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August 2, 2025 12 mins

Today, we're diving into how to teach your kids about money so they can dodge the cash traps we fell into. You know, we want our kiddos to be savvy and confident, right? So, let's kickstart their financial education early and keep it simple. We’re all about turning those awkward money talks into fun and practical lessons, like setting up those "Earn, Save, Spend, and Give" jars. Trust me, it’s not just about the dollars and cents; it’s about building a solid foundation for their future. Stick around, and let's chat about how we can raise a new generation of financially wise kids. Because at the end of the day, isn’t the real question: How can I equip my kids to handle money better than I did?

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Ever wondered if your kids are gonna make the same money blunders you did? Well, guess what? You’re not alone! We tackled that heavy question head-on, diving into how to steer our little ones clear of the financial pitfalls that have tripped us up. The conversation starts off real chill, reminding us that teaching our kids about money doesn’t have to be some intense lecture. It’s all about starting early and keeping it simple. We shared some solid tips on how to weave financial wisdom into everyday life, like setting up those classic Earn, Save, Spend, and Give jars. It’s like gamifying finances! The goal? To transform our kiddos into financially savvy whizzes before they even hit their teenage years. Plus, we got into some biblical wisdom, pulling verses from Deuteronomy and Proverbs, reminding us that teaching financial literacy is not just practical but part of our spiritual duty as parents. This episode aims to empower you, giving you the tools to help your kids grow into confident, wise stewards of their finances. If you’re ready to break the cycle of financial shame, let’s do this together!

Takeaways:

  • Teaching kids about money mistakes can save them from financial shame down the line.
  • Start teaching financial wisdom early; it’s easier than you might think, trust me.
  • Using jars for earn, save, spend, and give can make learning about money fun!
  • Connect chores to rewards instead of just giving allowances to teach kids about work.
  • Involve your kids in spending decisions to help them understand money's value better.
  • Talk openly about your own money mistakes to guide your children positively into financial literacy.

Links referenced in this episode:


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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I'm going to start with a realbasic and strong question today.
Do you want your kids to avoidthe money mistakes that you've made?
Really starts there. You wantthem to avoid that cycle of financial
shame and those mistakes thatyou've made. See, teaching financial
wisdom can start earlier andsimpler than you think. So stick
with me today and let's buildfinancial confidence from a young

(00:20):
age. That's what we're goingto cover on today's show.
This is Financially ConfidentChristian, your daily dose of gospel,
grounded insight and faithdriven tips to help you break the
cycle of financial shame with confidence.
Hey there and welcome back toFinancially Confident Christian.
I'm Ralph and we're in ourseries Smart Money for Back to School

(00:41):
and beyond. Now if you missedyesterday's show, we talked about
managing those extracurricularcosts with peace. I, I gave you some
real good ways to manage that.If you missed it, go check it out.
You can learn all about Ralphand the tuba. Now, today we're going
to talk about how to teachyour kids about money both practically
faithfully and early. Andthose are really the three main components

(01:01):
to this. I want to teach youhow to do it. Pract faithfully and
early. You want your kids tobe wise, don't you? But sometimes
you think, I don't know whereto start, Ralph. And you have this
fear. You think it's going tobe an awkward conversation and then
you start thinking, hey, whatif they make the same mistakes I
made and that starts to putthis burden on you. Start to think,

(01:23):
how do I prepare them? Youstart to think to yourself, what
if I fail to teach them theright things? And I'm going to take
a little sidetrack now. I'mgoing to go on a Ralph Rain. I haven't
done one of those for a weekor two. But this is Ralph's personal
view. This is my personalview. I honestly think we do a very
poor job of teaching youthgood money skills in this country.

(01:43):
I just think we do a bad jobof it. We wonder why our kids struggle,
wonder why our kids aredealing with these things when they
become teenagers and youngadults and in their 20s, why they
struggle with money. And Itruly believe this is something we
need to teach in school. Andunfortunately, here's another problem.
We don't always set a greatexample. I've heard this said many

(02:05):
times, kids are sponges andthey live what they learn. So have
you set a good example foryour kids? You might be sad right
now because, listen, I've madethe mistakes myself. I'm right there
where you are. But I can tellyou right now that can end right
now, that can end today. Andthe solution is to start small, start

(02:28):
now and start simple. Here'sthe thing. Teaching financial literacy
is part of faithful parenting.I want to say that again because
it is so important that youhear that as you're listening right
now. Teaching financialliteracy is part of faithful parenting.
Let's look at the word of God.Let's look at the book of Deuteronomy.
Don't quote that one much onthe show, but Deuteronomy, chapter

