Make Your Kid A Money Genius (Even If You're Not): A Parents' Guide for Kids 3 to 23

by Beth Kobliner

Most parents feel they don’t know enough themselves. The mere mention of the topic causes anxiety, if not outright terror, in many of us because, well, what if we answer wrong and send our kids careening into a life of debt?

And that’s a problem, since research shows that parents are the number one influence on our children’s financial behavior.

A report out of England’s University of Cambridge concluded that by age seven, many of the habits that will help kids manage their money are already set.

More concerning is that parents are no longer optimistic about the next generation’s chances. The expectation that our children will be better off than we are has long been a cornerstone of the American dream, yet the majority of parents now tell pollsters the opposite: They

It’s possible they’ve just had a long day or are preoccupied with thoughts of work or sick pets or the malfunctioning range hood, but when this deferral to Dad becomes a pattern, it sends the message that money is a man’s turf. Um, I don’t think so. No matter your

Though the “math gap” between boys and girls has been well documented, there’s also a definite “money gap.”

A striking study conducted at the University of Rochester shows how important this is. Kids were divided into two groups of 14 each. Both groups received used, broken crayons, and an adult informed the children that she was going to leave for a few minutes to get better art supplies. In group one, the adult returned promptly with fancier pens and crayons; in group two, she returned empty-handed, offering nothing but excuses. Next, the adult repeated this exercise, this time saying that she was going to get a selection of bigger, better stickers. The first group got the goods; the second, one lame little sticker. Finally, the children were given a version of the Marshmallow Test. Interestingly, a clear pattern emerged: Kids in group one, with a “reliable” grown-up, were much better at waiting. In fact, while 9 out of 14 kids in group one waited 15 minutes for that second marshmallow, just 1 kid in the broken-promises group waited that long. You get it: Broken promises can crush a kid’s incentive.

rule of law

Parents: Praise effort, not smarts. Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck has conducted several

In a recent survey, parents were asked to name their biggest financial regret. The number one answer was that they wished they’d taken on less debt.