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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Take out some cash and teach them.

Then teach them expenses and income on a balance sheet.  Track expenses for a while and show them.

Show them where you invest and why.

Teach them how to write a check and take them to the bank to deposit.

No, it's not hard or harder now.[/quote]

I disagree and think it is harder. I lead a Girl Scout troop and as we were working through the finance and money badges associated with selling cookies, we found that the current use of online shopping and credit cards makes many aspects of finances that came naturally to older generations pretty opaque for children today. With things like grocery delivery and busy schedules, many kids aren’t standing next to a parent looking up unit prices and comparing two sizes of peanut butter jars, or deciding if the out-of-season fruit is oddly cheap and worth buying.

When I was a kid, we had to constantly weigh tradeoffs that were strictly defined by using, say, a $5 bill at the gas station or pool for snacks. Spend $1.50 and you get change and bills back. You see them. You think about them. You spend them and they’re gone.

And with that money came tangible decisions and forced trade-offs: Do you save the change up and be careful not to break the bills on something silly later like 25 cent candy? Do you keep the $20 bills from grandma for your birthday or do you spend it on a cassette you really want but then waste the change?

The shopping area closest to my house has zero stores except for the grocery store that accept cash. The pool snack bar doesn’t take cash. School events are all done via pre-paid tickets. Even though my daughter wants to learn to budget and use cash, she’s stuck with a greenlight card or my credit card or getting paid for babysitting via Venmo.

My Girl Scouts could barely handle paper money and coins, let alone process the kinds of subconscious tradeoffs I was already making at a much younger age in the 80s. Unfortunately I have yet to figure out how to create a true sense of money and value for these kids and for mine, which I think is a necessary foundation for more complex financial literacy.[/quote]

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