(02:50):
6, verses 6 to 7. And it saysthis and these words which I command
you today shall be in yourheart. You shall teach them diligently
to your children and shalltalk to them when you sit in your
house, when you walk, by theway, when you lie down, and when
you rise up. I don't think itgets any clearer than that. You shall

(03:10):
teach them, diligently, talkto them when you sit in your house
and when you walk and when youlie down. Well, let's look at probably
the most, the most commonverse about this in the Bible and
that's in the book ofProverbs, chapter 22, verse 6. And
I've used this on the showmany times. It says this. Train up
a child in the way that heshould go, and when he is old, he

(03:33):
will not depart from it. Hey,again, it doesn't get much clearer
than that. Train up a child inthe way he should go. Show them how
to become financially alert.Show them how to become financially
confident Christians. And onemore Bible verse. This is From Proverbs,
chapter 1, verse 5. Let thewise listen and add to their learning.

(03:56):
Hey, I think I've made mypoint here. It's all about teaching
and it's all about having themstart to get these things early.
Because here's the truth.Financial stewardship is a spiritual
discipline. It just is.There's no disconnect from that.
So many people don'tunderstand that financial stewardship
is a discipline and it's adeeply spiritual discipline. So start

(04:18):
early, teach often andreinforce regularly. So now you're
asking, Ralph, what can we do?How do we possibly make this happen?
I feel awkward. I'm afraidthey're going to make the same mistakes
I made. Well, I've got asolution for you. And the solution
is actually prettystraightforward and that's create
age appropriate hands on moneyexperiences that build lifelong confidence.

(04:39):
So here's your one action stepfor today. I want you to set up what
I'M going to call the Earn,Save, Spend and Give jars. Picture
this in your mind. You've gotfour little jars sitting in front
of you. And the cool thingabout this is you can actually start
kids at maybe 3, 4, 5 yearsold, or maybe you use envelopes,
it doesn't really matter. Thewhole point is this visual reinforcement

(05:01):
and it works great for kids of3 to 10 years old. And I can still
remember my mom introducing meto this type thing with small change.
And I remember sitting at thekitchen table. I was probably four
or five years old. I think Iwas in kindergarten at the time.
And I, I was, I was soenthralled by money. You know, go
to the arcade, mom would giveme a couple quarters and I remember
her setting out these jars infront of me and she had written names

(05:22):
on them. And the one name saidearn and another name said save.
And then one said spend andone said given. I'm thinking, well,
I like that spend one. I don'tknow about that earning and saving
one, but I sure like thatspend one. And my mom made a game
of it. I remember she gave mesome pennies and some nickels and
some dimes and some quartersand she says, okay, let's start talking
about how to do that. Iremember stacking up the coins. I

(05:44):
remember counting them. Hey,maybe that's why I became an accountant
today. So start there, sort ofgamify this thing, and then the next
thing I'm going to encourageyou to do. And a lot of parents mess
this up and I was kind ofguilty of this when my kids were
really young. But I think weneed to connect earning to chores.
See, so many people think thatyou just give them an allowance,

(06:04):
but I'm going to rock yourworld right now. I think you give
them a commission. Yes, Ralphsaid commission, not just an allowance.
Teach them this very importantlife skill. Work equals reward. Another
Ralph rant, avoid theallowance. See, avoiding the allowance,
it means it's like trainingthem to look for handouts. And that

(06:25):
might seem a little harsh, butthink about it. If you're just saying,
oh, here's your allowance, youdon't do anything to get it, what
do they do? Well, you'reteaching them to, to look for handouts.
It's so much more effective toconnect work with rewards. And I'm
not saying that your kids haveto do ridiculous chores, but even
at a young age, maybe it'spicking up their toys, maybe it's
straightening up their room.It's doing little odds and ends,

(06:47):
like putting all the trash inthe trash can as they get older,
taking the trash out to thecurb. But connect that stuff, connect
that stuff with a reward,connect that with a commission. The
next thing I'm going to do,and my mom taught this very well
with those jars, I'm going toencourage you to practice what I
call allocation. So forexample, with those jars, maybe say,
listen here, kids startteaching tithing at a young age.

(07:09):
That give jar, hey, that gets10% of your money. I remember my
kids were really young. Westarted doing what at the time we
called an allowance. Buthaving hindsight, I would have called
it a commission. But we saidto them, listen, whatever we pay
you when we go to church onSunday, you got to give 10% of that.
I remember my young son said,dad, I'm not giving anything. I worked
hard for this money. And Isaid, yeah, but see, here's the thing,

(07:30):
son. We had in a wholediscussion about it. I remember on
the ride to church that day,and he's sitting in the back seat
and he's counting his nickelsand his dimes and quarters, and I
can tell he's being reluctantabout it, but I encourage him give
that 10% and then alsoencourage that 20% saving. And hey,
they can still spend 70% ofit. But start, encourage that allocation
and encourage them to makethose regular deposits in each category.

