Financial Literacy for Children and Teens
Financial literacy is crucial for everyone, including children. Financial education helps develop habits that support smart decisions and healthy living throughout life.
Help kids learn to budget their money into save, spend and share categories. Encourage them to earn an allowance of their own while taking on age-appropriate chores or part-time jobs to earn it.
Savings
Teaching kids how to save is essential, and there are a range of games and activities that can assist. They can learn about various savings strategies while practicing saving in a piggy bank or coin jar. Furthermore, it is vital that they learn the difference between needs and wants so they can make sound financial decisions when creating budgets.
Teaching kids to work part-time or launch their own businesses is another effective way of developing financial literacy. This is particularly relevant for low-income children, as they tend to be less financially knowledgeable due to lack of access and education.
Credit
Early financial education helps children establish credit histories that enable them to access loans and credit cards more easily, and also protects them against scams by understanding how these schemes operate and what signs to look out for.
One key lesson of financial literacy is distinguishing between needs and wants, including essential costs like food, shelter and healthcare, as well as non-essential expenses like entertainment or toys.
Giving kids hands-on money experiences like earning their allowance through household chores or running a small business can help build responsible money habits that will serve them throughout their lives. You can use apps such as Bankaroo to track allowance and savings goals for children.
Scams
While most scam victims tend to be older retirees who fall prey over the phone, children and adolescents are fast becoming targets online as well. Make sure your children and teens learn to be wary of online messages or calls asking for personal or financial data. Educate them as early as possible so they don’t fall for scammers online!
Discuss with your children app scams that collect personal data and phishing emails as well as anything that seems too good to be true – such as seemingly legitimate offers of employment. Explain that anything too good to be true likely is.
Address the risks associated with online auction and shopping scams which entice children and teens with offers of free items (like pet animals) or limited opportunities to buy them – often as an attempt to obtain their credit card numbers and take control of their finances.
