By Lorie Jones, Fearless Financial Advisors
Here’s a question I ask every parent I work with: what do you want your kids to believe about money?
Not what you want them to know. What you want them to believe. Because kids don’t learn financial habits from lectures. They learn them from watching you.
“The best inheritance isn’t cash. It’s confidence.”
What Your Kids Are Already Learning
Think about the last time money came up in your household. Was it a source of stress? Silence? Shame? Or was it something you could talk about, plan for, and manage with intention?
A widely cited 2013 report from the University of Cambridge, commissioned by the UK’s Money Advice Service, found that financial habits and attitudes in children are largely formed by age seven. That actually terrified me, I don’t even know what I was teaching my kids by age seven. I didn’t think they were watching that closely that young.
That’s a significant responsibility. But it’s also a meaningful opportunity.
You Don’t Have to Be Perfect to Be Powerful
Let me be very clear: you do not have to have everything figured out to model healthy financial behavior for your children. In fact, some of the most meaningful financial parenting moments I’ve witnessed involve parents sharing their own mistakes, and showing their kids how they recovered from them.
Teaching money is teaching resilience. It may teach your kids that financial setbacks aren’t the end of the story, they’re part of it. That asking for help is smart, not weak. That money is a tool, not a measure of your worth.
Five Conversations Worth Having With Your Kids
- How we earn: Explain how your income works at an age-appropriate level. Kids who understand that money is earned may develop a different relationship with spending.
- How we save: Show them your savings habit, even if it’s modest. The consistency of the habit may matter more than the amount.
- How we give: Talk about why you donate, volunteer, or support causes. Values-driven financial behavior tends to be modeled, not assigned.
- How we make mistakes: Share a financial decision you’d approach differently today. It normalizes imperfection and builds trust.
- How we ask for help: Tell them about the professionals you work with, your financial advisor, your accountant. Help-seeking is a skill worth modeling.
A Note for Everyone
You don’t have to be a parent to model this. Aunts, uncles, mentors, teachers, anyone who shows a young person that money is manageable and that asking questions is smart is offering something genuinely valuable.
During my weekly podcast, I ask “What is the best financial decision you made?” and many times it is an early boss or supervisor that helped teach them about investing in a way that truly changed their life years down the road. It takes a village and sometimes you just don’t see the impact you are making on someone else.
Financial parenting starts with one question: what do I want my kids to believe about money?
