When Is Financial Education for children too early?

[Namrah88]

Hi All,

Just curious to see other views on a semisensitive subject of life but one that cannot be ignored.

When should we be teaching our children about finance and having a relationship with money, & how should we be teaching them?

Also, is it a responsibility of the system, the parents, or both?

Would love to see what you think

Parents, from very early on.

It's a joint responsibility between parents and schools. I'm a Scottish primary school teacher.

Parents should start early with coin recognition and piggy banks at around 2 years old.

Parents should take all the 'natural' instances to have conversations like receiving a bank statement, using a cash machine, renewing the mortgage, financing a car, etc.

Schools do teach financial literacy throughout. Parents should know what is being taught and when. This is easy to look up online and easy to chat about at Parent Contact.

Approach this topic like Sexual Health and Relationships. Take every opportunity to talk with your child from as early as possible.

Pocket money from as soon as they can count. Let them work out how much change from £1 they'll get when they buy a 25p pack of sweets etc. Teach them to save, open a savings account, and teach them that if you get birthday money you don't have to spend it all on tat, you can save and put it towards something you really want.

It is built into your ethos for family life, so there isn't a starting point.

As the adult we should model good finances all of the time.
Demonstrate spending what you can afford, the value of money and the hard work needed to earn it, practical strategies to demonstrate saving and making choices to spend, a balanced view of debt ( depending on the reason).

This is all important but is increasingly difficult in a largely cashless society. I know only use cash to access a supermarket trolley - that's it! My 7yo indefinitely less comfortable with cash and counting change than I was at her age

*is definitely

Schools do teach financial literacy throughout. Parents should know what is being taught and when. This is easy to look up online and easy to chat about at Parent Contact.

@stargirl1701 - ime, schools don’t teach anything like enough on financial literacy! I heard 2 nurses discussing their payslips the other day. One was 19, so left school recently, as she was at university. Both of them seemed baffled by their payslips. I was too busy and stressed looking after DD ( especially having been woken up at 4 am by the police to go to look after her), to attempt to explain it to them.

According to DD, most people on her book keeping course struggle to calculate percentages, even with a calculator.

I make sure to talk about it in age appropriate language. DS is 5.

It's important to me he sees financial stability and good decisions modelled. We do spend quite a lot, and I don't point out how much things cost but he does know mummy works hard so we can buy/do the things we want. If he asks for something outside of my budget it'll come from pocket money.

I've recently bought a house that we love, and I've explained that this cost lots of money - and still does!

I don't have any hope he learns much in school - IMO he'll learn far more at home.

I don't think anything is solely the responsibility of the system. School should supplement what parents have already taught their child and vice versa, leaving everything up to school is not ok.

Just like Sex Ed it shouldn't be 'taught' it should be covered naturally as it comes up and in an age appropriate way. Have a one-off sit down talk is not good enough. No one remembers anything from that.

Early and Primary Years
Coin recognition
Piggy banks
Pocket money
Helping pay for things in shops with physical cash

Learning about 'Essential Bill' money and 'fun money' including being reassured that the essentials are always covered and that if a parent mentions not having enough money for X, Y, Z it's because sometimes you have to save up for the things you want and teaches delayed gratification. If you don't teach your child the difference then they go into school saying "mum says we haven't got any money" and the child brings home a food parcel that afternoon

Teenage years
Opening their own bank account
Get them to research various accounts available to them and the pros and cons of each one

Getting a job from 14
DD started working voluntarily at a charity shop 3 hours a week and I paid her £5 an hour. She has work skills ready for when she can move to proper paid work at 16 and has learnt financial skills.

Sharing your payslip
Show your child how much you earn and the deductions

Reviewing job advert
Look at salaries available for different roles Vs the job description
Put the salary into Salary Calculator to see what take home pay really looks like

Credit / Store cards
Teaching them about credit and store cards and the pros and cons of them

Mortgages
Looking at Rightmove at housecosts and how the deposit system works
Play around and see what salary would be required for which house

Financial decision making
Talk through your decision making processing on all big decisions including financial.
How you manage to balance those home repairs, big holiday, unexpected bill etc.

