April 2026
Join host Chris and Wealth Advisor Patrice Bening, a mom of two young adults, as they discuss helpful principles to implement with your kids as they talk through what actually works when it comes to raising financially confident kids.
Tune in if you’re interested in learning about…
Watch previous episodes here:
Ep. 182 Tax-Smart Strategies for Charitable Giving
Ep. 181 Cyber Threats You Should Know About
When should I start talking to my kids about money and investing?
Earlier than most parents think. Research suggests a child's financial mindset begins forming as early as age 7. That doesn't mean sitting a second-grader down with a budget spreadsheet, it means making money visible and purposeful in small, everyday ways. The spend-save-give framework (three jars or envelopes, each with a job for their money) is a natural starting point for kids ages 5 and up. For teenagers, the conversation shifts toward understanding income, building a savings habit before they feel like they have enough to save, and learning how credit works before they need it.
What's the best way to teach teenagers saving, spending, and giving?
The 50/30/20 rule gives teens a concrete framework before money starts feeling abstract. Of any income they earn from a job, allowance, or gifts, 50% covers needs, 30% goes toward wants, and 20% is saved or given away. The more important practice is making the money feel real. In a world of tap-to-pay and Venmo, cash has a role. Letting a teenager physically hand over money and receive change creates a visceral awareness that swiping a card simply doesn't. If your teen has never felt the discomfort of not having enough in their hand to buy something, that's a useful experience to create intentionally.
How can teenagers start building credit responsibly?
One practical approach: add a teenager as an authorized user on a low-limit credit card while they're still in high school. As long as the account is paid in full each month, they begin building a credit history before they ever apply for anything on their own. The more important lesson is how credit actually works: it's not about carrying a balance, it's about keeping what you owe well below your limit and paying on time, every time.
Are get-rich-quick strategies like crypto, penny stocks, and day trading worth it for young investors?
No. And the reason is the same reason they're tempting: time. Warren Buffett's strategy works precisely because it relies on time in the market rather than timing the market. Young investors have more of that asset than anyone, which is exactly what get-rich-quick approaches try to shortcut. A teen who puts $5,000 into a low-cost index fund at 23 and leaves it alone can potentially watch it double roughly every seven years through the power of compounding. The same teen who chases crypto gains and loses it has also lost the time. The boring answer is also the correct one: open an account, add to it consistently, and don't touch it.
The conversations you have with your kids about money now are the foundation of decisions they'll make for decades. The families we work with at Morton Wealth who navigate this best tend to share one thing: they made money a normal topic at home, not a taboo one, long before their kids were earning any.
If you're trying to figure out how to structure these conversations, open a custodial or brokerage account for a teenager, or build a 529 plan into your own financial picture, these are things we help families think through regularly. The first step is usually just starting the conversation with your kids, and with an advisor you trust. Contact us to get started.
Chris Galeski:
Patrice, we're going to talk about a topic that's on the minds of many parents, grandparents, and teenagers: kids and money. I know you have more experience here than most — you have adult kids you've navigated this with, and you spent years working in banking. What I find interesting is that even with young kids myself, I'm already seeing how early the money mindset forms.
Patrice Bening:
It really does start early. Research suggests a child's relationship with money is taking shape by the time they're seven or eight years old. So whether we're talking to parents of toddlers or parents of teenagers, the message is the same: the sooner you start, the better positioned your kids are.
Can you remember when money first became real to you?
Chris:
I can. I grew up around golf, and that world involved a lot of money conversations — real estate, memberships, investing. It wasn't unusual to be around people talking about those things. At the same time, I also remember my mom intercepting the credit card bill before my dad could see it. So there were good and bad lessons happening simultaneously. I try to be more intentional with my own kids.
With my six and three year old, I've started the three-bucket approach — a spending jar, an investing jar, and a charitable giving jar. My six-year-old currently wants to put everything in the charitable jar, which is endearing. But I'm slowly working in the other concepts. What's the next step from there?
Patrice:
The spend-save-give conversation is the foundation, and a lot of parents skip it entirely. So the fact that you're having it at all matters. What comes next is making money feel real — which is harder than it sounds. One of the things that genuinely bothers me is that money is invisible now. When my boys were growing up, I tapped and swiped for everything. To them, money was an unlimited invisible resource. I eventually took them to the bank, opened accounts for them, let them sign a signature card. That made it concrete. If you can let younger kids — say, six to ten — actually handle cash and see the exchange, that builds something a card swipe never can.
Chris:
I did something similar with my daughter recently. She had a gift card for Barnes & Noble, but instead of letting her use it, I gave her a $20 bill and kept the gift card. When she got to the register and didn't have enough, she had to go back into her wallet for more money. That moment of physically handing it over — that's a feeling a tap-to-pay transaction will never create.
Patrice:
That's exactly it. And it connects to something broader: money needs a purpose before it's spent. One of the clearest differences between people who feel in control of their finances and those who don't is whether they have a spending framework. The 50/30/20 rule is a good starting point for teenagers: 50% of what you earn goes to needs, 30% to wants, and 20% to savings or giving. It's simple, and it forces the decision to happen before the money arrives — not after.
Chris:
The hardest thing to convince teenagers — or anyone — of is that even small amounts matter. I had a conversation with my 23-year-old niece recently who isn't contributing to her 401(k) because she doesn't feel like she has enough to save. She's leaving free money on the table. But more than that, she's giving up time. If she puts $5,000 in an account today and it doubles every seven years, that's $10,000 at 30, $20,000 at 37, $40,000 at 44, $80,000 at 51, $160,000 at 58. That's just $5,000, untouched. Imagine contributing every year.
Patrice:
Time is the greatest asset a young person has, and it's the one most often wasted because it doesn't feel urgent. I wish someone had told me that clearly when I was young. The habit of putting something away consistently — even $20 a paycheck — is more important than the amount. Build the emergency fund first, because life will have surprises. Then start adding to long-term savings. A low-cost index fund in a brokerage account is a perfectly reasonable place to start.
Chris:
What about credit? That's something a lot of parents aren't sure how to approach with teenagers.
Patrice:
I added my boys as authorized users on a low-limit credit card — a Discover card — when they were 15 and 17. As long as I made payments on time, they were building credit history without taking on any risk themselves. The key lesson is how credit actually works: it's not about carrying a balance, it's about keeping utilization low and paying on time. In America, credit touches everything — apartments, cars, sometimes even jobs. Starting to build that history in high school is a real advantage most teenagers don't take.
Chris:
Let's talk about the other side of that — the get-rich-quick temptation. Crypto, penny stocks, day trading. A lot of teenagers and young adults are going that direction.
Patrice:
Jeff Bezos once asked Warren Buffett why more people don't follow his strategy, since it seems simple enough. Buffett said it's because it's boring. People want to eliminate the time element, and that's exactly what makes speculative investments appealing — and dangerous. You don't have to be a stock picker or a crypto expert. You have to be disciplined and patient. Time in the market beats timing the market, every time. The noise from financial social media — what people call FinTok — can be genuinely harmful for young investors who haven't developed the filter to separate good information from hype. Seek out advice. Use us as a resource to sanity-check what you're seeing.
Chris:
If there's one thing to leave parents with: start the conversation. Whatever version of it fits your family — the three jars, the 50/30/20 rule, the bank account, the credit card with a low limit — the most important step is simply beginning. Even $20 a paycheck, started early, adds up to something meaningful. And the habits formed now will follow your kids for the rest of their financial lives.
