June 12: What NOT to Teach Kids About Money

June 12, 2025

Let’s face it – we all wish that our kids and grandkids live long, happy lives and manage their finances well. Ideally, we are setting an example for them to follow, right?

But Save with SPP suspects that we may inadvertently be setting some poor examples for them to follow. Let’s have a look around the Interweb for things we should not teach our kids about money.

At the MoneyTime blog, the top tip is to avoid “not talking about money with your kids.”

“Not talking about money to kids is setting them up for financial disaster. After all, money makes the world go round. We all use it, we all need it. It gives us choices and the freedom to do things for ourselves, our family and our community. Kids need to know about it so it’s essential we include them in our day-to-day conversations – like doing the shopping, buying stuff online, going to the bank, budgeting for a holiday,” the blog advises. Just be honest with them, the blog continues.

The blog opposes the idea of “giving children money for nothing.”

“Giving them money without them having to earn it means they don’t learn the value of it. That it doesn’t grow on trees or appear automatically from a hole in the wall. Money is earned by working hard and being smart. It’s one of life’s immutable laws and the sooner they get that ingrained in their heads, the better for their future and your cash flow,” the blog suggests.

A third idea from MoneyTime is to avoid “not teaching your children about debt and credit cards.”

“Without understanding the true cost of debt, your kid may be headed for a bad start to their independence when they turn 18 and get inundated with credit card applications. They may be lured into getting credit cards and thinking their credit limit means they `have money.’ Of course this is not the case. It’s borrowed money and if the repayments are not met, the interest escalates rapidly,” the blog warns.

Great advice – we have already had this convo with our oldest granddaughter.

The Codeyoung blog serves up a few more.

Don’t “not set a good example” with your own money management skills. “Children learn by observing. If parents and teachers don’t manage money well, children may pick up bad habits,” the blog notes.

Another example from the blog is to avoid “overemphasizing spending.”

“Focusing solely on acquiring things rather than on financial responsibility and values can lead to poor money management habits,” the blog notes. You can avoid this, the blog adds, by making an effort to “balance lessons on spending with teachings on saving, budgeting, and investing…  emphasize the importance of keeping records of money spent and balancing it with saving.”

Similarly, a mistake parents can make is “not explaining the difference between needs and wants.”

“Children must know the difference between needs and wants so that they can plan their budget accordingly which becomes in favour of their interest,” the blog reports. “Without understanding the difference, children may struggle with prioritizing their spending.”

The Times of India provides some final thoughts on this topic.

Don’t, the newspaper reports, micromanage your kids’ finances. This “can prevent them from learning valuable lessons about finances. Allow them to make choices with their pocket money and discuss the outcomes together, helping them understand the consequences of their financial decisions. This will help them become independent.”

Similarly, don’t force kids to save, the Times suggests.

“Forcing children to save can lead to resentment and a lack of understanding about its importance,” the newspaper notes. Instead, teach the importance of saving “by setting savings goals together,” the article adds.

Finally, the Times asks us all as parents not to “depend on the school/teachers to teach” about money. Assuming they’ll learn about money in school can “lead to gaps in their financial knowledge.” Better to help their education by setting up fun saving and budgeting activities on the home front, the newspaper concludes.

One way we can help our older, adult children is to ensure that they are saving for retirement. If they can join a retirement savings program through their workplace, encourage them to join and contribute to the max.

If they don’t have a workplace pension program, let them know about the Saskatchewan Pension Plan, a voluntary defined contribution plan that’s open to any Canadian with available registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) room. One great feature that parents like – once someone makes contributions to the SPP, they are “locked in” until retirement. That prevents the retirement piggy bank from being raided in the decades leading up to the gold watch.

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Codeyoung, MoneyTime, Times of India

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