small task. Maybe you’re thinking, “Am I starting too soon? Are they ready?” or even “Where on earth do I find resources to make this less daunting?”
That’s where this post comes in. We’ll be going over a comprehensive list of resources you can use to teach your children about money.
Now, imagine a world where your child understands the difference between wants and needs, makes the right financial decisions, learns to set financial goals, and even starts to save for their future. You can rest easy that they have a healthy relationship with money and that when they’re adults, they’ll be able to manage their money so they can weather any life shocks that may come their way.
Sound good? Let’s begin.
Financial Literacy Videos to Cultivate Good Money Habits
This list of free financial literacy videos (all available on YouTube) is by no means comprehensive. You obviously won’t learn everything you need to learn about dealing with money from them.
But they’re a heck of a good start.
These are the videos that opened my eyes and completely changed the way I handle my finances.
I really wish I’d learned them 20 years ago.
I’d have been leading a completely different life.
What to Do With the Dollar by Jim Rohn
In less than ten minutes, you’ll discover Jim Rohn’s famous magic formula for financial success – including how much to budget for your savings account.
It will teach your children the most important money management skills and while the video was originally designed for kids, it’s an eye-opener for many adults too.
In fact, I didn’t even know about this formula until recently, and I’m over 30 years old!
This is the first rule you need to learn and you need to learn it early so make sure that you watch this video.
Financial Literacy in Under Four Minutes by Robert Kiyosaki
Robert Kiyosaki of Rich Dad, Poor Dad fame talks about his world-famous quadrant, the one that differentiates the employee, the self-employed, the business owner and the investor. And you’ll learn, in these short minutes, where Rich Dad is in the quadrant, where Poor Dad is in the quadrant – and why you need to move from the latter to the former.
You’ll also learn about assets and liabilities; they’re not what you think they are.
So, if haven’t read his book yet, watch this video and then read his book.
7 Financial Skills I Wished I Would have Learned in High School by Jeff Rose
The statistics are dire and show that we need financial education and we needed them yesterday.
This video gives you the seven basic financial skills that you should’ve learned back in high school.
Watch this and learn.
The 10 Rules of Money by Jeremy Lefebvre
This is a really good video when you’re just starting out in your financial education journey. It goes over the ten rules you need to learn to financially succeed in life.
Jeremy’s take on taxes, emergency funds and personal debt will really hit home, and encourage you to start making changes in your lives to maximize your financial benefits.
This is an excellent springboard to greater financial awareness.
Financial Books for Parents to Learn About Money Management
One of the best ways kids can learn good money habits is for them to be involved in money conversations early on. Kids see what goes on anyway; they don’t always understand them, but they can see them.
They can sense, for example, when the adults in their lives experience debt stress.
So, they need to see their parents actively learning about personal finance, making good financial choices, and cultivating a positive money relationship.
They need to see their parents practicing financial self-care.
And one of the best ways to do that is to start reading books.
The following list covers finance books that you should read as part of your personal financial education. Once the time is right, you can then pass it on to your kids.
The Richest Man in Babylon
If you have zero financial knowledge, The Richest Man in Babylon is the first book you need to read. It breaks down everything you need to know in an easy-to-understand and easy-to-implement ways.
The book is also in story form, so it’s quite enjoyable.
If you can only read one book, then this is the book for you. I honestly believe that it would be life-changing for both parent and child.
Buy it now and enjoy!
The Wall Street Journal Financial Guidebook for New Parents
One of the many reasons why I started a family late was finances.
With the global economy as it is, it just seems harder to have children. In fact, I have a few friends who’ve decided that they couldn’t afford the cost of a child and so didn’t want to start a family!
Now, if you’re a parent or you want to be and you’re beginning to feel the pressure to become financially stable (don’t we all, though?), this book is the one you need to read.
It teaches you how to:
- Safeguard your child’s well-being with wills, trusts, and life insurance
- Best weigh your child-care options and decide whether to go back to work
- Save on taxes with child-friendly tax credits and deductions plus tax-advantaged benefits at work
- Manage your family’s health-care costs
- Save for long-term costs by setting up a college fund
- Spend smart and save money at every stage of your child’s development
- Continue to contribute to your own retirement savings
In other words, It gives you all the information you could ever need to meet your child’s expenses while at the same time making sure that you don’t bankrupt yourself doing so.
Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money
If you respond more to personal stories rather than dry, factual text, this is the book for you.
It’s even more effective because it’s presented by Dave Ramsey, America’s foremost expert on money and business, and his daughter, Rachel Cruze, #1 New York Times best-selling author who helps people learn the proper ways to handle money and stay out of debt.
Together, they tackle the important money lessons you need to be teaching your kids:
- Where money comes from
- The value of hard work
- How to save, spend, and give
- Debt, and how to avoid it
- Paying cash for college
- Living responsibly
The Opposite of Spoiled: Raising Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money
Kids who are spoiled and entitled – doesn’t that sound like every parent’s nightmare?
This book will help children learn how money works and appreciate its worth, and you’ll be able to help kids:
- Navigate materialistic trends and peer pressures
- Learn how to wait for what they want
- Manage money expectations
- Understand that different rules may apply in different scenarios
- Appreciate trade offs (such as spending less now in order to have more money later)
- Become more grateful, humble, compassionate and understanding
- Grasp how much is enough
This is one of the best books you could read if you want to learn how to teach financial decision-making skills.
LAUNCH: How to Get Your Kids Through College Debt-Free and Into Jobs They Love Afterward
Okay, so the specificities when it comes to getting financial aid might be US-specific but the rest of the book isn’t.
At its core, this is a parenting book, written to help parents raise strong, driven, thoughtful children who care about the world around them.
The author has 23 years’ worth of experience in curating “every possible good idea for succeeding brilliantly in college, graduating debt-free, and moving directly into satisfying and well-paying career after college.” You’ll learn your child can achieve his highest (and often most expensive) goal, without having to take out a student loan.
You’d be surprised at the possibilities.
Blue Chip Kids: What Every Child (and Parent) Should Know About Money, Investing, and the Stock Market
The age range for this book is between 8-12 years old.
But, if you’re like many parents of our generation, your understanding of money may need a little improving. This book can help you change that.
Financial Story Books: A Great Way to Teach Financial Literacy
Because financial literacy is important, you could give kids a head start and teach them great money habits early in life. One of the best financial literacy activities you can do is read books that encourage your child to learn the importance of managing their own money.
Here’s a list of books I think make a positive difference!
Money Ninja
The Ninja Life Hacks series provides for kids what the website Lifehack does for adults: entertaining but practical tips on how to life.
This particular book in the series shows the value of delayed gratification and teaches children about money, without boring your kids to sleep.
It’s also geared to kids as young as three so you can really start or even ramp up your financial education in the toddler years.
How the MoonJar was Made
This is a gentle story book that will help your kids learn:
- How to spend their money
- How much money to allocate for specific things
- How to budget
These skills will allow them to meet their financial responsibilities when they’re older.
This book also works best when combined with the Moonjar Three-Part Moneybox (see below), which is a modernized version of the classic piggy bank. It contains three tin canisters. Each canister has either save, spend, or share on the side.
Give, Save, Spend with the Three Little Pigs
Many young children know the story of the three little pigs and makes this book super effective.
It’s a sequel to the original fairy tale. The pigs, having learned the value of hard work and brick houses, started a construction company that build strong brick houses to protect everyone from the big bad wolf who has come back.
Demand and profits are high.
Now, the question is: what do we with the money?
Read this classic fairy tale sequel which “teaches kids a safe and practical approach to managing money”.
Lemonade in Winter
Major heads up for my readers who live outside the US, this is a book that will introduce your children to the US currency.
So, while the basic skills are the same and children do need to know that different currencies exist, it may not work if you’re not using the American dollar.
While the amounts match, the number of coins involved in every transaction is different. For example, the British pounds doesn’t have a quarter.
This would be a highly recommended book for my US-based readers, but if you’re outside, choose one of the other books on this list.
Curious George Saves His Pennies
Just like Lemonade in Winter, this book talks about American currency so it may not be relevant to people outside the US.
But if you’re using American dollars, then this is a fantastic way to start your financial education with your child.
Not only does it contain a press-out coin bank and an activity page which will show your child how bills and coins work but it’s also got a fun story about Curious George saving up for a special red train in the toy store.
Financial Apps to Teach Financial Literacy to Kids
Of course, you can also turn to technology to provide financial literacy education, allowing your children to practice their ever-growing money skills in a safe space.
