Financial literacy is the most powerful tool we can equip our kids with as they grow up. So why wait? Find out how to teach kids as young as five about money.
Do you remember when and how you learned about money? From budgeting and saving to applying for credit cards or taking out a loan, building an early foundation of financial literacy is a key strategy to ensuring long-term financial success. That makes it all the more important for parents to grant their children a measure of money-savviness and financial know-how as soon as they can.
In a world where financial literacy is more vital than ever before, this episode of Smart Advice goes deep into teaching kids about money at any age and stage with the help of Robin Taub, author of The Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to be Responsible, Independent and Money-Smart for Life.
Whether you’re a parent eager to guide your children toward financial independence or an educator looking for insights on financial literacy, this discussion offers invaluable strategies to help shape financially responsible and confident young adults.
[06:53] Robin: “So depending on the age that your child is, you're going to find these different types of teachable moments, but they are all going to come under what I call the five pillars of money, and those are earn, save, spend, share and invest.”
[08:48] Robin: “It’s hard if you don't feel like you're particularly good with money yourself to feel like you can teach your children, but I try to encourage parents to learn along with their kids.”
[12:51] Robin: “Kids need to learn this stuff wherever they can. I mean, who you know? Going back to the original — if you're not teaching your kids about money, who is?”
[19:12] Robin: “Sometimes the things that we take for granted that we know at this point, kids don't know.”
[21:14] Robin: “You need to let your kids — you want to teach them, but you also need to let them make mistakes and learn from them.”
Robin Taub is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA) and a passionate advocate for financial literacy. With a background in finance and a deep understanding of the challenges parents face in teaching their children about money, she has dedicated her career to making financial education accessible and engaging for families.
Robin is the author of The Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to be Responsible, Independent and Money-Smart for Life, a highly regarded guide that empowers parents to raise financially savvy children. Drawing from her experiences as both a financial professional and a mother, Robin’s work emphasizes the importance of starting financial education early and the role of parents as financial role models, making her a leading voice in the field of family financial education.
Connect with Robin Taub on LinkedIn, or visit her website.
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Carissa: Welcome to Smart Advice, a podcast connecting you with real financial advice, investment strategies and economic trends, empowering you with insights you need to make smart decisions about your money. I'm CIBC’s Financial Advice Expert, Carissa Lucreziano.
Investing in one's financial education can open up the door towards achieving financial confidence and financial success. Building the foundation for this knowledge very early in life has extreme benefits. It can allow a kickstart to savings at a young age, benefit an early investor for decades of future potential growth, teach financial independence, and most important, adopt concerted habits and behaviours towards the value of money.
In this episode, we sit down with Robin Taub, the author of: The Wisest Investment: Teaching Your Kids to be Responsible, Independent and Money Smart for Life to discuss ideas and approaches any parent or guardian can implement in their family to help teach their kids great money habits, starting in childhood through adolescence and into young adulthood.
Welcome to the podcast, Robin,
Robin: Thank you for having me. Carissa,
Carissa: It's great to have you. I am so excited to talk to you today. You know, as both a parent and a financial expert, you're in a unique position to write a book about helping children establish healthy money habits. As a mom myself and someone that has dedicated my career to financial advice, I am so glad that you have.
So tell us what sparked your interest in such advocacy for financial literacy. I'm going to highlight at the grassroots. What was your goal when you decided to publish The Wisest Investment?
Robin: So as you mentioned, I am a financial professional. I'm an accountant by training, a CPA. So I've always felt comfortable in the realm of money and finance, whether corporate or personal.
And I do have two children, a son and a daughter, who are young adults now. I always felt money management was a crucial life skill, and I wanted them to have that. Luckily, because of my education and my experience, I was comfortable talking about money with them from an early age.
But according to research, most parents recognize that teaching their kids about money is important, but they feel they don't have the information they need to teach the right lessons about money, and they don't often know how to approach it with kids of different ages. So what really, you know, got me to write this book was I wanted to help those parents so that they could make the wisest investment too.
