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March 6, 2025 13 mins

In this episode of Money Talk With Tiff, host Tiffany Grant sits down with Anthony Delauney, a financial planner with over two decades of experience and a dedicated author focused on financial literacy for children. Anthony shares his unique approach to teaching kids about money through engaging children’s picture books. Discover how stories like "Dash and Nikki and the Jelly Bean Game" incorporate financial lessons such as delayed gratification and interest through relatable, everyday scenarios.

Anthony and Tiffany discuss the vital principles of financial education tailored for young minds and how life lessons play a crucial part in understanding finances. Anthony also highlights the significance of overcoming the fear of judgment in financial decision-making, a topic he explores in another of his works, "Akash and Mila and the Big Jump".

Check out the full show notes: https://moneytalkwitht.com/podcast-show-notes/teaching-money-to-kids/

Takeaways

  • Teaching kids about money is crucial, and it can begin with fun stories that resonate with their experiences.
  • Using children's picture books is a creative way to introduce financial concepts without overwhelming them with adult lessons.
  • Financial literacy for kids should focus on foundational principles, like delayed gratification and empathy in money decisions.
  • Parents should model positive reactions to mistakes, as this builds confidence in their kids when facing financial decisions.

For parents and educators looking to introduce or enhance financial literacy education for young children, this episode is a treasure trove of insights and practical advice.

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Copyright 2025 Tiffany Grant



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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You know what it is. That'sright. It's time to talk money with
your money nerd and financialcoach. Now tighten those purse strings
and open those ears. It's theMoney Talk with Tiff podcast.
Hey, everyone. I'm so excitedbecause I have Anthony Delany on
the line and Anthony's here totalk to us about a demographic, ages

(00:23):
4 through 8 and kids stories.So. Hey, Anthony, how are you?
I'm doing great, thank you.
Yeah. So thank you so much forthe work that you do trying to teach
financial literacy to kidsbecause I know it's rough. However,
I think you found the hiddenformula. So what made you decide
to write kids books aroundfinancial literacy?

(00:46):
Well, I would say I hope Ifound the hidden formula. I think
we're all trying to figure outthe hidden formula when it comes
to kids, but I've been afinancial Planner for about 20 years
and I've worked with familiespretty much that entire time. So
I've seen a lot. And Icurrently have a 15 year old and
a 13 year old. So gotten tosee it as a professional and also
as a parent. And what I'vediscovered is that, yes, the age

(01:10):
old question always, how do Italk to my kids about this? And so
forth. And what I found isthat it's really hard to talk to
kids about money because kidsdon't make money and they don't necessarily
understand it because theydon't have any value associated with
it. So really the best way forkids to learn about money or money
matters is through experiencesthemselves. So I discovered that

(01:34):
one of the best ways to kindof introduce those lessons is through
books or children's picturebooks specifically. If we kind of
think back to when we weregrowing up, we learned a lot of our
kind of things that we keep inthe back of our mind from stories
that we remember, Dr. Seussbooks or whatever it might be that
just really stuck. And what Ifound is that when it came to writing

(01:56):
kids books, books rather thanhaving adults tell children what
to do or have a lesson that'sreally obvious inside of a book,
what we want to do is give anexperience inside of a kid's picture
book where maybe siblings areexperiencing something or friends
are experiencing something,and as a child reads it, they can
kind of empathize and thinkabout how would I react in that situation.

(02:16):
And then all we have to do isjust tie money into or tie a financial
lesson into that experiencethat the kids are seeing. So long
answer to your short question.
No, but it's perfect because IKnow, as a parent, I tell my kids
what to do. I try to tell themwhat to do, and I try to, like, you
know, explain different moneyprinciples and things like that.

(02:38):
And like you said, sometimesthey just don't get it. However,
they love picture books andreading picture books. So I love
that you figured out that,okay, if we center these stories
around learning something froma friend or someone, peer level,
then we can get this across alittle better.

