In fact, an index created by the TIAA Institute and the Global Finance Literacy Excellence Center (GFLEC) shows remarkably low levels of financial literacy across generations, including adults. As parents, we need to take an active role in teaching our kids basic money concepts, things like basic budgeting and saving. Older kids can even learn about investing and the importance of credit.

A few fun ways to teach kids about money are:

Family farms provide some easy ways to help kids learn about the importance of money.

Since many of our Nutrien employees are growers themselves, I also got a few ideas about teaching financial literacy from some of our Nutrien Financial Territory Managers. Here’s what they had to say about how they learned about finances or how they’re teaching their kids about them.

“Each of my kids opens a checking account as soon as they can drive. Our bank teaches them about debits, credits, and bank ledgers when they open the account. Then each one of my kids is responsible for logging their transactions and balancing their checkbooks each month. We invest in livestock, usually cattle, to teach our kids about money."

"Each child is given a heifer and they can choose to sell it and take the money or they can begin building their own cow/calf herd. We pay the feed bill and they do all the work on their own."

"We track expenses and talk about the markets. We help them determine a breakeven point and discuss what profitability means. Once their first calf crop is sold, they get a percentage of their income for fun money and the rest goes into savings for future livestock expenses.” -Hollie Rudy

“My dad talked to us about finances a lot when we were young. One big thing he repeated that stuck with me was that many people can make a dollar but very few can save one. He said it’s the very few who are able to save that get ahead in life. I continue to put this saying into practice in my everyday life and it helps me make decisions on what I really need versus what I want to purchase.” -Jacquelyn Fernandes

“Financial skills and knowledge are not part of the school curriculum, so laying that financial foundation is crucial to get young adults started on the right foot. My own kids are a little young for a checking account, so we find other ways to involve them in finances and we try to make it fun. One way we’ve done this is by giving them a budget to learn to make decisions on trade-offs and alternatives to get the best value while staying within a budget. For example, we might plan a vacation and give them a budget to help plan an itinerary and stay within that set budget.” -Scott Bame

“As a kid growing up on a farm, the books were always open to me. I knew our expenses and revenue and it made me feel more involved in the process and the results. My dad spent time explaining why he would take on a certain expense. He’d explain things like why we bred this bull or why we didn’t buy a supplement that everyone else was buying. It helped me see the reasons to invest in things.” -Hudson Badskey

While everyone can benefit from learning more about money management and finances, these lessons are perhaps even more important for kids who grow up on a family farm and hope to one day run that farm. If we teach our own kids about budgeting, saving, investing for the future and other basic money concepts, we will all be better off.