Ideas / The points economy
An idea from Sui Learning
The points economy
Run a household economy in credits: the child earns, saves, spends, and invests, and you keep the ledger.
In plain words
Educational things cheap, pleasures expensive. Every agreement clear, ahead of time. Earning tasks grow with the child, and by fourteen it's part-time-job effort for a real allowance. Simulated investing pays interest on points locked away. Out shopping, narrate your decisions. Never "don't worry about money."
The research behind it
- Talking openly with children about money, and letting them manage some, raises grounded, generous kids. Ron Lieber, The Opposite of Spoiled (2015), as cited in Sui Learning.
- The mental foundations of later money behavior, such as self-control and planning ahead, are typically in place by about age seven, learned mostly by watching and doing. David Whitebread and Sue Bingham, Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children (Money Advice Service, 2013).
- Across 76 randomized experiments, financial education improved both knowledge and behavior. Tim Kaiser, Annamaria Lusardi, Lukas Menkhoff, and Carly Urban, Journal of Financial Economics 145, no. 2 (2022).
Questions this answers
- How do I teach my child about money?
- Should kids get an allowance?
- How do I teach a child to save and invest?
In the book
In Sui Learning: Teaching Children about Money; Financial Management.
Read the full answers
How do I teach my child about money?
Related ideas
Cite this idea. Trenton Rich, "The points economy," in Homeschooling to Create High Achievers in All Areas of Life: Sui Learning (2022), suilearn.ing/idea-the-points-economy.html. Free to quote, copy and reuse with credit under CC BY 4.0. The book itself is under normal copyright.