Financial education for ages 6-10: discovering money

A price means nothing to a child until they have something to compare it to. Link amounts to things they already know: a snack, a cinema ticket, a toy they own.

Bank cards make this harder to grasp, because the money becomes invisible. Let your child handle coins and notes whenever possible, and explain that a card doesn't create money — it takes it from somewhere.

• Compare two prices while shopping and say which one is higher.
• Let them pay for a small purchase in cash and count the change themselves.
• Name where the family's money comes from: work.

Telling needs apart from wants is the single most useful skill at this age, because it stays useful for life. It's learned through real situations — in a shop or in front of an ad — not through a definition.

Avoid deciding for them: ask them to sort things themselves, then talk through their choices. Wanting something isn't a mistake, it's simply different from needing it.

At this age, a savings goal should stay short: a few weeks at most. Beyond that, waiting becomes abstract and discouraging.

Make progress visible: a clear piggy bank, a drawn goal, a box ticked each week. Watching the total grow works better than a number announced out loud.

• A goal chosen by the child, not the parent.
• An amount reachable within a few weeks.
• A visible, everyday way to track it.

There's no universal age for this. The real signals are: the child can count, they ask to buy things themselves, and they understand that one purchase rules out another.

The amount matters less than the consistency and clarity of the rules: what it's for, what parents still cover, and what happens once it's all been spent.

Three habits block learning: always stepping in when a child has spent everything, turning every money conversation into a moral lecture, and waiting until the teenage years to start.

Letting a small mistake happen at age 8 costs a few euros. The same mistake at 20 costs a lot more.