toddler with piggy bank and a pile of coins

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32 Comments

  1. Interesting and very detailed article. I also agree that a child should learn as early as possible– just as no age is too young to teach a child. Learning to save is really important. Thanks for this.

  2. Thank you so much for compiling everything and helping us with this post. I am still messy with finance! But learning every day now. Will come back and read again. Thank you.

  3. My daughter is 5 will soon be 6 years old. I have always wondered when is the right time to start teaching her about money. Now that I have read this post, I feel confident in starting when the time is right. She got a piggy bank for Christmas. So she’s been putting money in it. That’s a start.

  4. Pinned for later! I’ve been working with my 2 year old on counting so this is fantastic! I love that you’ve incorporated other lessons like need vs want in this as well!

    1. Thanks, Ariana. It can be quite intimidating at first but I find, at least with my own child, that if you can get them to focus, a lot of learning can be accomplished. Do let us know how you get on! 🙂

  5. Hi Jade, great post.  Children are never too young to be taught critical life skills like personal financial management and the sooner the better in this “have everything now” world we live in.  It is a shame that schools around the world have failed to educate our children in financial matters so it falls to parents to pass on good money habits to their children.  Where this practice can potentially go awry is if the parents themselves are poor managers of money because their child has no independent source to provide good financial practices.

    Reading topical books to toddlers is always a good start.  When my kids were toddlers, two of my favourite books on money and investing were “The Little Red Hen” (reaping the rewards of hard work and investment) and Dr Seuss’ “One Cent, Two Cent, Old Cent, New Cent” (money management).

    With hard currency slowly disappearing as we move more fully into the age of electronic banking, I’m curious to know how  the parents of today raising the kids of tomorrow are going to be able to demonstrate good money habits that we all learnt through tactile games such as stacking coins, dropping money into a piggybank and playing shop where you gave change to the customer.

    1. You are amazing! I love the resources you’ve just given and the insight you have.

      I personally think that even if hard currency as we know it disappears, the values that can be gleaned from such games will remain relevant for a long time. 

      For example, playing shop doesn’t just teach kids about physical money – though it does do it quite well. It also helps them see – in real life – the concept that you need to pay for most goods and services. Virtually nothing is free.

      And this is true whether you’re using a card, an app or a coin. 🙂

  6. Wow, this is a great post. Though lengthy, but saw the article to be an interesting read at first, and then took the time to go through it. You’ve said a lot of amazing things about parent exposing their kids early to money.

    I’ve read Robert Kiyosaki’s book on Rich Dad Poor Dad and it’s somewhat similar to this post. Having children to learn about money at early age is something that will incur an excellent financial habits and help them in securing their future against economic downturns in life.

    This is one area I know that education will not teach people about money, how to make money. But we as parents should guide them, let them get to know how money works so that when they grow up they will do out rightly well and be financially responsible and independent.

    And I love the points you pointed out of what toddlers should start learning like counting, currency, etc.

    I think all parents should read this article. It will do us and our kids good in live going forward.

    Thank you so much for this.

    1. You’re welcome. I’m glad you like it.

      It’s an exhausting read but there are just so many points to cover.

      Also, I’m a parent who was in dire need of this kind of information. I couldn’t find any that painted a complete picture so I decided to create it myself. 🙂

      Thanks for reminding me of Robert Kiyosaki. I need to read that book again. 

  7. You have a wellspring of knowledge in this one article alone. I have made it my point to educate my sons on financial literacy. I add it in our conversations from time to time, so I don’t overwhelm them. It is funny how the conversation your had with your son about the toy sounds like the exact conversation I recently had with my oldest son about two weeks before Christmas. There was a toy he wanted, and  I responded just as you did. 

    But my son is old enough to do chores to earn his money, but we do teach him he has to save up for things even if he has the money on hand. I have learned, from my past mistakes, that you cannot spend all of your money at once. If you spend all of your money, what will you do in the event of an emergency? My dad is more financially literate than my mom, but he has never had a conversation with me about saving or investing. My mom is not financially literate at all, and now she is paying for it. I made a vow that I will break that cycle. And I lead by example in order to do that. A child’s first teacher is their mother.   

    1. That’s amazing! It’s great, isn’t it, when you can have an actual conversation with your child about these things?

      Like you, I have learned from my past mistakes and also came to the same conclusion. My child will be more financially literate than my husband and I combined (although since neither of us was financially literate until recently, that’s not such a high bar to set, really, in the grand scheme of things…but there you go).

      Thank you for popping by and sharing your thoughts and experiences. I agree that the child’s first teacher on finance is their primary caregiver. 🙂

  8. Interesting article. I think parents are often idealistic when their children are so young, and that’s understandable. I think for idealistic parents it can be especially difficult to start opening up the real world of financial distress to their young ones. Yet you have really important points here, about investment and how much better off kids would be down the line if we were open with them. Very much makes me wish I knew the value of money when i was younger

    1. Thank you, Sonia.

      Yes, it’s natural to want to protect our children from the often stressful world of finance but I think in this time of economic upheaval, it’s best that they’re ready for what the world could and most likely will one day throw at them.

