How to Teach Kids About Finance

Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees: How to Teach Kids About Finance

Paige McCullough  Wed, September 8, 2021

When we think of the finance industry, children don’t often come to mind. Dependent on others, kids, of course, don’t pay the bills or contribute to the finances in a household, and often parents don’t think children should even need to think about money.

But maybe children should. Instead of being let loose into the world of personal finance when they turn 18, what if that process was a gradual one built on milestones and lessons learned in a controlled environment? One in which children can take some ownership of their finances and be better prepared for their financial future. To see how this can take action, I talked to two financial app companies who prioritize children in their services, Till and Acorns.

When founder Taylor Burton set out to start Till, a family banking app, he had kids in mind. “I’m from the Midwest, and we don’t talk about drugs, sex or money. Those are all taboo topics, and the end result is a bunch of young people that are underprepared when they enter the economy. So, in partnering with my team at Till, we went out to solve that financial literacy gap,” Burton says.

He realized that kids weren’t given responsibility over their spending and that was hurting them in the long run. He wanted to change that. “It started with looking at what the real issue was and why kids weren’t having success at launch, and I think a really big reason for that is they were never given enough agency early on over the money that was spent on their behalf,” he says. “So, when they entered the economy, they weren’t prepared for the realities of the economy.”

Having financial conversations as early as possible, Burton says, is best. “The longer you wait, the bigger of an issue it feels like,” he says. “It feels like it ups the stakes. So that’s why we say bring Till in as early as possible, so you can start to have those conversations gradually over time, and it can be a more organic experience.”

Till focuses on letting kids as young as 8 years old gain some control over their finances. Children, Burton says, are a massive, underserved population in the U.S.

To continue reading, please go to the original article here:

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/money-doesn-t-grow-trees-173703331.html