Carissa: Incredible. And, you know, in some of your write ups, I saw that you said, if you are not teaching your kids about money, who is? And it's funny, when I read that, I'm like, well, that's so true. Who is teaching our kids about money?
So you just said it. There is an incredible impact when parents educate their kids through talks about money, but it can seem daunting. You mentioned some parents can struggle. Maybe they weren't taught that way. Maybe they're just starting to learn for themselves. And from our survey that we've done at CIBC, 49% of Canadians say that they wish they knew more about tools and resources available to get a better grasp.
So in line with what you're mentioning, you have amazing tips and ideas. How can parents integrate this into their weekly family routine? And when should parents start to teach their kids about money?
Robin: My answer really is, as soon as possible. Most kids, I would say, are ready at about age five, as soon as they start asking about money or expressing curiosity about it, and it often corresponds to when they start preschool, because they're around other kids, and they see what other kids have and do.
But if listeners are thinking, okay, I haven't started yet, my kids are over five. You know, it's never too late. So if your kids are older and you haven't started, just get started now. I mean, you just want to start the lessons at a young age and then build on them.
Carissa: I have a five year old. He'll be five in like, a month, and he is my partner at the grocery store. I take him everywhere with me.
So what examples do you have like for parents like this, in the day-to-day, that five year old starting to kind of ask those questions, like he asks a million and one questions, I do a lot of work around trying to get him to realize the value of money, just even, you know, looking at the prices and talking about it. What are some of the things that we can do just in that day-to-day, with a child that's so young?
Robin: Well, you’ve hit on it. It's exactly what you said. What you've described is looking for teachable moments, so opportunities to build a money lesson into your day-to-day life that crop up naturally as you're going about your day
So with your five year old when you are going grocery shopping and he's coming with you, you can start by making a list at home and explaining that you're trying to stick to the things that you need because food has gotten very expensive.
You know, you have to explain this in age appropriate terminology, but you know, we have a list. We're going to buy what we need to cook our meals, room for some treats, and then when you get to the store, you can comparison shop, and show him the different prices of things.
Again, a five year old's a little bit young to talk about unit pricing, but an older child might understand that. You can also talk about name brand versus store brand, about quality, and about how it's not just about price or cost, but it's also, with a lot of things that we spend money on, it's also about quality and getting value for our money.
So as soon as you start thinking about it this way, looking for teachable moments, you'll see so many of them crop up in your day-to-day lives. And again, depending on the age of your child, you'll know what's an age appropriate topic, as opposed to something that may be a little too mature for them.
Carissa: Perfect. Like, why is Mommy walking by the 12.99 watermelon and not buying it that week, right? Like, so, and it's funny, that example that really worked, those teachable moments, teaching my son about price points and saying, well, you know, that's quite expensive, and we'll look for it underneath $10 for example.
You can have these conversations, and what they're grasping, I feel, along the way it impacts. You can see that over time. So, and you talked about when we should start, like, in that five years old. Anything else into that daily, weekly routine?
Robin: Well, the way I think about it is there's different ages. So your kids, five to eight is the young child stage, and then they progress, and they become pre-teens, and then teens and emerging adults. So depending on the age that your child is, you're going to find these different types of teachable moments, but they are all going to come under what I call the five pillars of money, and those are earn, save, spend, share and invest.
Every possible financial topic will fall under one of those five categories, so depending on the age of your child. Let's say you have a teenager and you're about to sit down and pay your credit card bill online or through your phone, just taking a minute to explain to that to your teen, like what you're doing that you have to pay your credit card bill every month, ideally the full amount owing, so that you don't incur interest.
You could talk about the minimum payment and what that is, and you know the fact that that means you're not paying the full balance and you will be charged interest, or what happens if you miss or are late with a payment. So just finding those moments with a preteen, they might not understand the difference between a debit and a credit card. You know, a debit being a buy now, pay now, tool and a credit card being buy now, pay later.
