If you’re a high-income earner who grew up with far less than you have today, you’ve probably thought about how much different your own children have it than you did as a kid.

Do you ever wonder how to raise money-smart kids that don’t take dollars for granted? Or wish you could talk to someone about how to enjoy all you’ve worked hard to have – without creating a family of spoiled kids who don’t appreciate how good they have it?

Today’s conversation is for you.

How to Raise Financially Healthy Kids (Even If You Didn’t Have Much Growing Up)

In this episode of Money For Life, we get personal about one of the trickiest challenges facing financially successful families: How do you raise a money-smart kid when your child will never experience the financial struggle that shaped you?

Why Raising Financially Healthy Kids Is Harder When You’ve “Made It”

We share what they’re actually doing with our own 4 year old daughter, from inviting her to help keep the family budget and update it in real time to helping her experiment with how it feels to use her $5 weekly allowance. We also get candid about the subtle ways parents unconsciously pass down money stress, identity, and habits… as well as share some ideas about how to break that cycle.

And most importantly, we talk through how raising kids who have a healthy, empowered relationship with money starts with the hardest thing of all: your OWN relationship, habits, and mindsets around your finances and how you manage your money.

We’ll also get into:

• Why saving for college is usually the starting point for families talking about kids and money… but why it shouldn’t be the only financial planning you do for your kids.
• The specific language trap many parents fall into, and a simple shift that changes everything.
• What (we think) a $5-a-week allowance (not tied to chores) can teach a four-year-old about spending, saving, and regret. Check back in 20 years to see if it worked.
• How to have money conversations with your kids without turning them into lectures, and ideas on creating a real life money lab for the best learning experiences.
• The single most important money belief we each want to pass on to our daughter

Key Takeaways: 7 Lessons for Raising Financially Healthy Kids

1. Your kids are probably not listening… instead, they’re watching

No matter how many money conversations you have with your children, their financial beliefs are shaped far more by what they observe in your daily behavior than anything you explicitly teach them. Remember that what you model is what they internalize as how the world works, so the first step is to bring awareness to your own patterns and habits around finances if you want to teach them about money.

2. Low-stakes practice is how kids build real financial skills

Giving kids a small weekly allowance, which can be a few dollars a week, can create a safe environment where they can spend impulsively, feel regret, and gradually become more thoughtful. Kids who never practice with small money may find themselves unprepared when the stakes are higher.

3. You don’t have to have all the answers!

Approaching money conversations with curiosity rather than authority — even saying “I don’t know, let’s figure this out together” — is often more effective than scripted lessons. Teens especially may shut down when parents try to lecture rather than explore.

4. The money beliefs you hold about yourself shape what your kids learn

If you believe “I’m not good with money,” your kids are likely picking up on that… even if you never say it out loud or explicitly. Labeling yourself negatively around finances is passed down without a word.

5. A financial advisor can be a neutral resource for your kids

Teenagers and college-age kids may be more open to financial conversations with a trusted advisor than with their parents. Custodian brokerage accounts are another tool that creates real market exposure. These can give kids an opportunity to watch money grow (or shrink!) and can spark important conversations and questions.

6. You have an opportunity to change your family’s financial trajectory

High-earners who have out-earned their own parents are positioned to break generational patterns… but only if they’re intentional. The “puck stops here” mindset means asking: What story do I want my kids and grandkids to inherit about money?

7. Money is a tool, not a statement of your worth

It’s neither good nor bad. People with a lot of it or a little of it are equally deserving of dignity. Learning to use money skillfully — to spend, save, invest, and give — is how you build a life that’s meaningful to you.

Frequently Asked Questions About Raising Financially Healthy Kids

Q: What’s the most important thing I can do to teach my kids about money?

The most impactful thing isn’t a lesson. It’s your behavior. Kids absorb some degree of the financial attitudes, stress levels, and language patterns of the adults around them long before they understand what any of it means.

Modeling a healthy, calm, and intentional relationship with money is a very powerful gift you can give your children. It starts with asking: What are my kids already learning from watching me?

Q: Should I give my kids an allowance, and should I tie it to chores?

Kali shares her personal approach in this episode: a $5/week allowance for her four-and-a-half-year-old, not tied to chores. Her reasoning is that the purpose of the allowance isn’t payment for tasks. Trying to teach about value creation can come later. Instead, the point is to create a low-stakes environment where a young child can practice making real financial decisions. She lets her daughter choose whether to save it, spend it, or give it away. The goal is learning through small failures and wins, not through lectures.

Q: How do I talk to my kids about money without it turning into a lecture?

Eric and Kali both emphasize that lecturing is largely ineffective. Instead, they recommend finding ways to show rather than tell. You could invite a child to help you update your budget, offer opportunities to let them participate in real decisions, or simply ask them questions about what they notice. Approaching money conversations with curiosity (“I wonder why…” or “What do you think about…”) opens more doors than reciting financial principles.

Q: My kids are growing up with way more financial security than I had. How do I keep them grounded?

You can’t manufacture the exact motivation that hardship creates, but you can build a home environment where money is discussed openly, treated as a tool rather than a source of anxiety or identity, and where kids are given small amounts of real financial responsibility early on. Life itself will create challenges, so you don’t need to try to deliberately make things hard for your kids. Your job is to give them the values and skills to meet those challenges well.

Q: At what age should I start teaching my kids about money?

We feel like you can start this as early as 3 (just bear in mind we’re financial planners, not parenting experts!).We involved our daughter in hands-on financial activities (like helping input numbers in a budget spreadsheet) at this stage, and have tried to follow her lead along the way. We double down where she shows interest. The point isn’t to teach accounting or anything so complex, but to demystify money and make it a normal, visible part of family life. For older kids and teenagers, direct conversations and questions become increasingly important, and that’s also where a financial advisor can be a surprisingly effective resource in helping with this goal

Q: Can a financial advisor help my kids learn about money?

Yes! This may be one of the most underutilized resources available to families working with a financial planner. Eric suggests that teenagers and college-age kids are sometimes more willing to ask questions and engage with a financial advisor than with their own parents, simply because there’s less emotional charge in that relationship. Some advisors will also set up custodian brokerage accounts for clients’ children, which lets young people watch real money move in real markets. This offers a a tangible and memorable way to learn how investing works.

Q: What does it mean to break a generational financial cycle — and how do I actually do it?

Because you have more financial knowledge and resources than previous generations in your family, you’re in a position to change the trajectory for everyone who comes after you. In practical terms, this means being honest about the money patterns you absorbed growing up, consciously choosing different behaviors, modeling those behaviors in front of your kids, and having open conversations about money rather than keeping it taboo or anxiety-laden.

Q: How do I know if I’m passing down a negative relationship with money to my kids without realizing it?

Many of these patterns are subconscious. No parent is deliberately choosing to pass down money anxiety or avoidance, but it happens because these things are deeply ingrained! One practical tool to consider: as kids get into upper elementary school years and older, ask them directly. What have they noticed about how you deal with money? What questions do they have? What makes them feel uncertain or curious? The act of asking your kids for their perspective can reveal blind spots. It also models the kind of curiosity and openness about money you want them to develop themselves.