How to help kids form healthy relationships with money: psychologist

As parents contend with rising costs and an overall tighter economic climate, more of them are using those challenges as an opportunity to have frank talks with their kids about money, according to a recent survey.

Honest conversations — including telling your kids “no” when they ask you to buy something, and explaining why — can give those kids an early foundation of financial literacy that can serve them well later in life, says Brad Klontz, a financial psychologist, author and associate economics professor at Creighton University.

In the survey of 2,000 U.S. parents, released March 31 by financial software company Intuit, almost two-thirds — 64% — of parents raising kids under age 18 said that recent financial challenges forced them to be more transparent with their children about how they manage their finances. Sixty-six percent of respondents reported saying “no” to purchase requests more often while explaining their reasoning to their kids.

Kids don’t always learn much about money in school: As of March 2026, 39 U.S. states make passing a personal finance course a requirement of high school graduation, which is up from just 12 states in 2022, according to the Council for Economic Education.

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Yet children can start learning permanent money habits as early as age 5, research shows. And kids who learn financial literacy early on are more likely to form healthy relationships with money that can help improve their financial and overall well-being as adults, according to a 2022 study by researchers at Brigham Young University.

You might explain to a young child that an expensive video game console doesn’t fit in your family’s budget, or catch your teenager up on how you’ve put aside funds for their college education. When parents talk to their kids about money, “those kids end up in much better financial shape later on in life, versus having to learn it the hard way,” says Klontz.

Many parents find money discussions with kids to be taboo, particularly specifics about their own family’s financial status and spending habits, studies show. Some parents feel ashamed about the state of their own financial literacy, and anxiety over money being tight can cause parents to avoid discussing the subject, Klontz says.

But avoidance is a “big mistake” when it comes to discussing money with your kids, says Klontz: Never shut down your child’s questions about the topic, even if they’re asking for a purchase that’s not within your family’s financial reach at the moment. Saying “no” to your child’s latest spending request is a prime opportunity to follow up with some thoughtful and informative reasoning for that decision, he adds.

“You don’t want to give your kids the message that this is a stressful, taboo topic that ‘we don’t talk about,'” says Klontz. Such an approach can harm kids’ long-term financial literacy, he says,…