Survey: Most Parents Teach Their Kids About Saving Money

Some Americans likely grew up not openly discussing finances at home. According to a new NerdWallet survey conducted online by The Harris Poll, 20% of baby boomer parents (ages 61-79) didn’t teach their children about saving money.

Perhaps because talking about finances has become less taboo, today’s parents of young kids are prioritizing this life lesson: The survey found that 93% of parents of children under 18 have taken action to teach their kids about saving money, like encouraging them to set savings goals (45%) or opening up a savings account for their children to deposit money into (41%).

If you’re a parent who wants to teach your kids about saving money, here are a few options to consider.

According to the survey, 41% of parents of children under 18 opened a savings account for their kids to deposit money into as a way to teach them about saving. Additionally, some parents of minor children used visual tools — whether physical (38%) or digital (28%) — like piggy banks or savings jars.

For young kids, a piggy bank or savings jar is probably a good place to start. Sure, they aren’t yet earning interest, but having tangible bills and coins allows them to begin learning the value of denominations and how to count cash, before moving on to opening a savings account or using a banking app.

You can open a savings account for a child, regardless of their age, jointly owned by the parent and the kid. In addition to your own personal information and photo ID, you’ll likely need to provide the child’s name, date of birth, and Social Security number when opening the account. You could opt for an online-only bank or a local brick-and-mortar, but keep in mind that some banks may require an account for a minor to be opened in person. Look for a savings account option that doesn’t charge monthly fees and has a decent interest rate.

Nowadays, there are also banking apps for kids. These may include educational activities, savings goal features, allowance tools and parental controls. The downside is that some apps charge monthly fees and/or don’t pay interest. So you’ll need to decide if the interactive features are worth the added cost.

The survey found that 2 in 5 parents of minor children (40%) have given them an allowance to teach them about saving money. For school-aged children, this may be a good option. Whether an allowance is tied to chores or not, a small weekly allowance can be a starting point for learning how to manage competing financial priorities — like saving, spending and giving.

According to the survey, nearly a third of parents of children under 18 (31%) require their kids to save a certain amount of money they receive as a way to teach them about savings. You could give your children guidelines on how much to save, spend and donate, or allow them to decide on the allocation themselves. You can further this discussion by talking to your kids about how you make these decisions when it comes to the family finances.

Less than 2 in 5 parents of minor children (37%) have discussed family finances with their kids to teach them about money, according to the survey. While you naturally don’t want to burden children with money stress, there are age-appropriate ways to use your own finances to teach kids about saving.

Consider your own savings goal for the year. Maybe you want to fund an emergency savings account, save up for a vacation or invest 10% of your take-home pay for retirement. Explain what your goal is, why you set it and how you’re working to achieve it. Then, ask your kid to do the same. Depending on the age of the child, an appropriate goal might be learning the value of different bills and coins, saving up for a special toy or even a car, or putting a certain amount of allowance aside for giving. Once your kid has identified their goal, discuss why they want to achieve it and what steps they’ll take to get there.

Say your child wants to save up to buy a new toy. It costs $30 and they receive an allowance of $5/week. The motivation for the purchase is that it’s a fun thing to play with and they will save up their allowance for seven weeks in order to cover the cost of the toy plus the sales tax. (Bonus: Depending on their age, now may be a great time to teach them how to calculate sales tax, if your state and/or locality charges it.)

The toy may turn out to be a great purchase, cherished for years to come. Or, your kid might find they actually don’t like the toy as much as they thought. Which brings us to a bonus tip for teaching kids about both saving and spending.

Kids’ savings goals are likely short-term deferred spending, rather than long-term savings. And parents, with their years of experience spending and saving, probably have opinions about what their children decide to buy with their limited funds. But unless the item isn’t age or otherwise appropriate, it might be smart to allow kids to experience some buyer’s remorse.

Most parents don’t want to see their children disappointed. But allowing kids to make mistakes on a small scale — like buying a toy that isn’t particularly well made or isn’t fun to play with after an hour or so — is a starting point for having discussions about how to mindfully evaluate purchases before we make them. Depending on the item, it may also be a good opportunity to teach them about return policies.

A bad buy now likely won’t keep your kids from ever making uninformed purchases in adulthood. But these early lessons may help them think more critically about how they spend, and maybe spare them from too many spending regrets in the future, when the dollar amounts at stake are higher.

This survey was conducted online within the United States by The Harris Poll on behalf of NerdWallet from March 4-6, 2025, among 2,046 adults ages 18 and older, among whom 580 are parents of children under 18. The sampling precision of Harris online polls is measured by using a Bayesian credible interval. For this study, the sample data is accurate to within +/- 2.5 percentage points using a 95% confidence level. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables and subgroup sample sizes, please contact [email protected].

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