Those are just a couple of examples where in day-to-day life, or if a young kid sees you tapping your phone and does not understand that you're using it to pay for something just explaining, taking a moment to explain and answer their questions.
Carissa: Yeah. You mentioned one of the main strategies from the wisest investment is to enhance your own money knowledge, so you can lead by example, a recent CIBC survey, we found that 78% of parents are confident in their abilities to teach their children things like budgeting, savings and kind of debt management, which are some of the foundational and gonna say the basics, if you will.
But that confidence starts to drop when it comes to their own grasp of topics beyond that. So one of the recommendations that you have is enhancing your own money knowledge so you can lead by example. How do parents or people in general do that?
Robin: It's hard, if you don't feel like you're particularly good with money yourself, to feel like you can teach your children. But I try to encourage parents to learn along with their kids. And it's not the kind of thing that you ever stop learning about when it comes to money. I'm still learning about things because the world keeps evolving and getting more sophisticated.
It is something that you can learn together with your child. And I think that starting by trying to get your own financial house in order so you can lead by example and be a good financial role model for your kids is a really important strategy and a good place to start. In my book, I talk about these eleven healthy habits of financial management that will help you do that, get your house in order and also allow you know, model good behaviour and habits for your kids.
So I think that is like an ideal starting point. And I feel personal finance: the concepts are simple. The five pillars — everyone understands what earning, saving, spending, sharing and investing are. You know, it can get a little bit sophisticated and complicated. The execution, but often that's why people work with an advisor, a trusted advisor. So there's definitely help out there. But starting by getting these habits down is really important.
Carissa: And what would be an example of one of those healthy habits? Because, I mean, there's so many that you can adopt. What are the main things that you want to stay connected to at core when it comes to financial management?
Robin: Yes, they're all important, but I feel like they sort of start with the simple stuff, like knowing where you stand financially. So that might mean creating a statement of net worths, everything you own, less, everything you owe, figuring out your monthly and annual cash flow, so what's coming in less, what's going out and budgeting.
So that's knowing where you stand, living within your means, so spending less than you're making so that you can save and invest, which leads to paying yourself first, not less, and preparing for the unexpected, having an emergency fund, having adequate insurance, tracking your spending.
Those are just a few of the examples. I mean, they're really basic, fundamental things that if kids learn young, they can practise and have as healthy habits throughout their lives.
Carissa: Yeah, and fundamental but so important to your point is knowing where you stand, like you have a good understanding of what your financial situation is, and we've been through so much change over the last even five years that it's great to revisit this at least every year and every time there is a change, spending less than you earn — that takes practice and building good habits.
But then that allows you to really focus on paying yourself first. Because if you don't really understand the ins and outs of your cash flow and being able to manage that, you know where you see opportunities to save for yourself, then how can you start a savings plan without understanding what you have so wonderful fundamentals.
So let's shift gears a little bit. We talked a lot about the impact that parents can have on their children, and how you've talked through some really good tips on how parents and guardians can think about doing this on the day-to-day. Simple — just starting with a conversation, let's talk a little bit about from an education perspective, you have done incredible work, consulting on workshops for financial literacy for elementary and high school students.
Starting in 2025 Ontario high school students will now have to complete a new financial literacy test as part of their Grade 10 math course. As an advocate for financial literacy in schools. Do you think this is going to fill the gap for financial literacy in teenagers?
Robin: I think it's one way to fill the gap, and I do believe that kids need to learn this stuff wherever they can. I mean, going back to the original — if you're not teaching your kids about money, who is? So they're going to be learning it from their peers, maybe their older siblings, grandparents.
But at school is a key thing, and it's something I kept hearing over and over from parents, and whenever I spoke anywhere, it was like, how come kids aren't being taught this in school? In Ontario, financial literacy has been integrated into the curriculum for more than a decade, but this is the first time in Ontario that you're going to have to pass a financial literacy test in order to graduate.
