Most parents have said some version of this: “Go and keep it in your piggy bank.”
It comes from a good place. The instinct to teach a child that money should be saved, not squandered, is genuinely wise. The problem is that saving is only one part of how money works and in 2026, it is the smallest part of what a child actually needs to understand.
A child who only knows how to save is not financially educated. They are financially cautious. There is a difference, and it matters more now than it ever has.
The world your child is growing up in is already teaching them about money. The question is whether you like the curriculum.
Children today are growing up with phones in their hands and social media in their eyes. Soft life culture, online consumerism, and the constant visibility of other people’s spending are quietly shaping how they think about money before you have said a single word on the subject. When their digital world rewards visible spending over quiet discipline, no piggy bank is strong enough to counter it alone.
Research from Cambridge University suggests that core money habits are largely formed by age seven. Not seventeen. Not when they get their first job, which means the window for influence is earlier, and shorter, than most parents realise.
So, what should parents actually be doing differently?
- Open an investment account in your child’s name. A savings account teaches a child that money can sit. An investment account like the Norren Kickstart teaches them that money can grow. When a child watches N5,000 become N5,800 over a few months without them touching it, something clicks that no classroom explanation can replicate. Start small, start early, and make a habit of reviewing it together. That conversation, “look what your money did while you were at school” is one of the most powerful financial lessons a parent can give.
- Name money honestly in your home. Children who grow up hearing “we cannot afford that right now” learn something different from children who hear “that is not a priority for us this month.” The second version teaches a child that money involves choices and values, not just availability. It removes shame and adds thinking.
- Let them make small, real financial decisions. Give a child N1,000 for a market run and let them manage the change. Let a teenager budget for something they want over several weeks. Real decisions, even small ones, build financial instincts that no classroom lesson can replicate.
- Have real money conversations: A child who understands, even simply, why things cost more this year than last year is developing economic literacy. You do not need to explain monetary policy. You just need to say: “When prices go up, your money buys less, which is why we have to be thoughtful.”
The piggy bank taught one genuinely important lesson: keeping something is better than spending everything. That lesson is worth building on, not abandoning.
The children who will navigate money well as adults are not the ones who were simply told to save. They are the ones who were taught, early and consistently, that money is a tool and that how you think about it matters just as much as how much of it you have.