(03:01):
So just as an example, thefirst book that I wrote, actually
with the help of my daughter,she's one of those kids that just
doesn't go to sleep at night,and I would write these stories during
the evening hours. So she camedown and we decided to write a children's
picture book together. And weused a principle from back in the
day called the MarshmallowStudy. Not sure if your listeners

(03:23):
are familiar with it, but theidea is in this book. This book's
called Dash and Nikki and theJelly Bean Game. And what happens
in the book is a brother andsister wake up one morning and they
find a letter waiting forthem, and it invites them to play
the jelly bean game. And theycome downstairs and there's a giant
jar of jelly bean sitting inthe center of the table, and there's
two plates and a note. Andbasically the way the game works

(03:47):
is they each get 10 jellybeans to start off the day. And for
every hour that they canresist 5 or that 10 more jelly beans
stay on that plate, that theyget five more. So in this case, the
brother is very competitiveand likes to win. So he says he covers
up his jelly beans so hedoesn't see them and just lets them

(04:11):
sit. And as the day, as eachhour passes, five more and five more,
and his pile continues togrow, whereas his sister is a little
bit more impulsive and afterabout two minutes, decides to eat
her jelly beans right away. Soin the story, the parents are there
in the beginning, but afterthat, we don't really see the parents
throughout the day. All we seeare these plates where one child

(04:32):
sees their pile growing andthe other child just has an empty
plate there. And if that was astory by itself, it would be a terrible
story. But we can already, forthe parents out there, we can already
kind of see the financiallessons being incorporated where
delayed gratification. If youset aside your money and allow your
investments to grow, they'llget bigger for you. Putting a plate

(04:53):
on top of the jelly beans tohide your money, not putting in someplace
where it's easily accessible.So there's lots of little hidden
messages that are in the mix.But the other important part is if
you do allow the emotion of,oh, the money's there. I can take
it and eat it right now. Or inthis case, jelly beans, eat them
right now. The aftermathcannot be necessarily what you want
to see. Now, there is a twistin the story where later in the day,

(05:17):
Dash, the older brother,decides to help out his little sister,
and he. He lends her 10 jellybeans and asks her at the end to
give her 12. Give 12 back. Sohe's there to support. He's being
charitable. So there's lots ofdifferent components that we can
bring in where in the end,both of them win. Both of them. Actually,
she may have had a little bitof struggle starting off, but working

(05:38):
together, they were able toboth succeed in the game. So it's
a brother sister component.It's just a lot of simple lessons
that aren't about thespecifics about money. It's not about
trading or investing or thethings that are a bit more complicated,
that we don't really want tointroduce those concepts until kids

(05:58):
get into maybe middle or highschool. But for those elementary
school years, those initialyears, we just want to introduce
those foundational principlesto kids so when money does come into
the mix, they're prepared.
I love it. I love it. And Ialso love that little hidden message,
too, where he's gettinginterest on that.
Yes, exactly. It grows foryou, it works for you.

(06:20):
Right? He's like, I'll lendyou 10, but you gotta give me back
12.
So, yes, there's a charitablecomponent, but it is kind of some
skin in the game, I guess youcould say. It's saying that if I
give this to you, you need tomake sure that you don't just eat
these two, because you'regoing to need to pay back in some

(06:41):
components. So, yeah, it'sbeen a fun process. And I can tell
you that for the children thathave read the book, there's a page
on it where you see, as theday's passing, how the two plates
look. And that. That's. Thatpage seems to really resonate with
kids because they just canimagine how they're feeling as one
pile is growing and the otherone's empty. And they're trying to

(07:04):
imagine where they would be inthat position. So fun stuff.
Yes, yes. It sounds like.Like, it's very fascinating how you're
describing these books becauseI'm like, so much thought has gone
into putting together thelessons, putting together the examples,
who's the characters Very interesting.

(07:28):
The odd thing about money isthat a lot of kind of the ways we
approach life in general canalso apply to money. So if we kind
of build those foundationalprinciples, just like when you grow
up, your parents teach you tobrush your teeth, to eat properly,
to take care of yourself, thefinance world is kind of the same
where if we can build thosekind of repetitive patterns really

(07:50):
early in the game, it's justmuch, much easier later in life.
Absolutely. And you know thatdelayed gratification you mentioned
earlier, like I tell peopleall the time, I feel like that's
one of the biggest things thathas helped me on my financial journey.
I will share with you alsothat as a financial planner, one
of the questions or issuesthat I've seen over two decades of

(08:12):
helping families for adults isthat the biggest thing that prevents
them from actually achievingfinancial success is fear of judgment.
They fear that they come inand say, one of the things I often
hear is, please don't judge mefor this decision I made. And sometimes
they're scared to ask peoplefor help because we don't always
know the answer when we getstarted. And that fear is something