I think that that is fantastic, and I’m really hoping and expecting that if the curriculum is very practical, and the information is appropriate for somebody that's in Grade 10 or 15 years old, and that it covers the five pillars of earning, saving, spending, sharing and investing.
I would expect it to cover things like how to understand your first paycheck, the difference between gross and net pay, for example; how to save some of that paycheck and set goals that are meaningful, how to get the most for your money when you're spending, how to track your spending and set budgets, how to give back, whether that’s with time or money, and the magic of compound interest when it comes to investing.
So I'm hopeful that those topics and more will be covered in this new requirement. But I also think it would be great if they taught a little bit about the psychology of money, because, as you know, it impacts behaviour. We're not always rational actors, so the psychology of money will affect how we think and how we make decisions.
So for example, teaching kids about setting up an automatic transfer every time you get paid, so that you are paying yourself first. Other topics like how to manage financial stress, because it can have serious physical and mental health consequences.
I hope they talk about advertising and how all this social commerce can really affect your spending habits. Or finfluencers — financial influencers — and how to make sure that the the information that you take. And the personal financial information and tips and strategies are coming from credible sources. So I am hopeful, but I still think parents have a really important role to play in augmenting and reinforcing these lessons that they're going to get at school.
Carissa:Yeah, and I couldn't agree more, like, I mean, fundamentals, budgeting, saving for a large purchase, et cetera. But everything that you mentioned, it can't just be for Grade 10 students and then drop off.
How do we continue this throughout? And should we be teaching this earlier? What are your thoughts? I know there's sprinkles of it throughout, but should we be fundamentally, or really focusing on teaching this earlier than Grade 10.
Robin: As I mentioned, at least in Ontario, it does start earlier than that. I believe it used to start in Grade 4, and it might even start as early as preschool now, but it isn't a standalone course or module, necessarily. As I said, it's integrated into the curriculum. So it might be built into a Social Studies class or a careers module.
Then, throughout the country, in all of our provinces and territories, similar education is taking place, whether it's an elective course or a mandatory course. BC, for example, has had a Planning 10 course for many, many years. So you know, you want to check into what's going on in your particular province or territory. And I do think that it could start earlier.
My kids — I remember my daughter when she was in, I think it was Grade 5. She had to do this project called Get a life. Part of it was looking into what things cost. What would it cost to rent an apartment? What would it cost to buy groceries for a month? What kind of jobs paid you how much salary?
So I think some teachers are really creative — if they're comfortable with this and they like this topic, they do find ways to integrate it into English or Social Studies or what have you. And there's also sometimes extracurricular workshops that your kids can sign up for after school hours that teach them money skills.
I know that Junior Achievement goes into the schools, and the Bankers Association does as well, and they go into the classrooms and they do have extra learning, so it's just a case of finding out what each school offers.
Carissa: Yeah, well, it's great news. I think it's a wonderful opportunity, especially at that age, it's very important to start developing some really great habits. Talk a little bit about, you know, as children grow into young adults, so like the 18 plus, they start to have different needs, like saving for university tuition, using credit cards, starting to save, starting to invest.
This is a crucial time for awareness. And, you know, the start of really great habits in financial management they could be even thinking about, you know, starting to save for their first home. And we know how tough that is these days. And you know, a lot of write ups and talks have been about the Bank of Mom and Dad, and how do we start to really give our children, our young adult children, all the tools that we can to set them up for success in life?
Is there a best or most effective approach parents can use with kids in their late teens or early 20s, those young adults to help them propel successfully into their adult journey on, like, solid financial ground?
Robin: Yes. So I'd say the approach is similar in the sense that you're going to be building on the five pillars that we talked about earlier, of earning, saving, spending, sharing and investing. So at this stage, though, you know, the information you share should always be age appropriate. And the examples that you share are the things that they are going to need to understand at this stage of life, checking in with them, and it's always about good communication.
