Teaching Money Habits to the Next Generation

This morning, we hosted a financial literacy workshop through CPA Canada called Are You a Good Financial Role Model?

I love this topic, and as usual it wasn’t super well attended, which is too bad. Even if you don’t have kids, someone in your life likely does, or at least someone younger who needs financial direction. So I’ve been contemplating the workshop long after it ended because financial role modelling doesn’t mean you have to give perfectly finished lectures or discuss complicated budgeting spreadsheets. Mostly the modelling comes in our day-to-day grind and chores that drift through our households like background music or a tweeting budgie. (Our budgie growing up was Billy – rest his soul – and he never shut up!)

Kids and young adults notice more than we think, at least my daughter has proved this point to me. Also in my own experience of growing up with my financially iliterate parents.

Kids notice whether money conversations create panic or calm.
Kids notice if we avoid opening bills and leave them piled on the dining room table.
Kids notice whether we spend impulsively when stressed, or just because.
And kids notice whether we plan, save, recover from mistakes, and talk honestly about financial decisions.

Even when we say nothing at all, we are still teaching them.

Financial Habits Are Inherited in Invisible Ways

Many of us grew up absorbing unspoken beliefs about money:

• “Money is always stressful.”
• “Debt is normal.”
• “Rich people are greedy.”
• “Talking about money is rude.”
• “If you work hard enough, everything will magically work out.”

Some of these beliefs helped us survive. Some quietly sabotaged us in the personal finance department.

The great thing is, we have the opportunity to interrupt unhealthy patterns and replace them with healthier ones for the younger people in our lives, never mind for us.

We don’t have to be perfect, but we should be transparent, consistent, and provide small acts of guidance as you go.

A financial role model is not someone who has millions in the bank, although, wouldn’t that be nice?

A financial role model is someone who demonstrates intentionality and positive money decisions and discussions.

What Young People Really Need From Us

Young people today are entering adulthood in a complicated financial landscape. Housing costs are volatile, especially here in Metro Vancouver. Consumer culture follows them around in their pockets 24/7. Instagram formulas that catch you (I see you Sorel and your beautiful Ona Drift sneakers!!!!) and buy-now-pay-later apps whispering seductive little lullabies as you doom scroll. Financial advice online ranges from helpful to absolute raccoon-chaos (think, my dishwasher stacking technique, much to Doug’s dismay).

What our young people need most is not shame or lectures about being sucked in. They need practical support and emotionally safe conversations about money.

That can look like:

• teaching them how to build a simple budget
• explaining how credit cards actually work
• helping them understand interest rates
• showing them how to compare prices and avoid impulse spending
• encouraging saving, even in tiny amounts
• helping them file taxes for the first time
• talking openly about financial mistakes and recovery
• normalizing delayed gratification, like my 48-hour window I use
• teaching them that financial wellness is connected to mental wellness and fun stuff!

One of the statements the facilitator said this morning is that you can do three things with money:

1. Spend
2. Give
3. Save

This in itself is a great lesson, explaining what each of these means. But one of the best lessons is removing any shame about money. So many adults carry deep shame about money.

Shame keeps us silent. Silence keeps people uninformed. And being uninformed can become expensive.

When we create judgement-free conversations with younger people, we give them permission to ask questions before mistakes become crises.

Imagine the difference between:

“How could you get into credit card debt?”

and

“Okay. Let’s look at what happened and make a plan.”

One creates fear. The other creates resilience. Which one makes you feel better?

Practical Ways to Help Set Young People Up for Success

You do not need to finance someone’s life to help them build a stronger future. Sometimes the most valuable support is guidance. Here are a few meaningful ways to help:

1. Teach financial basics early

Talk about saving, taxes, debt, budgeting, and needs versus wants before young people leave home.

2. Normalize money conversations

Make finances a topic that can be discussed calmly and honestly.

3. Help them build systems

Teach them how to automate savings, track spending, or organize bills and documents.

4. Encourage emergency savings

Even a small emergency fund can create psychological safety and reduce future debt.

5. Model boundaries

Show that it is okay to say:

• “That’s not in my budget right now.”
• “I need to think before buying this.”
• “I made a financial mistake, and I’m correcting it.”

6. Live within your means

Create a life where spending aligns with actual resources, allowing room for stability, choice, and a little breathing space when life throws its surprises, as it does.

7. Pay yourself first

Treat savings like a non-negotiable bill so that future security is built before money disappears into the noise of everyday spending. For example, a minimum of 10% each pay goes into the TFSA/RRSP/FHSA.

8. Never stop learning

9. Needs vs wants

Understanding the difference between needs and wants helps young people build intentional spending habits, teaching them that every dollar has a job and that not every craving deserves a VIP pass to the checkout line. Which takes us to…

10. Delayed gratification

Teaching delayed gratification helps young people understand that waiting, saving, and planning for something meaningful often brings greater satisfaction and long-term stability than chasing every shiny impulse that flashes across the screen. I have to wait 48 hours before I allow myself to go to the online checkout and buy that item. So far I’ve not gone back to Sorel to look at those lovely off-white sneakers, and it’s been two weeks, look at me go!

So I challenge you, share your lessons! Young people learn deeply from real stories, especially honest ones. None of us gets through life without financial mistakes.

Show those younger people in your life that money is a tool, not a source of identity or shame.

And perhaps most importantly, to help them understand that financial literacy is not something you either “have” or “don’t have.”

It is a lifelong practice. A skill set. A conversation. And you know what? It can change the trajectory of a life, like mine.

What financial lessons do you wish someone had taught you earlier?