PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – While financial literacy is not something millennials commonly learned in school or at home, a financial education expert is urging parents to teach their children about money at an early age.
When it comes to having the “money talk” with kids, certified financial educator Christa Mathews says it’s never too early to teach kids about the value of the dollar.
“The earlier you teach them these financial literacy concepts, the healthier relationship they’ll have with money later down the road,” Mathews said.
According to Mathews, money habits are formed between the ages of seven and nine and points out that kids “pick up one these concepts at a very young age and they hear the way their parents are talking about money whether it’s through the eyes of fear and scarcity and negativity or if it’s through abundance and opportunity.”
Mathews says trips to the grocery store or teaching them the costs associated with playing a sport they’re interested in, can help start the conversation with kids.