This Year, Give Your Kids and Grandkids a Gift That Will Change Their Lives Forever

Updated 12.08.2023

I recently celebrated another revolution around the sun and — as birthdays tend to — the occasion inspired review and reflection. Musing on my journey led me to recall a pivotal experience that’s stayed with me for decades, though on the surface it seemed quite mundane. It happened during my senior year at Lassiter High School when Junior Achievement (JA) of Georgia came in to teach our Honors Economics class.

The organization sent a representative every year and in 1993, JA sent in the owner-operator of a Chick-Fil-A at one of the East Cobb locations here in Atlanta. While I don’t remember much about that class decades later, I do remember learning that a large iced tea cost the owner-operator two cents — and voila, the concept of the profit margin was born in my brain.

This was my first true lesson in Economics 101, never mind all the academic stuff and tests I took throughout that year. Even though I had gotten into the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, thinking I might study economics as an undergrad, it was the simplicity of the two-cent iced tea that struck me like a thunderbolt. It obviously made a deep impact since I recall it this many years later.

Meanwhile, ’tis the season of giving and everyone is in mall traffic gridlock around Atlanta (or on Amazon) trying to come up with gifts for their kids and grandkids, hoping to bring unadulterated joyful chaos into the home. After all, that’s part of what makes the holidays feel like holidays!

But while these gifts of toys, video games, savings bonds or college 529 plan contributions are important, I believe there’s something far more valuable and meaningful you can give. Teach your kids some fundamentals about money and engage with them around personal finance.

Like the old adage about the value of a fish versus teaching a man to fish, giving the gift of financial understanding offers a lifetime of benefit that far exceeds the value of any financial gift itself. If you want to encourage financial success for your children and grandchildren throughout their lives, consider providing financial education that can help them enjoy the rewards of this knowledge for decades to come.

3 tips to help you provide financial education

1) Give kids an allowance, and then let them use it — mistakes and all

If they don’t understand how money “spends” and how it feels when you have a lot or don’t have enough, money remains an esoteric concept. Let them make spending decisions (within the guidelines you establish together) and then experience the consequences of their decisions.

2) Create rules for spending the allowance

I like the idea of dedicating 1/3 for fun, 1/3 to save for something big of their choice and 1/3 for charity. Go visit some local non-profits together to create buy-in for supporting the charity of their choice. My son is an animal kid, so his philanthropic piece goes to animal rescue entities.

3) Consider investing in something together

Spending time together is a key component. You may wish to invest in a few local stocks or some basic mutual funds… or anything else. Whatever the child chooses to invest in, do it together. Systematically monitor the investment and review the statements together every month to show how money can grow through wise investment. As a nice bonus, this shared activity will also further the (grand)parenting relationship.

Financial education is a gift that fits everyone

Try to involve your kids and grandkids in routine financial tasks at every opportunity. Make them monitor the check register, even if you don’t use actual checks. Seeing and understanding a credit/debit concept in practice is important, and this exercise will help make it real and inspire more questions about how money really works — which is exactly what you want.

Without specifically targeted financial education even the brightest students don’t automatically learn how to handle money, whether or not they’re graduating with a crazy amount of student loan debt. In my practice I’ve seen super-intelligent 20-something PhD students at my alma mater, Georgia Tech, have some of the same questions that I might get from my 12- year-old. Give your child or grandchild the best education around money that you can, so that they already know how the real world works when they’re ready to graduate.

Many years after his JA presentation, I spotted that same owner-operator whose iced tea profit margin made such an impression on me at a business function. I talked with him and made sure to tell him about my experience and the enduring impact his profit margin lesson made.

Do the same thing for your kids and grandkids: our future leaders. Financial knowledge is power, and this kind of power can lead to the amazing future you want for them.

Meredith Moore is a 20-year veteran of the financial advisory industry who specializes in bringing a customized approach to support the highly personal dynamics that govern her clients’ relationship with money and success. She is the recipient of numerous industry awards and a noted speaker and writer focusing on the intersection of power, money, and gender within relationships. Ms. Moore can be reached at www.artisanfsonline.com.

Meredith C. Moore of Moore and Artisan Financial Strategies, 1125 Cambridge Square, Suite C, Alpharetta, GA 30009 (770) 587–0281.Learn how to take control of your financial life and discover what makes women’s financial planning needs such a unique challenge with our free, white paper: https://www.artisanfsonline.com/.19.htm