Five ways to help your children gain confidence with money

The government is worried about a lack of financial education for children leaving them ill-equipped to deal with modern life. Research from the Money and Pensions Service (MaPs) showed less than half of young people aged between 7 and 17 had received some sort of education when it comes to money. But those who had been taught about finances felt more confident about money in general and were more likely to save into a bank account of their own.

It is welcome news that financial education will become a compulsory part of the curriculum from September 2028 for all primary pupils, but there are ways parents can get involved ahead of time and help children apply what they’ll be getting from the classroom now.

Many people will have fond memories of playing Monopoly – maybe even in the role of the banker – but here are five other ways to make finance fun and help your children learn some real-life money skills.

1. Clear out and resell

The de-cluttering trend shows no signs of slowing down, and we’ve even got prime time TV shows helping families get space back in their homes. So why not set your kids the task of clearing out unwanted old toys, clothes, shoes or gadgets and then help them to sell the items for money? You could go to a car boot sale or sell online via sites like Vinted, eBay or Facebook Marketplace and watch the balance grow.

Your children will learn how to make money from the things they no longer want, but you’ll all benefit from a tidier room and get that fuzzy feeling from passing on pre-loved items to a new home, rather than taking them to the tip.

Discuss with them what they’d like to happen to the money – my youngest is still keen to get some cold hard cash in his wallet for a treat, whereas the eldest loves seeing his online savings account grow for another day.

2. Set up a snack shop

If your school holidays involve keeping up with the constant demand for snacks, you can turn the requests into a real-life money lesson with an at-home snack shop. Each child gets an amount to spend each day (theoretical or even real coins) and the available snacks in the house each have a price tag. You can tailor to age, but children will be learning about budgeting, having to weigh up whether they want to save to buy a bigger treat, and doing some basic maths to work out how far their pennies will stretch. If you want to encourage healthier snacking as well as money habits, you could even make more nutritious options cheaper versus chocolate and biscuits.

3. Have a ‘yes day’

This is a special day – inspired by a film of the same name – where the kids get to choose what they do for an entire day, and the grown-ups must say, ‘yes’.

The crucial bit is that rules must be agreed beforehand, and this can include a set budget and thinking about what activities they want to prioritise with that. Older kids will get a feel for the value of money and what things cost more than others. For younger children, you might want to withdraw the cash budget beforehand, so they get the feeling of handing over real money at attractions and in shops and cafes.

It’s a great way to have fun whilst learning about money. Not packing as many activities in might mean there is more money left over for an end of day treat or souvenir.

4. Turn them into demon-deal hunters

Children these days might roll their eyes when their parents get nostalgic about the old Toys ‘R’ Us advert or circling items in the Argos catalogue, but many still write a birthday or Christmas wish list.

The next time something makes it onto one, why not set them the challenge of trying to find the cheapest price or biggest discount they can find for it? If you are feeling particularly generous, you might even let them pocket all or some of the difference in the deal they find.

It’s also a great reminder for kids that shopping online might come with delivery fees on top and help them compare different offers and promotions to see if a deal really is too good to be true.

5. Set up an investment account

This does involve setting aside some of your own money, but getting kids into investing can literally pay dividends.

You could set them up with a Junior ISA in their own name, which they’ll take over managing for themselves at 18, or use part of your own £20,000 annual Stocks and Shares ISA allowance if you’d prefer to get them involved with investing that way.

It depends on the age of your children as to how involved they might get, but many parents like to invest a bit of money in shares their child may be interested in, for example Disney, Amazon or Netflix.

My young children have asked about my job and what investing means. I took the example of shares and how buying a small part of a company is different to putting money in a bank account. The cash he spends on a treat is gone, but the money invested for him in a Junior ISA is there for when he might head to university or start his first job. Going forward, I plan to run through the different companies, what the stock market is and how something like a Disney+ subscription or a delivery from Amazon contributes to those companies’ earnings and therefore share prices.