5 Tips on How to Teach Your Kids Good Money Habits

May 24th, 2025 by Team Sammy

Habits

In this blog, I’m excited to share four reasons why habits make a huge difference and five valuable tips on teaching kids good or great money habits. We affectionately call Sammy Rabbit “Gold Karat Tips.” These nuggets of wisdom are designed to help parents, educators, and caregivers build strong money habits in kids from an early age.

4 Reasons Why Habits Make a Huge Difference

1. Consistency Compounds Results — and Makes the Future Predictable

Habits turn small actions into powerful outcomes over time. Repeating positive behaviors daily—like saving money, exercising, or reading—creates long-term success through the power of compounding. Importantly, the outcomes of most habits are largely predictable before we begin them—if you read daily, you’ll get smarter; if you spend more than you earn, you’ll struggle financially. I have share this over and over with kids, parents, and adults: when we choose our habits, we are choosing our future!

2. Reduces Decision Fatigue

Habits automate behavior, saving mental energy. Instead of constantly deciding whether or not to act, you default to the habit—freeing up brainpower for more important or creative decisions.

3. Shapes Identity and Self-Perception

What you do repeatedly becomes who you are. When you build habits like budgeting, exercising, or helping others, you reinforce the belief, “I am responsible. I am healthy. I am generous.” Habits shape identity from the inside out.

4. Builds Momentum and Confidence

Small wins from daily habits build confidence and create momentum. One good habit leads to another, helping you climb higher and faster than sporadic bursts of effort ever could.

5 Gold Karat Tips on How to Teach Kids Good Money Habits

Tip 1: The Right Money Habits Will Establish a Strong Foundation to Build Sustained Success

Without a strong foundation, lasting success—financial or otherwise—is nearly impossible. Of all the money habits you can teach your child, saving is the most essential. It serves as both the cornerstone and springboard for building a solid foundation in money management—one that supports future financial success and lifelong confidence.

My clear and unwavering advice to parents and educators is this: establish consistent routines, meaningful rituals, and intentional patterns that empower kids to make smart money choices—starting with saving.

Children thrive with structure. Truthfully, we all do.

So teach them to follow tried-and-true strategies—the kind that reliably foster achievement and lay the groundwork for long-term success. Save first. Spend less than you earn. These are among the most essential of those strategies. They’re winning recipes—proven money habits that consistently and predictably lead to success.

✅How to implement Tip 1: Set Up a “Save First” Routine
Give your child four clear containers or jars labeled Save, Invest, Spend Smart, and Give Wisely. Every time they receive money—whether it’s a gift, allowance, or earnings—guide them to put a set percentage (like 25%–50%) into the “Save” and "Invest" jars first. Make it a consistent and celebrated routine so saving and investing become second nature.

Tip 2: Be Aware and Be Intentional—Kids Are Always Listening

Kids are natural learning machines. From the moment they’re born—perhaps even in the womb—they’re absorbing everything we say and do.

If you could read a transcript of everything you say in a day, you'd likely find that money comes up often—directly and indirectly. Children pick up on all of it: our words, our tone, our gestures. These subtle signals begin to shape their thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about money.

The truth is, most of us teach about money without even realizing it. And unfortunately, much of what we pass along isn’t intentional—it’s habitual.

If we want to lay a strong foundation for our children’s financial well-being, we must become more mindful of these everyday money messages. That means choosing to communicate with intention and purpose—not perfectly, but consistently.

Remember: it’s not just about becoming more intentional with your own money messages—it’s also about recognizing that others already are. Advertisers, marketers, and media platforms are purposefully shaping your child’s attitudes about money every single day. And their goal isn’t to build your child’s financial security or freedom—it’s to separate them from their money, quickly and joyfully. They’re taking full advantage of your child’s natural curiosity and eagerness to learn.

Our advice? Don’t aim for perfection—aim for progress rooted in time-tested money management principles. Focus on turning these principles into consistent habits. Start small, and steadily grow the thoughtfulness and clarity of the financial messages you share.

✅ How to implement Tip 2: Have a Daily "Money Moment" Talk
Pick one daily routine—like driving home from school, brushing teeth, or setting the dinner table—and turn it into a short, intentional “money talk” time. You don’t need a lecture—just one thoughtful, age-appropriate message or question like, “What’s something smart someone could do with $5?” This keeps money top-of-mind in a positive, low-pressure way.

Gold Karat Tip 3: Don’t Avoid the Money Talk

"Plenty of parents aren’t helping their kids become financially literate. T. Rowe Price’s 11th Annual Parents, Kids & Money Survey found that nearly half of parents said they miss opportunities to talk to their kids about money and finances."

