A smiling teenager holds a credit card and searches for what to buy online
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In an immediate satisfaction, in which Alpha gene has easy access to immediate delivery services, such as Amazon Prime and Uber Eats, some parents wonder how to teach young money to save money.
Born in 2010–2024, Alpha's gene is not similar to other generations. They grew up with smartphones in their hands and the ability to make purchases at clicking the button.
In fact, their efficiency of expenses is huge. Alpha gene spent 92 million pounds (USD 126.2 million) according to Gohenry's research, which provides debit cards for children in Great Britain, France and Spain. Gohenry published a report on the youth economy in September 2024, which provided data from 311,832 Gohenry children.
Many of this money go to online services, and Gohenry Kids spend over 3 million pounds on food supply services, which is an increase of 113% compared to the year earlier. In addition, almost half likes to shop on social media platforms, such as Tiktok Shop, Facebook Marketplace and Instagram.
Their economic trace is expected achieve $ 5.46 trillion According to the McCrindle research company, until 2029.
“Comfort and speed have become the norm,” said CNBC Louise Hill, the founder of Gohenry, in an interview. “One of the things we must remember when we think about the Alpha gene is that they are completely accustomed to everything that is available on the switch film, at clicking the button, and this drives various behaviors with money.”
Hill explained that despite the influx of online financial education resources, there was also an increase in cash products and applications, which are easy to use, such as credit cards, buy-on-layery options and payments without contact. This makes parents more complex to navigate children in teaching children.
She emphasized the importance of understanding children “that money should be earned before spending it” and then spent it with thought and consideration.
Earn “tangible” money
Hill said that “tangible aspects of money”, such as physical cash, to understand its value is crucial for children. Giving “ordinary pocket money” is one solution, from giving 50 pence a week to 5 pounds.
“If you give your child 50 pence and choose the day of the week, which works for you as a family of pocket money, it can be Saturday, you can literally give them 50 pens every Saturday. It's amazing how quickly he will start to be aware of” Oh, look, it's every Saturday. If I save four Saturdays, I have two pounds. And now I can buy x, y, z, with, with, with,
The service of physical cash allows children to know how much their favorite items cost.
“You can give your child some coins, and then may have a concept how many of these coins have been replaced with a bag of sweets and a larger toy,” said Gohenry's founder.
For teenagers, Hill suggested a “pizza budgeting” method, which allows children to visually understand how much money is running a household and paying bills.
“Pizza is your pot of money, they pay, or money, and then taking the child:” Would you like to guess how much a piece of pizza we have to cut, if it is a home salary? How large a piece we have to cut out of it to pay rent or pay off a mortgage? “
When the pizza becomes smaller, it creates an understanding of how much money is left for free expenses.
Attach children in cash talks
Children are like sponge and tend to absorb attitudes related to money from parents, so Hill thinks that it is good to keep them in a household finance loop.
She gave an example of the cost of living in Great Britain after the Covid-19 pandemic, which was widely cited in the media. Gohenry began to hear from clients that their children were worried about the crisis of the cost of living.
“Children absorb everything in a situation where you may be stressed by money as a family,” she said.
Parents can talk about cash struggles without raising an exact problem, for example if they are unable to pay rent.
For example, Hill said that if you can't afford to take out every Friday evening, it's the involvement of children in the “Faka”, which means take -out at home.
“How about the involvement of children in making pizza and choosing add -ons? Maybe even going to the supermarket with you and collecting these add -ons instead of paying money to take away, and then show them how much money is saved,” added Hill.
This can help children feel more control over the habits of money and learn to tighten their belts when they need when they age.