I'm a Financial Literacy Expert: Schools Can Teach Kids About Money, But Guess Who They Learn From the Most?
Schools are increasingly expected to teach children how to manage money, but classroom learning pales in comparison to good examples set by parents and grandparents.
For decades we have argued about where kids should learn about money. Schools? Parents? Somewhere in between? Here's the uncomfortable truth: Financial literacy is not a school subject. It's a family subject.
You can teach algebra in a classroom. You can teach history in a lecture hall. But money? Financial literacy is not about raising kids who know what a mutual fund is. It's about raising adults who understand choices, consequences and responsibility.
And those lessons don't start in a classroom. They start at home… around the dinner table, in the grocery store aisle, and during conversations about work, saving, generosity and goals.
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Every family passes something to the next generation — habits, values, stories. Money wisdom should be one of them, because when families talk openly about money, they don't just build smarter kids. They build stronger futures.
And increasingly, those adults include not just parents, but grandparents. In today's complicated financial world, money education must become something that flows through generations.
Kids learn money the way they learn language
No one sits a toddler down with a grammar textbook and says, "Today we're learning verbs." Children learn language by hearing it used every day. Money works the same way.
If kids hear conversations about family finances, they absorb those lessons naturally. If money is treated as a mysterious, secretive or stressful topic that adults avoid discussing, children grow up equally uncomfortable talking about it.
When parents say, "We can't afford that," they miss an opportunity, and may be lying. A better phrase is: "We're choosing to spend our money on something else." That simple shift teaches a powerful lesson: Money is about choices.
The quest to raise financially literate children has been my life's work. I pioneered the concept back in the '80s, and my book Money Doesn't Grow on Trees: A Parent's Guide to Raising Financially Responsible Children was a trailblazer.
In it, I wrote that children should learn four things early: Earning, saving, spending and sharing. These are not abstract ideas. They are habits. And habits should start young. Parents celebrated the topic by making the book a New York Times No. 1 bestseller.
Parents set the tone
Parents are the first and most influential teachers of money. Yet many parents feel unprepared for the job. They assume financial education requires sophisticated knowledge of investments, taxes or markets. It doesn't. What children need most is transparency and example.
Let them see you compare prices at the store. Explain why you save for vacations or emergencies. Talk openly about goals like paying off a mortgage or saving for college. Kids don't need lectures. They need context.
The first context around money is: The only way you get money is to earn it. Kids should do chores to earn money. There are two types of chores within any household: Citizen of the Household Chores, where they pitch in and help the family without pay, and Work-for-Pay Chores, where they receive pay (allowance) for doing work around the house.
After kids earn their money, they learn the habit of budgeting. When children divide their money this way, they begin to understand the flow of money through their lives. It's simple. It's visual. And it works.
My four-jar budget system
- The first jar is for charity. Ten percent comes off the top to give to others who need it. It's not just money that you will teach your kids to give — it's also their time, through volunteer work, as well.
- The second jar, or 30%, is for instant gratification — I call it quick cash. They worked hard for their money and should get to spend that each week on what they want.
- The third jar, 30%, is for medium-term savings. You are teaching kids to set a goal of a few weeks or months, depending on their age, and learning to push off instant gratification to save for something greater in cost.
- The fourth jar, 30%, is for long-term savings, such as college, a home or even retirement. Does a five-year-old understand the concept of long-term savings? No. Do the adults in America understand the concept of long-term savings? No. But it will become a habit if you start young.
The grandparent factor
Today, a powerful new teacher has entered the financial literacy conversation: Grandparents. Grandparents often have something parents don't — time and perspective. They have lived through recessions, market crashes, inflation spikes and economic cycles.
They have stories about mistakes and lessons learned. And children love stories.
Grandparents also have an opportunity to model generosity and long-term thinking. Whether it's contributing to a college savings plan, helping a grandchild start a small business, or simply talking about how they earned their first dollar, these conversations carry enormous weight.
I often tell grandparents: Don't just give money — give wisdom with it. If you give a grandchild $100 for a birthday, use it as a teaching moment. Ask how they plan to divide it between saving, spending and giving. Suddenly, a gift becomes a lesson.
Why schools can't do it alone
There has been growing enthusiasm for financial literacy classes in schools, and that's a good thing. Many states now require personal finance courses for graduation. But schools cannot carry the burden alone.
A semester-long class cannot compete with 18 years of observing how adults behave with money. If a child learns about budgeting in school but sees financial stress, secrecy or impulsive spending at home, the home lesson wins every time. Financial literacy sticks when it becomes part of everyday life.
The family money conversation
Families don't need complicated curricula to teach money. They need conversations. Talk about how you make financial decisions. Discuss the difference between wants and needs. Share stories about jobs, entrepreneurship and mistakes.
In fact, some of the most valuable financial lessons come from mistakes. In Get Off Your Assets, I wrote about how important it is — especially for women — to understand their financial lives and take control of them by planning for things that can happen down the road. That lesson applies across generations. Confidence with money begins with familiarity. And familiarity comes from talking about it.
Start with these simple habits:
- Talk about money decisions out loud. Let kids hear how you decide between spending, saving and delaying purchases
- Use my four-jar system. Saving, spending and giving. Children understand money best when they can see where it goes
- Share your money stories. Tell kids about your first job, your biggest financial mistake and your proudest financial achievement
- Let kids make small financial choices. Whether it's allowance or gift money, learning comes from making decisions and seeing the results
- Involve grandparents. Grandparents bring experience and perspective that can make financial lessons memorable
A skill that travels through generations
When families share financial wisdom, something powerful happens: Knowledge compounds.
Children who grow up understanding money become adults who manage money wisely. When they have families of their own, those lessons pass forward again. Financial literacy stops being a one-time lesson and becomes a family culture.
And that may be the most important investment any family can make, because money doesn't just shape our bank accounts. It shapes our choices, our opportunities and the future we pass on to the next generation.
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