(07:54):
That's one of the things mymom taught me. With those jars, I
was going to put so much inthe give jar, I was going to put
so much in the save jar jar,so much in the spending jar. And
of course I had to earn themoney in the first place. That's
where it came in the earningsjar. And you start to teach your
children tithing and you startteaching them savings. Do that first,
because remember what theBible tells us. Our first fruits

(08:15):
will start teaching your kidsthat as well. And then another thing
I'm going to encourage you todo is involve them in spending decisions.
That's where making thosesmall purchase jars really come in
handy. And for older kids,start to talk about budgeting, hey,
as your kids are teenagers,start thinking about a budget. You
know, maybe they want to go tothe dance or whatever the cool kids
are doing now and explain tothem, hey, you need to see a receipt

(08:37):
and explain to them, you know,cost comparisons. And here's a personal
story. I can still rememberwhen I learned a big lesson on spending
my own money. I remember oneweekend my mom said, hey, I've got
this backyard. My dad had leftwhen I was 8 and so I was sort of
man of the house. And it wasbig. It was getting to be fall time.
And remember the leaves wereall over the ground. And my mom says,
you know, we've really got toget these leaves picked up. And I'm

(08:57):
like, I really don't want todo leave pickup. You know, I want
to go this my friends. I wantto go, hey, date myself again. I
want to go play my Atari, youknow, Space Invaders or something.
And she said, no, listen, ifyou help me, I'll give you a $10
bill for helping me. And I waslike, wow, 10 bucks, man, that's
a lot of games at the arcade.And I remember she handed me that
$10 bill and she says, hey, doyou want to go shopping later? I

(09:18):
think she set me up. Lookingback at it now, I think she set me
up. We went to this store. Iremember walking down the aisle and
I. I saw this toy I reallywant. Remember, I couldn't tell you
what it was at this point. Thewhole point is not that, but I remember.
And I saw the. It was like $8or 8.99, whatever it was. And I looked
on the shelf and I got this$10 bill in my hand. I'm looking
at the $10 bill and I'mlooking at the shelf, and I'm going

(09:40):
to tell you right now, Iagonized over that decision. I didn't
want to break that $10 billbecause it was so much easier to
spend my mom's money, spend myparents money. But when I was spending
my own, man, that was acritical lesson. And if we can teach
our kids that it's harder tospend your own money than it is your
parents money, hey, you'regoing to be helping them out because

(10:02):
this gives them practicalexperience. See, kids need practical
experience. They need tounderstand what scarcity looks like.
They need to understand whatgiving looks like and saving looks
like. And it helps build upresponsibility, helps build generosity.
That's why I said, startthere. It's one of the big things
we did with our children, andI'm really happy that we did that
now. Abel reluctant. I had tohave that conversation with them

(10:23):
about a cheerful giver. Myyoungest are like, dad, I'm not feeling
very cheerful about this. Butstart to build those conversations
and start building thatbinding around money, because maybe
you've made mistakes. Hey, ifyou're like me, you're going to make
mistakes. But talk to yourkids, age appropriately about those
mistakes. Say, hey, here's howyou can avoid it. Here's what I learned

(10:44):
because this really lays abiblical foundation for stewardship
down the road when they becomeyoung adults and they'll be trained
to make better financialdecisions. Let's pray together now.
Father God, we just thank youfor our children, Lord, and the opportunity
to shape their future. And wejust ask that you would help us to
teach them about money withgrace, Lord, and with clarity and

(11:05):
with patience. Lord, we askthat you would help us to instill
in them the values ofdiligence and the values of generosity
and contentment, Lord. And we,we just ask that you would make our
homes places of wisdom and,and preparation. And we ask this
in Jesus name. Amen. Listen,the truth is your kids can grow into

(11:27):
confident, wise financialstewards. So take a step today to
teach be simple and beintentional about it. And while I'm
talking about intentionality,I want to encourage you to do something.
I would love for you to sharethe show. Share the show with somebody
else. And let's all teach ourchildren early and often about financial
stewardship. You can share theshow by sending them a text or an

(11:49):
email or, or maybe share it inyour parents group. Just point them
tofinanciallyconfidentchristian.com now,
tomorrow we're going to talkabout budgeting your time and money
for a smooth fall transition.Hey, this is a big time for budgeting
money, but it's also a timefor budgeting our time. So I'm going
to cover that on tomorrow'sshow. I'm going to encourage you
not to miss it. So let's allgo out there today and be financially

(12:12):
confident Christians. You cando this. I believe in you, believe
in yourself, stay financiallysavvy. God bless you. And you have
a great day today.
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