What do you wish for your child?  To grow up healthy, certainly.  Smart, hopefully.  Funny, kind, thoughtful, strong, brave, clean, and reverant — fantastic.  But we also want our children to be smart with their money.  To not be the next victim of a Madoff.  Or a mortgage scam.  Or a get-rich-quick scheme from a Nigerian email.

We want them to be independent and strong.  Professionally.  Emotionally.  Financially.

Where do they learn how to handle money?  Schools teach arithmetic.  Some teach accounting.  But where do you learn the importance of delayed gratification?  The value of saving today so that you have some tomorrow?  That money is a means but not an end?

In his latest book, Piggybanking — Preparing Your Financial Life for Kids and Your Kids for a Financial Life, Jeff Opdyke guides parents — and prospective parents — through the financial decisions you’ll make at each stage of raising children.

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Tags: financial literacy, Piggybanking, teaching children charity, teaching children financial responsibility

Recently I was at our town library with my six-year old son. I saw a copy of “Saving Money,” a slim easy-to-read book that I thought might make for an interesting review on the blog. Assuring my son that it wouldn’t count against his book limit of five, we checked it out and brought it home.

It’s never too early to teach the principles of financial literacy to children.  However, this book doesn’t cut it, and here are four reasons why:

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Tags: book review, financial literacy, Mary Firestone, saving money, teaching children financial responsibility