It’s no surprise that many parents miss these opportunities—talking about money can be uncomfortable for a variety of reasons. It’s easy to avoid. But avoiding the topic doesn’t protect kids—it leaves them unprepared, and often leads to financial stress later in life.

The good news? There are more tools than ever to help you start these important conversations with confidence.

We recommend exploring Sammy Rabbit’s stories, songs and activities. A great place to begin is with music. Songs are simple, engaging, time-efficient, and non-threatening—a perfect way to spark meaningful conversations and learning about money.

✅How to implement Tip 3: Use a Sammy Song to Start a Conversation
Choose one day a week (like Money Mondays) to sing a Sammy Rabbit song or read a short story together. Afterward, ask your child one simple question: “What did Sammy do with his money?” or “What do you think he did well?” Let the story do the heavy lifting—your job is just to get the dialogue started.

Gold Karat Tip 4: Model the Behaviors You Want to Teach

"Children learn more from what you do than what you say—especially when it comes to money."

Kids are always watching. They notice how you talk about money, how you spend it, save it, stress over it—or celebrate using it wisely. Your actions speak louder than any lecture ever will.

That’s why one of the most powerful ways to teach kids good money habits is to model them yourself. Show them what it looks like to budget, to save with purpose, to make thoughtful spending choices, and to give generously.

Turn everyday money moments into learning opportunities:

Let them see you compare prices at the store.
Talk about saving for a family goal.
Involve them in small financial decisions, like choosing between needs and wants.

These lived experiences leave lasting impressions and help your child build a practical, personal understanding of money. When they see you practicing healthy habits, they’re more likely to do the same.

Remember, you are your child’s first and most influential financial educator. What you model today becomes their money mindset tomorrow.

✅How to implement Tip 4: Have Your Child Watch You Save for Something
Pick a small savings goal—like a family pizza night or a new board game—and create a visible savings tracker on your fridge. Contribute to it regularly and talk about your progress with your child. Say things like, “We’re saving a little each week until we reach our goal!” Watching you save reinforces the behavior with real-life meaning.

Gold Karat Tip 5: Teach That Money Isn’t Just for Spending

"Your kids’ early interactions with money will likely involve spending. They see you using it to purchase things, including things for them. So it’s important to teach them from a young age that money isn’t just for spending—they should be saving money regularly, too."

By the time children are just 3 or 4 years old, the consumer machine is already at work, influencing them to say: "Give me, give me, give me." That’s no accident—it’s the result of billions of dollars in marketing aimed directly at shaping how kids view money.

When you combine this constant exposure with the fact that many parents miss opportunities to intentionally talk about money, it's no surprise that children quickly associate money almost exclusively with spending.

To make matters more confusing, even the word "save" is often tied to spending. Think about how frequently it shows up in phrases like, "Spend and save!" rather than in empowering messages like, "Save to build wealth," or "Save for your future and to be ready for emergencies."

That’s why it’s essential to teach your children early and often that money has multiple purposes—and saving is a critical one. Help them develop a simple, consistent routine of saving money. Encourage them to see it not as a chore, but as a smart and empowering habit.

This is how you lay a strong foundation for your child’s financial security, freedom, and success.

✅How to implement Tip 5: Reframe “Save” and “Spend” Language
Be deliberate with how you use the words “save” and “spend” around your child. Replace phrases like “Let’s spend and save” with “We’re saving today so we can enjoy something even better tomorrow!” Over time, this reframing helps shift their mindset from instant gratification to long-term thinking.

5 Common Reasons Why Parents Miss Opportunities to Teach Their Kids About Money

Lack of Financial Knowledge
Busy Schedules
Fear of Overburdening Kids
Avoiding Difficult Conversations: Money can be a sensitive and difficult topic to discuss. It can create tension or conflict.
Prioritizing Short-Term Goals - immediate needs. In other words, parents may not see teaching their children about money as a top priority or critical to their children's success.

Your Thoughts

We value your input!

If you have questions, suggestions, or would like to have author Sam X Renick deliver a special financial education experience to the children and families in your network and community, contact us.

We also welcome your ideas on to make it fun and easy for parents, teachers, and community leaders to talk to and teach kids to establish great money habits at any time, but especially when they are young.

How You Can Help Sammy Rabbit Advance Kids and Families Financial Literacy Levels

Let’s continue raising awareness about the importance of early childhood, youth, and family financial literacy education—because the habits kids form today can shape their financial futures tomorrow!

To that end, we invite you to partner and collaborate with us. Here are a couple of ideas on how you can help and we can work together.

Give custom, co-branded Sammy Rabbit story and activity books to kids in your local community!
Collaborate and partner with Sammy on "1" project in 2024: See a Menu of Ideas or suggest your own.

Contact us to explore more options and support Sammy's mission. Thank you. Have a #Sammyriffic day!