The Special Role of Grandparents in Teaching Financial Literacy
While we as parents try our best to instil money habits at home, why don’t we rely more on trusted grandparents in further teaching kids financial literacy?
Their decades of real-world experience give them unique wisdom to impart.
In this blog post, we’ll cover how to leverage grandparents’ special role in conveying key money concepts. You’ll discover tips to engage elders in teaching little ones and activities the whole family can try.
Why Grandparents Excel at Teaching Kids Financial Literacy
Think back to your own childhood money memories with grandma and grandad. Chances are they played an impactful role in lessons that still stick today. There are clear reasons why grandparents make ideal finance mentors for kids.
Family Finance Education Experience
After personally budgeting for their own households and families over decades, grandparents understand first-hand the financial ups and downs of life. They’ve handled changes in income, supported children’s wants versus needs, planned for retirement, and more. This lends credibility and practical advice to pass down—as well as cautionary tales we can all learn from.
Multigenerational Perspectives
Having come of age in decades like the Swinging Sixties or challenging Seventies, grandparents bring different cultural perspectives than today’s youth. They can encourage timeless values like thriftiness and savvy shopping that withstand generations of societal shifts and tech changes.
Patience and Empathy
Admit it, keeping young ones engaged in any lesson isn’t always easy! As elders, grandparents nurture patience. They can gently inspire kids’ curiosity in finances through steady guidance rather than dry lectures. Fun activities also help concepts stick.
Trusted Bond
As an amazing bonus, most grandkids innately look up to grandparents and take their mentoring to heart. Kids who shrug off money advice from mum and dad will often eagerly absorb the same guidance from a beloved grandma or grandpa.
Now let’s explore tips for actively involving grandparents in developing your children’s financial literacy.
Creative Ways to Engage Grandparents in Teaching Financial Literacy
While most schools fall short in money skills education, kids from ages 3 to 18 are primed to establish smart financial habits. With grandparents’ help, we can make it happen! Follow these suggestions for weaving wider family into lessons:
Chat About Grandparents’ Experiences
Discuss you and your parents’ upbringings across eras—pocket money vs allowances, cash reliance vs apps. Did grandparents save for special purchases growing up or chores for earnings? Contrast any societal differences, like more frugal times.
Encourage Grandparents to Share Wisdom
Urge parents to impart experiences with household budgeting, retirement planning, investment earnings/losses over decades, and examples of delayed gratification paying off. The goal is conveying practical wisdom from financial ups and downs they’ve navigated.
Involve Kids in Grandparents’ Errands
Next time grandparents visit the bank, shop for bills or grocery shop, invite them to bring your kids! Seeing money tasks first-hand and asking questions cements lessons. Maybe they can hold the payment envelope or see the budget ledger. Even better, encourage kids to earn some allowance by giving them chores to do themselves reinforcing the relationship between working hard and earning money!
Propose Special Outings
Organize a visit with grandparents to family shops or the local bank branch to witness operations. Let kids listen in on a chat about long term retirement savings plans to grasp compound interest. Take them to charity shops and volunteering events to introduce selfless giving. The bonus? Positive memories get associated with money experiences shared with loved ones.
Encourage 3-Way Conversations
Don’t just rely on grandparents covering financial topics solo. Dive into 3-way discussions together about goals, strategies and concepts with your children. Reinforce any advice that grandparents offer during your own lessons. This helps everyone stay on the same page.
Key Financial Literacy Topics Grandparents Can Cover
Beyond integrating elders into day-to-day teaching moments, they can dive deeper into certain personal finance topics to help establish literacy foundations. Below are solid focuses:
Budgeting and Saving Habits
Grandparents can reinforce distinguishing between financial wants and needs, making trade-offs and delaying gratification. Have them guide grandkids to articulate personal saving goals then regularly set gift money or allowance aside toward purchases using designated containers or accounts. Hearing techniques that worked long-term for grandparents’ own goals boosts motivation.
Bank Services Education
Who better than grandparents to demystify banking! Given their long reliance on traditional services, they can clearly explain checking/savings accounts, debit/credit distinctions, ATMs, transfers etc. Showing dated bank books and passbooks provides a tactile springboard for discussions.
Investment Options and Strategies
Grandparents can clarify how invested money grows through accrued savings interest and market gains over decades, whether in traditional savings or stock investment accounts. Use relatable examples like estimating timelines to save for big goals, explaining compound growth effects starting early.
Charitable Giving
Grandparents often have favourite local causes and can personalize the value of community support. Encourage them to advise donating small gift amounts to charities kids feel connected with. Say, animal welfare or children’s funds. Arrange participating together in sponsored events too, like fun runs.
Creative Techniques Grandparents Will Love
Replace boring money lectures with fun games or role play scenarios that bring financial concepts to life. The following activities make the most of grandparents’ playful sides:
DIY Games
Ask grandparents to join in with making board games focused on money trivia or earning/saving habits concepts. Say, a snakes and ladders style game, but where smart and not-so-smart choices determine each player’s financial advancement.
Roleplaying Exercises
Have grandparents act out future grown up scenarios where kids make financial decisions with pretend incomes and bills. What lifestyle can they afford based on savings versus costs? Contrast choices in an engaging way.
Read Relevant Books and Media
Select stories addressing money topics to enjoy together, then chat about scenarios. Seek books, age-appropriate films and podcasts on banking, budgeting, entrepreneurship etc. Digestible media coupled with real life application from grandparents sticks well!
Set Up Mini-Shops
Grandparents can create pretend stores using play cash and old packaging to reinforce counting skills, giving change, budgeting for needs/wants when roleplaying shopping. Let kids set up a lemonade stand afterwards to handle physical money.
Our Young Entrepreneurs Workbook bundle is the perfect gift to get grandparents and kids working together on a project that provides opportunities for family bonding time whilst also teaching valuable money lessons.
For more tips on how to make learning finance fun for kids, read our blog here! Finally, if grandparents want to directly provide funds for hands-on money lessons, here’s guidance on gifts that hit the mark.
Presenting Financial Gifts the Right Way
Rather than just handing cash that gets instantly spent, encourage grandparents to contribute to longer-term goals. This could mean savings accounts, bonds or share purchases in the grandchild’s name. Attach lessons about earning interest and asset appreciation over time.
The key is aligning gifts to education purposes rather than arbitrary amounts. Ensure grandparents involve kids in choosing vehicles and defining saving targets. This empowers children to put new financial literacy skills into practice.
Family Bonding for Grandparents Teaching Financial Literacy
Grandparents should play an integral role in teaching your kids’ financial literacy. Their real-world expertise and trusted bonds with children allows for impactful literacy mentoring we can struggle to achieve alone as parents.
By collaborating across generations and households on topics, lessons and activities, we create win-win support for developing money skills that last a lifetime.
So How Can Finabee Help?
Here at Finabee we believe that all children should have access to financial and entrepreneurial education to inspire and build good money habits from an early age. Read a bit more about us here and how we plan to raise a generation of finance-savvy children for the future. Click here to learn more about how it works.
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Now that’s a savvy investment!