Various finance education tools are available online from different banks and other agencies

Never too early!
I got my carefulness with money from my parents. Late 80s baby I was a child through the 15% interest rates. I grew with a awareness that not everything could be afforded. My dad has said I had an innate ability to never ask for more than they could afford regardless of whether it was a year where they were strapped for cash or whether they were more flush.
We discuss money with my 4 year old obviously in an age appropriate way. We are considering more comfortable than my parents ever were but we set boundaries and her wants adjust to that.

I read somewhere that under 7 is key for setting the tone of money for children and their appetite for spending now Vs save and spend tomorrow. It's never too young to learn the concept that if you save a little you can buy a lot.

@WeWillGetThereInTheEnd

They certainly do. As I said, I am literally a Scottish primary school teacher. I have been teaching for 25 years. The old 5-14 curriculum did not have any financial literacy in it but CfE does. I literally teach it! My primary aged DC are taught it. I have seen their homework.

Thank you for answering my thread.

These sure are interesting views & experiences; it seems to be a lot more complex than one would imagine.

One thing to also keep in mind is that yes, it is partly the parents duty to teach the child about finances too, but if the parent(s) themselves are on benefits or never worked, etc., then what exactly are they going to teach them?

I appreciate the parents who work and try to provide who do not have time or confidence in finance to teach the child, but just like in health, if the foundation isn't strong, the growth will be weak, not just for the individual but also the economy, and we are already seeing it across the UK. Poverty affects the child first and also maybe longer.

My follow-up question is, if there are outside classes, would we be willing to pay for them, and if so, how much is a suitable amount?

@Namrah88 How much would you be willing to pay?

@TeenToTwenties depends how often it was and what came with it; if its a weekly thing and activity-based, not just theory, then i would be willing to pay £50-£80 per month.

How about yourself?

It’s never to early done age appropriately. Start with piggy banks and take it from there.

I don't think I would be willing to pay £600 a year!
A bit like I think GoHenry cards are a total rip off.

Ideally financial management should be modelled by parents. But it is difficult if the parents don't have the knowhow themselves. However if they don't have the knowhow, would they have £600 or even £100 annually to spend on this?

Modelled from day 1. Taught when they start learning maths

It's complex tbh and I don't agree with equating more money= you work harder.

There's a balance to be had there's someone on social media who charges her kids as young as 5 'rent' I do think let children be children, and finance conversations should probably step up around 9/10

Exactly.

this OP (and follow up posts) reads like a business doing market research.

Wow, charging rent at that age, I guess each to their own, & also the money likely will go back to the children anyway; its just getting them to think about how things are, I guess in a way created.

Children these days are in a way a lot more adaptable, etc. at a younger age as there is so much information surrounding them. When I myself was a child, there wasn't any social media; we only had the basic 5 TV channels, so you either learnt things in passing at school or through parents, etc.

Yes, I totally agree there; it in a way baffles me that it isn't already, unless I am wrong, taught as part of math, except algebra; maybe % what is taught in maths?

Percentage, simple interest, compound interest all taught as part of maths. Additionally 'best buy' questions etc.

Monzo allows children to have a card from
6 years old. Free if you have an adult current account.

AI answers by OP, I think

Some make no sense.

What is the point of this post?

I taught my kids "No" from toddler, that also meant when they wanted things from the shops. I said No to things much more often than Yes and they knew that everything cost money, even Santa collects a bill in January.

They had their own bank accounts from age 11 with a monthly pocket money that they had to manage it, no bail outs. Every birthday and Christmas they chose whether they wanted the gifted money in their bank or JISA, most of the time it was 50/50.

They are now teens and are thankfully quite sensible with their money.