FraudAvengers

Creative Ideas for Teaching Financial Literacy to Children

by Robin Slade

Before your child can understand their risks of fraud, they must first have a solid understanding of financial fundamentals. Helping your kids grow up with good money management knowledge & skills can be challenging. It’s hard to keep an adult’s attention when talking about topics like saving, spending, budgeting, investing, protecting, and debt management, so how do we expect children to have an interest? FraudAvengers found several creative web-based resources to inspire and educate kids to understand financial basics and develop valuable money skills. Among our favorites are:

Financial Football – Developed for children of all ages, this interactive football video game and financial literacy tool, created by Visa and the NFL, includes lessons on saving, budgeting and using credit wisely.

When Will You be a Millionaire – a “money smart” resource for kids, teens, parents and teachers on earning, saving, and spending. Developed by TheMint.org, a partnership between the National Council on Economic Education (NCEE) and Northwestern Mutual, this Website includes financial calculators to show the benefits of long-term saving.

The Great Piggy Bank Adventure – a virtual board game for kids 8 to 14 years of age to teach the importance of financial planning. This game, developed by T. Rowe Price and Disney, includes lessons on goal setting, saving and spending, inflation, diversification, and investment planning.

These tools can help parents begin having conversations to inspire children to plan for their future, and, as they grow, to generate wealth. Starting the conversation early will enable children to learn to successfully manage debt and take the proper steps to help protect their assets throughout their adulthood.