A question parents ask

How do I teach my child about money?

The short answer

Run a small household economy where your child earns, saves, spends and invests, and you keep the ledger. Talk about money out loud, because children copy what they see you do.

The reasoning

In Sui Learning the currency is points. Educational things cost little and pleasures cost more. Every agreement is clear ahead of time. The earning tasks grow as the child does, and by fourteen the effort looks like a part-time job for a real allowance.

Let them make small mistakes while the stakes are small. A child who spends every point on a toy, then watches a sibling save up for something bigger, learns more than a lecture could teach. Simulated investing, where points locked away earn interest, shows why waiting pays.

Out shopping, narrate your decisions. "I'm skipping this one because we need that money for the trip." Never say "don't worry about money." Worry is information, and children read it anyway.

The research backs the ingredients. Ron Lieber's reporting found that talking openly with children about money, and letting them manage some of it, raises grounded, generous kids. Early habits matter too. David Whitebread and Sue Bingham found that the mental foundations of later money behavior, like self-control and planning ahead, are typically in place by about age seven, learned mostly by watching and doing. And across 76 randomized experiments, financial education improved both knowledge and behavior.

Money also makes a good way into the basics. Percentages come up when you compare prices. Budgets turn into writing and math without a worksheet in sight.

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).

Try this

Start a points ledger on paper this week. List five tasks and what each is worth. Agree on what points can buy, and keep the books where your child can see them.

Where this falls short

The studies test pieces of the idea: talking about money, early habits, financial education. Nobody has tested this exact points system, and it's one author's design. Adjust it to your family.

Also asked as

Should kids get an allowance?
How do I teach a child to save and invest?
What age should kids start learning about money?

The ideas behind this answer

The points economy
Run a household economy in credits: the child earns, saves, spends, and invests, and you keep the ledger.
Basics in context
Teach the basics through what the child is already doing, one thing at a time, when it comes up.
Freedom
Grant every freedom they can carry. Withhold only major risk: moderate risk of permanent or long-term harm.