Schools should teach children more about how money works
Schools should make financial literacy a core life skill because children already face digital payments, inflation, borrowing risks, and household money pressures early.
🔍 WHY THIS STORY MATTERS
Financial literacy affects how young Europeans understand debt, savings, scams, inflation and digital payments. This argument highlights why money education is becoming a resilience issue.
KEY TAKEAWAYS...
● Children can grasp basic financial concepts such as value, savings, cost and risk earlier than many adults assume.
● School-based financial education may reduce inequality by making money knowledge less dependent on family background.
● Evidence links financial education with better economic understanding and improved later-life outcomes.
● Digital banking, subscriptions, buy-now-pay-later products and online advice make early financial literacy more urgent.
I recently volunteered to teach some lessons in finance to pupils at a primary school. Over six sessions, I spoke to a group of ten and eleven-year-olds about things like value, savings, cost and risk.
The talks were not meant to turn the children into investors, or to teach them to price derivatives or read corporate accounts. They were simply designed to start discussions about everyday financial choices – what it means to spend and borrow money, to compare prices and plan ahead.
I told them that money involves choices and consequences. That if we spend today, we may have less tomorrow. That if we borrow money, there are rules about paying it back. Or that if prices rise, the same amount of money buys less stuff.
These are not advanced financial concepts. They are everyday occurrences.
The children were curious and often more financially alert than I expected them to be. They asked practical questions and responded especially strongly to examples involving everyday choices, such as saving for something they wanted or comparing prices when costs rise.
And the experience left me asking whether children should be being taught more about financial literacy at school as a vital life skill.
After all, rent, mortgages, loans, tax, pensions, savings, inflation, insurance and debt shape the lives of almost every household. A better understanding of how it all works can only be a good thing.
The issue is not that schools do nothing. Financial education already appears in parts of the curriculum in many countries, particularly through mathematics and citizenship lessons. But is this enough?
And there is plenty of evidence to suggest that improving financial literacy should be part of any education system which hopes to prepare young people for life and work in a changing society.
A study in Brazil for example, shows that school-based financial education can improve economic proficiency. And an experiment in Peru suggests that mandatory school-based financial education is highly effective.
By contrast, if financial literacy is left mainly to families, there is evidence that inequality gets passed on. This concern is consistent with “financial socialisation theory”, which shows that children usually get their financial attitudes and habits from their parents.
Financial fix
Of course, financially literate children do not always become financially secure adults. They may still suffer from low wages, high housing costs, insecure work or regional inequality.
But financial literacy can reduce vulnerability. Evidence from US high school education policies links exposure to personal finance education with better economic results for young adults, including fewer debt defaults and higher credit scores.
So a focus on financial education makes sense. It can help young people understand credit, compare prices, question online financial advice, recognise scams, plan savings and make more informed decisions when they start work.
Technology adds another dimension. The financial world that young people encounter is no longer limited to a bank branch or a family conversation at the kitchen table. It is embedded in platforms, apps and algorithms.
Children may be using online banking, contactless payments, subscriptions, buy-now-pay-later products and AI-generated content before they fully understand financial risk.
Teaching young pupils about finance and accounting reminded me that children are often more capable than adults assume. They may not know the terminology, but they understand fairness, choices, value and consequence. These are the foundations of financial reasoning.
If we want more financially resilient societies, we should not wait until young people are opening their first bank account, signing their first rental contract or taking on student debt to give them a decent grounding in understanding the financial world.
It should start much earlier, and governments should be ambitious enough to make financial literacy a core part of every child’s education.
🔮 WHAT MATTERS NEXT...
🎯 WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
● Whether governments expand financial literacy from secondary lessons into primary education.
● Whether curriculum reviews make room for practical money skills without narrowing other subjects.
● Whether schools receive teacher training and resources to teach finance consistently.
● Whether digital finance risks, including scams, subscriptions and buy-now-pay-later products, become a formal part of lessons.
🎯 MOST LIKELY OUTCOME:
● Financial literacy will continue to enter school systems unevenly, with stronger progress where curriculum reform, teacher training and consumer-protection concerns align.
🎯 WHAT COULD CHANGE THE PICTURE:
● A major policy shift or public concern over youth debt, online scams or digital payment risks could accelerate compulsory financial education.
🎯 WHY THIS MATTERS:
● Early financial education cannot remove structural inequality, but it can give children a stronger base for recognising risk and making informed choices.
GOING FURTHER
Schools should teach children more about how money works | The Conversation
Pupils in England to be taught about online spending and scams | The Guardian
Not adding up? Why children’s financial education should start early | Euronews
Saving or splurging: Where are young people most financially literate? | Euronews
How financially literate are Europeans? Not very, it turns out | Euronews
More states are teaching financial literacy. It could pay off | Associated Press
How to talk about money with your kids | Associated Press
Only GCSE reform can free up space to teach financial literacy | The Guardian
Sources:
▪ This piece was originally published in The Conversation and re-published in Europeans TODAY on 3 July 2026. | The author writes in a personal capacity.
▪ Cover: Dreamstime/KORWEN.