So ask them: are there things that you don't understand when it comes to managing your money? Do you understand how to pay your credit card bill online? Do you understand how not to just pay the minimum balance? Can you figure out when it's due? Are you going to set it up as an automatic payment, or are you going to manually do it every single time that every month?
Because sometimes the things that we take for granted that we know at this point, kids don't know. I remember my daughter when she got her very first credit card. She missed the first payment. She just didn't realize that it was going to be due three or so weeks after the end of the month.
So just checking in with them about stuff like that, and making sure that if they have questions, that they know that they can come to you; that if you don't have the answer, you can help them figure it out that's reputable and coming from a source that they can trust.
I think teenagers don't want to spend as much time with you as your younger kids, but then they come back again when they're young adults and they are looking to their parents. A lot of research shows that kids want to learn about money from their parents, and they want their parents to be good financial role models.
I also think it can go the other way, in a really cool way that you can learn from your kids too, because there's a lot of stuff that they are seeing and they're familiar with cryptocurrencies might be one area or just even there's their digital natives. They're so good at doing things on their phone, whether it's saving or bill paying or investing.
I think it can be a two-way street when it comes to the 20s, and that's actually really rewarding as a parent to be able to also learn from your own adult kids.
Carissa: Yeah, I think so. And I think so much that our children do learn and adopt as behaviours what they see around the home and that'll teach them a lot about, you know, their relationship with money, so the more that you can do to help them prepare.
You gave the example of a credit card, which is a great example helping set your children up for just even the automatic payment coming out every single month will come directly out of your bank account. However, you know you want to schedule to make more than that monthly payment, because you want to show them about how interest is accrued on a credit card, and so just things like that can really help, but sometimes they make a few mistakes, like the, you know, the one that you mentioned, and it can be innocent, but they'll also learn from that as well.
Robin: That is a really big thing that you need to let your kids, you want to teach them, but you also need to let them make mistakes and learn from them, and that's why it's so important to start teaching when they're young, because the stakes are low.
It's not going to be a crucial mistake if they buy a useless toy when they're 12 years old, or even if they missed their first credit card payment, but they had spent like $75. It becomes a lot more critical later on if they don't understand about the responsible use of credit, and they are spending more than they can afford to pay, and it can quickly snowball. So that's why I do encourage parents to start early and lay that foundation and then build on it as they get older.
Carissa: Yeah, because they will be exposed as they go into colleges, universities, they will be exposed to, for example, signing up for a credit card or what have you. And you know, having those conversations, teaching them about that, maybe even getting them one before, can absolutely help. And even resources, using digital type resources.
I know at CIBC, we have tons of financial tools and calculators from the basic budget calculator, student budget calculator, savings calculator and investment growth calculator and more. So even you mentioned before, like kids spending time with you. But if you can grab their attention, maybe getting them to start doing some of these online tools can help them really understand.
Even like the time value of money. You invest, you know, $1,000 today, over X amount of time, you put in that regular investment plan that you mentioned, at X amount of rate, and here you go. This is what you could have in 20 years, 30 years. Showing them things like that are big impact. So using the resources at our fingertips, you know, your bank has that; we have it at CIBC, that can be a big help as well.
Robin: I agree. I agree, take advantage of the resources that your bank offers, and you know they're coming from a reputable place. It's not some random influencer on Tiktok that's trying to tell you how to get rich quick and the latest trend or what have you. It's like good, solid information. And I agree, too that, like, the numbers never lie.
As an accountant, I can tell you that. So running some of those numbers, like you said, if you were to save $25 a month, starting when you're in your 20s, and you let that compound for the next 40, 50, years, what is that going to look like? And then how do you make that happen? Like those kinds of charts are really powerful, because that's what young people have going for them. They have time on their side to take advantage.
So the sooner they start saving and investing, the more it will pay off.
Carissa: Yeah, over that amount of time, they'll realize that in most cases, it's really the growth that outweighs, sometimes, their combined initial investment. So it shows them the importance of, you know, investing over the long term too.
