Alicia Nelson-Bell, Finance Intern

​There is no real right or wrong way or one size fits all when it comes to teaching kids about money because it is so personal. This article will provide some helpful tips to teach money skills to your children. As you (and your partner, if applicable) prepare to teach your children about money, it is important to take a little time to do some self-reflection and think about how you learned about money when you were a child.  

KristiLyn Wilkinson, M.S.
Empowering Financial Wellness Program Manager

I think this is one of the most debated topics among financial experts when it comes to teaching children about money, and there are some pretty strong opinions on both sides. The debate stems from two main schools of thought:
 1- Allowance should be tied to chores because in the real world you have to work for money and,
 2- Allowance should not be tied to chores because children won’t learn to be self-motivated, contributing members of the family if they expect to get paid for everything they do. 
If you’ve been here long, you’ve heard us say about 50,000 times that personal finance is PERSONAL. There are often best practices and tricks of the trade to help you be successful, but there is not a one-size fits all that works for everyone- or for every child for that matter. I’m not going to tell you which of these theories is right, because SPOILER ALERT, you can raise money responsible children using either method or by doing a combination of both! What I want to do instead is give you a few things to consider when deciding which approach will work best for your family. 

Vincenza Vicari-Bentley, AFC
Empowering Financial Wellness Program Coordinator

​Debt can be an abstract topic for children to grasp but it doesn’t mean we should shy away from those money conversations. A few years back, my husband and I were laser focused on paying off our debt. At the time, our child was young, and I found myself struggling to help him understand, in an age appropriate way, why we couldn’t buy that toy or travel to Disneyworld. It hurt much less to scale back on my shopping trips and “extra” expenses than it hurt me to say “no” to some of our child’s wants. I found myself thinking maybe this was a “teachable moment” instead of feeling anxious (and making our child feel anxious) I wanted to frame our debt payoff journey in a way that he could wrap his little head around it without stressing him. 

Jerevie Canlas, Ph.D, CFLE
Empowering Financial Wellness Program Coordinator

As a certified family life educator, I’ve been asked one too many times about how to best parent children. And here’s my answer – there is no one answer to that question. Parenting is like cooking a dish using a recipe. The recipe guides you through the steps of cooking a specific dish. If a recipe tells you to braise the meat, you don’t stir it – you leave it alone in the pot. Sure, you can choose to keep peeking and stir. That’s ok – but you might not get the dish the recipe described. The same is true with parenting styles. You can parent however you see fit, and each parenting style will have a variety of behavioral outcomes.

Andrea Schmutz, USU Extension Assistant Professor

Parenting, personal finance, and children. Do you tremble when you hear all three of those topics in the same conversation? It’s okay if your answer is “yes”, in fact you might be part of a large club who feels the same way. Think about it for a second and it makes sense: a) Parenting often receives the description of “hardest job in the world”; b) Personal finance regularly holds a top spot on “the most challenging topic to discuss with others” list; and c) Children make up a complicated audience requiring engaging, creative tactics to keep their attention.  What happens when you combine all three? You end up with the hardest job in the world trying to teach the most challenging topic to a complicated audience.