To raise financially savvy kids, give money lessons a reboot

The way we handle money had already been changing dramatically, but the pandemic accelerated those changes. One example: A September 2020 American Express study found that since the COVID-19 outbreak began, 70% of merchants had customers request contactless payment options, and 73% of merchants prefer customers to pay with a card or app instead of cash.

So trade in those old-school money lectures on bank statements and checkbook balancing for a primer on plastic and digital payments. By the time your kids become financially independent, they may thank you for it.

Begin credit lessons at a young age. Because cash is tactile, it provides a natural way to introduce younger kids to money. But according to Gregg Murset — founder and CEO of the BusyKid app, which teaches kids about money management — you don't need to stick to coin counting for long.

"They can learn that a quarter equals 0.25 in like five minutes," he said.

Since cash is out and cards are in, introduce credit and debit lessons as soon as possible. Swap checkbook lessons for monitoring bank and credit accounts online. Show your kids what a credit card statement looks like.

You can also talk about building credit history by showing them your credit report.

Help kids track earning, spending and debt. Rosanna Agado maintains a spreadsheet for her three kids. Rather than give them their weekly allowance in the form of cash, Agado and her husband act like a bank account and lender combined.

Their eldest son, who is 14, now has a bank account with a debit card, and while Agado doesn't monitor his purchases, she does check the balance daily.

If something seems unusual, Agado discusses the purchase with her son to verify that it's accurate — not to judge his decision, but to teach him the importance of monitoring his account for suspicious activity.

Open up about your own credit habits — and mistakes. Sharing your credit triumphs and errors with your kids can help them make confident decisions as adults.

Agado and her husband discuss topics like credit card rewards, which card to use for which purchase and what happens if you take on debt or miss a credit card payment. "One of the main driving forces was the fact that my husband and I both destroyed our credit when we were younger," she said.

Hover less, trust more. Kids learn more when they apply money lessons to real-life purchasing decisions. Let your kids choose what to buy, within reason, even if you think they are making a frivolous choice that will blow through a month's worth of their allowance. Much as you learned from your own regrettable decisions, your children can do the same. Better a $10 mistake at 13 than a $10,000 mistake at 33, after all.