How to Talk to Your Kids About Money Without Making It Weird
We recently bought a new(-to-us) car. For the past decade, we’ve primarily leased our vehicles, but we wanted to get out of that cycle. We had saved for a while and we were able to pay cash (well, pay with a cashier’s check) for the car. Actually buying it, like handing over our money in exchange for the car, felt a lot more final than signing a lease. Our two boys had to come with us to the dealership. We figured it wasn’t worth getting a sitter for and planned to bring their iPads so they’d stay out of our way.
(Listen: I know it’s important to build the skill of waiting without a screen. I’m intentional about doing that when I can–specifically, when I’m going to be able to help them manage their energy and impatience.
Pediatrician’s office for a well-child visit? One brother has to sit and watch the other at soccer? Let’s bring some coloring books or Hot Wheels. In fact, they both have their own on-the-go activity bag that we keep in our coat closet. Going to the dentist with me while I get a filling? Coming with us to buy a new car? We’re gonna use the iPad to keep them out of the way.
Blah blah blah. We’re all out here doing the best we can.)
So anyway, we meant to bring the iPads…but forgot them. As a result, they got to really see the whole car buying process. (And, we got to try not to lose our minds while multi-tasking between signing our lives away and taking little boys to the potty.)
We all made it through. They saw the process of buying a new car and all that it entails.
Over the next few days, the questions really came in hot:
Why did we get a new car if we liked the old one? Because the lease ended and we decided we wanted to own our next car rather than keep leasing.
Why can't we eat in mommy’s new car? Because we saved up to buy this car and we want to take good care of it, the same way we talk about taking care of their toys.
Why doesn't it have TV screens in the back like the one in the dealership lobby? Because there are features that we thought were worth paying extra for, like the SuperCruise that makes our drives up north easier, and features that weren't worth the cost to us.
We didn’t plan to make this a whole financial lesson. I mean, really, I thought they’d be deeply engaged in an episode of Weather Hunters the whole time. But, as it turned out, they got some exposure to the process of buying a new car.
Why it feels uncomfortable to start
If the idea of talking to your kids about money makes you uneasy, I get it. A lot of people feel this way. According to research by Empower, two-thirds of American adults say they never learned about personal finance in school, and half say money wasn't discussed at home as children. For plenty of us, we just don't have much of a model to follow.
Money can feel like a topic to avoid until kids are older and we think they’re “ready for it.” But kids are already watching how we handle our finances and are forming impressions along the way.
If we weren’t taught these skills, though, we might not feel ready to talk about them with our kids–and that leaves them to just figure things out on their own.
What the research shows
According to the National Financial Educators Council, only 23% of kids say they talk to their parents frequently about money. Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist at Creighton University cited by CNBC, notes that kids who learn financial literacy early are more likely to build healthy habits around money as adults, and that those who talk with their parents about it "end up in much better financial shape” later in life.
Think about what you're ultimately working toward as a parent. You want your kids to grow into capable, confident adults who can take care of themselves. Teaching them to read, signing them up for swim lessons, making sure they can manage a basic routine: financial literacy belongs in that same category. Being good with money is a skill, and it develops over time through exposure and practice, not through a single conversation you schedule when they're seventeen.
It doesn't have to be a formal conversation
Most parents picture the money talk as something they have to plan: a sit-down, an agenda, a prepared explanation. It can feel like a lot to get right and it's easy to keep putting it off.
When you explain why you're skipping the drive-through tonight, that's a spending conversation. When your child helps put together the grocery list and you talk through why you're buying what you're buying, that's an example of budgeting. When they earn money and have to decide what to do with it, that's financial decision-making. I found that when I started looking for these moments, there were more of them than I expected.
Starting the conversation
In any of these conversations, the language doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be honest and clear enough that your child walks away with a slightly better understanding than they had before, and there are specific phrases that help with that. I put together five of them for exactly these kinds of moments. You can grab the list (for free, of course!) right here.
My boys aren't going to remember the paperwork at the dealership, but they’re building an understanding that things cost money, that we think carefully about what's worth paying for, and that we take care of what we own. I don’t have a finance degree and you don’t need one either. You need to be willing to start the conversation.
Alaina Trivax is a certified teacher, financial writer, and founder of Let's Make it Grow — a resource for parents who want to raise financially confident kids. Her book, Follow the Money, publishes August 4, 2026 with Penguin Random House.
