81 Money Lessons Your Kids Will Wish You Had Taught Them 25 Years From Now

How can we as parents know we’re teaching our kids the right things about money? That’s a tough question. There’s lots of potential ground to cover, and it can be hard to cull out what’s truly important.

What if you could jump in a time machine, set the dial forward 25 years, blast into the future, and ask your children — now grown adults — what they wish they had learned from you about money? Answers in hand, you could just travel back in time and make sure you carefully covered those bases.

Obviously, that’s not going to happen, but I might have the next best thing for you. What if you could corral a whole bunch of thoughtful, accomplished, even famous adults and collect their answers to the following question:

5 Ways to Mess Up Allowance So Your Kids Will Never Be Stacking Benjamins

Joe Saul-Sehy hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the personal finance space. It’s called Stacking Benjamins, and it’s been at the top of my Stitcher favorites list for weeks now. Joe and his co-hosts magically transform normally bland finance and investing topics into chuckle-worthy entertainment. That’s no small feat. When was the last time you caught yourself guffawing over qualified retirement annuities? Yeah, never.

Needless to say, I’m a huge Stacking Benjamins fan. So, when Joe emailed me a couple weeks ago to be on the show, I was beyond thrilled.

As preparation for the show, Joe asked me to think about “horrible ways to deploy allowance.” I jotted down 5 favorites that sprung to mind. Here’s my list (accompanied by some handy justifications for parents who are determined to stay the course):

Is Your 6 Year Old Saving for College Yet?

How in the world can a 6 year old making in the neighborhood of $6 a week contribute meaningfully to a college savings fund? Easy. A “micro-savings” card, a split, and a Gift Of College account will do the trick.