The BEST Advice For Teaching Kids About Money | Ep. 226

• Begin when kids notice money and ask questions—usually around ages 3–5. Use their natural curiosity as the signal rather than a fixed age.

Use your kid's natural curiosity and your kid's natural interest to be the gauge of when you should start talking to them.

• Break down debit/credit card use at the grocery store. Frame money as a trade: time for money, then money for goods and services.

This is a trade... I trade my time to get money. And then I trade the money to get our groceries.

• Set up pretend grocery stores or restaurants. Use printable play money from the free workbook to practice transactions.

• Money identification
• Understanding trade
• Comfort with handling money

• Start with coins and bills, then progress to checks and bank transfers. If kids can count, introduce a small allowance ($0.50–$1 per year of age).

If they're five years old, you're giving them anywhere from $2.50... up to $5. That's kind of the baseline.

• Don't tie allowance to chores. The goal is practice with money; withholding allowance for unfinished chores removes that practice opportunity.

If you don't tie that activity to a chore, I wouldn't tie the allowance to a chore.

• Negotiate splits: half for spending, half for long-term savings/education. Be transparent about education funds so kids feel ownership.

My kids know how much money they have saved up to go to college... They know they've got thousands of dollars. That is actually theirs.

• Frame saving around future opportunities (movies with friends, battle pass) rather than abstract retirement concepts. Natural consequences reinforce lessons.