There are thousands of counting apps, number recognition apps and basic math skills app in all available app stores.
You just need to choose whichever one serves your needs at the moment. We like:
- Super Numbers
- Wizard 1 2 3
- Pigby’s Fair
- Real Estate Tycoon
Super Numbers and Mathseeds
Super Numbers and Mathseeds are two fun ways to teach your kids personal finance skills at a young age. Before you know it, they’ll be able to count on their own, recognize the numbers and start becoming aware of the relationship between numbers and quantities.
These apps also each include a tracing game where children will learn the basics of writing a number.
Seem too simple? Not at all!
The skills these apps teach are important parts of financial literacy and are the building blocks of a sound financial education program.
Pigby’s Fair
Designed by NatWest and Aardman, Pigby’s Fair is a simple app that will teach younger children about saving and spending by using virtual money.
In other words, you don’t need to give your child an allowance first if you don’t feel it’s the right time.
You can simply download this app, help them get set up and let them start playing.
One thing I really like about it is that it doesn’t include any in-app purchases, is free to download, and you don’t even need to be a bank customer to play with it.
The premise is simple.
The app will take your child “on a trip through an animated fairground where they can manage their own stall, develop new stock, and earn virtual money that can be deposited at Pigby’s Bank.”
Your child will unlock new levels and items when they reach their savings goals, so they also learn the value of SMART goal setting.
There are three fairground attractions to play along the way – Crockery Smash, Zapp! and Hook-a-Duck – to keep things exciting.
Real Estate Tycoon
If you want something a little bit more challenging that can be a great starting point for older kids, then Real Estate Tycoon would be perfect for you. It took me over five tries to clear the first level of career mode mainly because, in the beginning, I didn’t really understand how to play the game properly (as you can see in the image below, I’m not doing too hot in this particular attempt).
I do think that this is an excellent game to play because it’s built on the underlying principle behind real estate profitability: buy when the price is low, sell when it’s high. The first level required me to make $1,000, the second level upped the ante to $1,500, the third to $4,800, and so on.
My son eventually joined the game, and once I explained the rules, did so much better than I did (figures!). This is his Level 2 attempt:
I highly recommend this game. Just remember: To really get the most of it, a discussion will need to be had before and after playing.
Screen-Free Financial Games to Teach Kids About Money
Want your kids to benefit from a financial education but don’t want to rely on screens to do it?
You can try the following toys as well as some role-playing games.
Orchard Toys
Below is a list of all the money games we’ve tried and enjoyed. They’re all designed to help your child develop their basic math skills and remember what they’ve learned.
Enjoy!
- Moose Games Magic Maths Game
- Number Bears
- Rocket Game
- Shopping List
- Shopping Trip
- Spotty Sausage Dogs
Role-Playing games
It’s no secret that young children love playing pretend.
So, join them in their world but incorporate money lessons when you can. Just make sure your lesson fits well into the game instead of forcing the game to suit the lesson.
For example, if you’re racing cars, you can ask your child, the following questions:
- How many cars are there?
- How many cars do you have in your hand?
- How many cars do you have in total?
- I’ve got four cars and you’ve got five, who has more cars?
You can also play games that involve more financial lessons like role playing a shop assistant or a banker.
My son has a play kitchen and it’s easy to just “buy” some fried egg in exchange for small amounts of money, which introduces the concept that you have to pay for something and teaches them how to spend money.
When they’re older, you can also start really diving deep into the math of it: put prices on the food, know how much money they have, and encourage them to engage in decision-making activities.
The only limit is your imagination.
Financial Literacy is Important. Teach Kids About Money Now!
As you can see, we could all do with proper financial planning. That’s only possible when we receive a sound financial education, which can start early.
The benefits of such an education are huge and far-reaching, impacting all eight pillars of self-care, and helping us face life’s challenges with more confidence.
The resources in this post will help you get the financial education you and your children need.
Many of them are free.
Most of them are fun.
All of them can change your life.
What are you waiting for? Change your life now!
Note: The information on this website is for general information only, and is not a substitute for medical, financial, or legal advice. You, or anyone you are concerned about, are encouraged to seek independent medical, legal, financial, taxation or other advice to check how the website information relates to your unique circumstances. If you or the person you are concerned about appear at risk of self-harm or harm to others, please seek immediate professional assistance.