(08:36):
that doesn't start as soon asyou become an adult. That fear is
something that can start aswhen you're a kid. So I think that
an important thing, my fifthbook actually goes into that specific
topic of fear of judgment,where when it comes to parents and
kids, one, we want to teachthe kids lessons, but we also want
to be mindful of how we reactto kids when they succeed and also

(09:00):
when they fail. The fifth bookis called Akash and Mila and the
Big Jump. And once again, ithas nothing. It doesn't mention money
at all in this book, but ittalks about how two friends are trying
out their first gymnasticsclass, and they're all excited going
in. They're ready to go, readyto try out new things. And one of

(09:24):
them, they go into a classtogether and one of them jumps off
of a springboard and lands onhis face and is completely embarrassed.
And it's something that everyparent, every child can relate to.
They know that feeling ofjust, I don't want to do it again.
I made a big mistake. I don'twant anybody to look at me. I'm not
going to talk about it. I justwant to leave. But the reality is

(09:47):
that if we can take thatmoment and try to teach kids that,
hey, it's okay, we all makemistakes. We all are starting at
different points in life. Wedon't want to judge. We don't have
to compare ourselves to whereeverybody else is, because comparison
is the thief of joy. If kidscan get over that and can build that
self confidence from thebeginning, no, it's okay to try and

(10:09):
to fail. And then of course,if friends and siblings can be mindful
of that so that when they're,when a friend does fail, instead
of making fun of them orridiculing them, they can try to
bring them up and say, hey,you know what? Try again. You can
do it. It's those littlemoments that once again doesn't have
to do with finance now, butwhen they get into making financial
decisions, they're a bit moreconfident in themselves. They're.

(10:32):
They're okay to try things,take risks with investments and things
like that. But also if theydon't understand something, they
know it's okay to ask for helpand not feel that they're, they're
a lesser person if they do askfor help. Because there's a reason
financial planners and soforth exist out there.
Yes, yes. And I love that yousaid that. That is one thing that
I, I have been reflecting onas a parent is watching my reactions

(10:56):
to things because I have torealize that this is a little person,
it's not a big person. So thelife experience and the stuff that
I've learned, they haven'tlearned yet. And so just being more
understanding of that fact. SoI'm glad that you brought that up
from, like, that'sconfirmation for me. I don't know
about any of the other lessons.

(11:16):
Yeah, we're all, I'm there.Right? We all wish we could be that
perfect parent or whatever itmight be. But we all have our moments
where we're looking at thebells and getting frustrated or other
things can seep into ourlives. But it's not so much what
we tell our kids, it's how wereact to scenarios that they are
seeing. This is how I shouldor should not react. So it's hard.

(11:38):
But that's probably thebiggest lesson that we can really
pass on. Rather than sayingsomething to a child, show them how
we react in certain situationsand not ridicule them when they make
mistakes.
I love that. I love that. AndI feel like that is the perfect mic
drop to end this episode. Sothank you so much, Anthony, for coming
on now. If people areinterested in learning more about

(12:00):
the books, purchasing thebooks, or following you, how could
they find you?
All the books are under aseries. It is called the Owning the
Dash series. O W N I N G the DA S H and the concept behind that
is on your tombstone you haveyour birth date and your death date
and you have the dash inbetween. So the idea of taking ownership

(12:22):
of your life, there's a longstory behind that. Not enough time
for this podcast, but ifindividuals want to learn more or
see the other books, they'reall available@.
Owningthedash.Com I love thatwhat you just said. You are just
so full of wisdom. Owning theDash. Okay, I noted. But thank you

(12:45):
so much Anthony for sharingthis information with us. Dropping
so many gems in such a shortamount of time. I truly appreciate
it and the listeners. I willhave all of these links in the show
notes. So if you didn't catchthat, definitely check out the show
notes. It's there. Thank youagain Anthony and I hope you have
a wonderful rest of your day.
Thank you so much for having me.
Bye.

(13:06):
Thank you for listening,joining and being a part of the Money
Talk with Tip podcast thisweek. You can check Tip out every
Thursday for a new Money Talkpodcast, but if you just can't wait
until next week, you canlisten to previous podcast episodes@moneytalkwithtea.com
or follow TIFF on all socialmedia platforms at MoneyTalk with

(13:27):
T. Until next time. Spend wiseby spending less than you make a
word to the Money wise is always.
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