      I believe that sink or swim is not a good tactic when it comes to teaching children about money. At least, not unless you start young so that you can still bail them out if they make mistakes.

      Losing £10 is a lot easier to remedy than losing £1M.

      And if the former happens often enough when they’re young, children will soon learn what to do and what not to do. If they’ve not experienced the sting or impact of financial loss before (and £10 is a significant financial loss to a child), the likelihood of them losing a huge amount of money in the future increases.

  9. Thanks a lot for such an amazing review about the best Financial Education for toddlers and explanation are given.

    I have a 4 year old who is starting to figure out what the money is. Although he is quite small, I was still trying to teach him a little financial education, which he can understand at his age, although it was very difficult for me, after reading this article it is easier for me to explain these things.

    Thanks again for this post. If you don’t mind, I will share this article on my social media account. Good luck!

  10. This is a very long post, packed with a lot of information though. I really need to bookmark it, can’t finish it in one go. After reading just your title of the post, 1st question in my head is, can a toddler really learn about financial literacy? Well, you answer the question afterwards. I think you are right, to teach your kids about the subject, the parents must be financially literate, otherwise how can they learn?

    I like the point you mentioned about allowance, practical is needed. It would be best if they know how to differentiate between assets and liabilities as taught by Robert Kiyosaki, then parents would be relieved about kids wanting to buy toys when going shopping 🙂 

    1. Yes, a very long post – nearly 7k words ha ha And I’ve had to cut it so that it doesn’t become too unwieldy. 

      Next month, I’ll be publishing a post on the financial resources available to parents and their children so stay tuned (it’ll be another lengthy post though because it’s a massive topic). 

      Hint: Robert Kiyosaki will definitely be there. 🙂

  11. Hello Jade, this is a good website with quality content, very high quality!

    I never thought anyone would write about how to teach financial to babies. Because to be honest, I feel they will learn it by themselves. However, after reading the data that you provide, I see that it is very true that finance must be taught to your child as soon as possible.

    I also have a 2-year-old baby, but every time he asks for a toy that I can’t afford, I just say no and he himself doesn’t have savings (like your child). But, after I think and realize this, I will teach him the same thing too.

    In addition, because of your writing, suddenly popped in my mind about teaching finance based on examples. How do I set an example for him so he can think of ways to make money? And, since when should baby start learning to make money?

    thanks

    1. Hi Kylie,

      That’s what I thought too – until recently.

      The truth is though because schools don’t teach anything about finance, it falls to us as parents to make sure that they form correct money habits and this can only come about if they have the basic money skills down pat.

      They need to know as early as possible what to do with any money they get so that when they’re getting the big amounts, they won’t deviate. And let’s face it, babies are so cute, they get *a lot of* money just for smiling. lol

      As for your questions, I think babies should start learning money as soon as they start showing an interest in numbers. At some point, you’ll notice that they start counting. That is, as I mentioned in the post, a major skill upon which all numeracy skills rest.

      That’s when you start – when you start teaching your child how to count.

      As for financial education for yourself, start with the book The Richest Man in Babylon, which I referenced in the post too. It’s a game-changing gem of a book recommended by so many successful people.

      Enjoy!

  12. Hey Jade, Thank you for writing the Ultimate Guide To The Best Financial Education For Toddlers. I enjoy your article while reading. I found one this very important for all to teach their child about money as early as possible. 

    You have done a great job for parents to guide their children about money. The best way to start teaching young children about money is to start becoming more financially responsible yourself. And then involve them in the process.

    I learn many new things from your article like we start off simple and easy because if you make it too complicated, your child will either lose interest or flat our refuse to learn.

    Thank you for your awesome guide. I am very thankful to you and also share with my friends and other to grow up their children with financial education.

    Parveen

    1. Thank you for your kind words, Parveen, and you’re welcome.

      It’s been proven that children have a great capacity for learning and the only thing we need to do is to teach them.

      Because schools don’t really teach much about finances if at all, the onus falls on the parents to give the correct information so that children form excellent money habits when they become adults.

      And the best way to do that, as you say, is to become financially responsible ourselves.

  13. This is a great post. I personally believe that our economy is a mess simply because formal education doesn’t teach about money, formal education teaches how to work for money not how to have our money working for us, and that’s the big problem. I believe with the information contained in this post every parent would give a better future to his children if he simply apply them

    1. Thanks, Randy. I suspect you’re right. It really should become part of the core curriculum because it’s a major life skill. As it says in The Richest Man in Babylon, the wealth of a society can be determined from the wealth of its citizens. 🙂

  14. hello there, thanks for this awesome article it would be of great help to the public as it has been of help to me. i must say that you have done a great job on this article as it is it very interesting and also informative as teach our children about money and also setting a good investment plan for your toddler is very important as I would expose to the system early and make their future more promising.

  15. hello, i really want to first appreciate your effort in putting this great website together and writing this article. i learnt to manage money right from a very tender age and so i try to inculcate that habit in my son, thanks for sharing your experience i believe i can learn some thing from this post

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