Education, Elementary, Family Life, Parenting, Pregnancy & Baby, Stages

Financial Lessons – Early Money Education

January 1, 2021

Their first Piggy Bank 

There is a connection between the financial concepts you teach your kids in early childhood and their ability to manage money throughout their lives. This concept is called “emergent literacy” and is most closely aligned with “paradigm” in the business sense. The gist is that our belief systems are based on past events that have shaped us.  

Educationally, think of this as an “add on” process. What our parents teach us has an impact on what we learn in kindergarten, and then what we learn in kindergarten has an impact on what we learn in first grade, and so on, and so on. You get the idea. 

When to Start Teaching Financial Concepts 

There are any number of ways you can connect everyday events to a learning opportunity about money and start teaching your child as early as possible. 

If you do any of these things, then you are ensuring your preschooler understands the basics of money management.  

Read Books About Money 

Reading age-appropriate financial books will introduce your kids to key financial concepts. I recommend: 

Watch Videos About Money 

Among the countless YouTube videos teaching kids about money, these will also help them get in a little exercise: 

Make Money Lessons Fun 

Kids can learn a lot by playing games. Go old school with board games, or technical with apps. The ultimate goal is developing your child’s understanding of key financial concepts. 

Games 

Apps 

Open a Savings Account 

It may sound old fashioned to go into a bank to open an account (instead of online). But your child must understand banking basics in order to master the technology behind their account. 

What your child will learn through social interaction with their bank: 

Of course, you must decide the right time to start teaching your child about money.  Now that my grandson is in kindergarten, he’s much more interested in numbers and we talk about them every time we’re together. I always use those times to tie the conversations back to money, saving, and making good choices. Who knows, maybe he’ll do the same thing with his grandkids and let them know a little about me! 


Robert Baer is a Vice President at Fidelity Bank. He coordinates Fidelity’s Financial Literacy initiative.

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