So great conversation. Robin, thank you. If you want to sum it up for our listeners thinking about teaching their kids, connecting with their kids, having the conversation with their kids about money, few things that you want to leave our listeners with that they can implement today, tomorrow, this week, this month: what would they be?
Robin: So I have three tips, really, or three strategies, and the first is to just start. You know, just get started and just think about getting your own financial house in order so that you can lead by example and be that good financial role model for your kids, and I actually created a self-assessment tool, a financial role model self-assessment.
It's in my book, but people can also find it for free on thewisestinvestment.com so maybe just check that out and see what kind of role model you are currently and think about how you could be an even better role model, because your kids are watching and listening and learning, and they are aware of both your good and your bad habits with money.
My second tip, which we've talked about a lot, is looking for teachable moments, so that opportunity to build a money lesson naturally into your daily lives. We talked about the grocery store example, but this time of year, if you're planning end of August, summer trip with your family, you could talk about budgeting right now, parents are starting to think, I guess, about back-to-school shopping.
It's a little early in Canada, but that is a great teachable moment to talk about, creating a list, setting a budget, comparison shopping, being resourceful. Like do you have to buy everything new this year? Where can you get some of these things that are on your list? Can you reuse from last year? Can you borrow? Can you get from older siblings, friend of the family? That I think, I think that's a great teachable moment, back to school.
And then lastly, we didn't really talk about this Carissa, but one of the things I feel strongly about is using your values, your personal values, which are the things that are most important to you in life, and you're willing to take a stand for and to use those to help guide and prioritize financial decisions and set meaningful goals. And that's something that even our children can start thinking about our values, their own values, and what's most important to them, and tie those back to their financial goals.
And often, as parents, we want our kids to share some of our values, so just talking about, what are the family values, what's most important to us can help make some of these trade offs a little easier to figure out.
Carissa: Yeah, and I think some good examples of that could be even like work ethic and earning; that's one of the pillars that you talk about, being resourceful, and you just mentioned that, as well as do you need to go buy a whole new school wardrobe? Or what can you reuse and is still intact, taking inventory of what you have, even from a grocery perspective, like taking inventory before you go grocery shopping can really help with the whole budgeting and the whole waste and being resourceful. So I really like the concept of values. I think family values is big.
And as you teach kids about money, but also you teach them about legacy; you teach them in and around when you're planning around, like estate planning. We talk a lot about setting those values and sharing those values, you know, with your children and your family to really get them to understand what it is that really pins the foundation of the family. So I really like that.
Robin: Yeah, a lot of people that really, you know, resonates with people, because these things are really closely held and important with families, and they really do want their kids to share those values, and as they get older, to make decisions that are aligned with those values. So the sooner you can start talking about that, the better.
Carissa: Yep, I love those three tips that you left us with. They're really fruitful.
What I love about this conversation Robin is that you can start very simple at all ages, just having the conversation you talked about, starting when your child is five years old, having those conversations that you know 11 healthy habits start with some good fundamentals, like knowing where you stand from a cash flow perspective, and spend less than you earn and paying yourself first, and then really thinking about the ways in which that we create some really good healthy habits and really understanding what you know.
In Ontario, for example, the curriculum will start to help the teenagers to really have a good footing and fundamentals for so. Thank you so much for being on the podcast. Great conversation. Such an important topic, teaching our children and making them better for tomorrow. So a pleasure. Thank you.
As your kids grow, you'll have many opportunities to teach them about money, model good financial behaviours, and give them the space to make their own financial decisions. By starting these lessons now, you're setting your kids up for a bright financial future. You can learn more about Robin's work on her website, robintaub.com.
Thank you for tuning in to this episode of smart advice. I'm Carissa Lucreziano. If you enjoyed this episode, feel free to share it with other parents in your social network to make sure you never miss an episode. Follow smart advice on your favourite podcast platform for more financial tips, visit cibc.com/smartadvice.