157 Parents Answered My Poll - Guess How Many Would Turn Family Finances Over To TheirKids

22% (of our not-statistically balanced pool of respondents).

35 parents to be exact.

35 parents said they would be willing to turn their family finances over to their kids. That was much higher than I anticipated based on the face-to-face reactions I’ve had from parents. Most stare at me in bewilderment or just laugh when I ask if they’d turn the books over to the kids.

Other replies?

9.5% wouldn’t talk about the family’s finances until their kids were over the age of 18.

11% said the conversation would happen before 10 years old.

The majority felt ages 13-15 would be the best time to talk about family money.

The word cloud above the journal title was created from responses by 150 parents when I asked what additional skills or knowledge teens specifically needed to learn more about money. The larger the word the more often it was repeated by parents.

I asked parents how they currently include their teens in the family finances if they currently did. The comments below capture repeated themes (or ones I just liked ;)

“Letting them see and understand our monthly budget and asking them if they have any ideas to contribute to the budget.” [how to save on something, how to allocate, etc.]

“I’ve given each one of my teens a credit card they are responsible to pay off at the end of each month. I can track what they spend money on and they build up their credit.”

“I have them look up the cost of things.”

“I have them help with the grocery shopping specifically to understand the price we pay for meals on the table.”

“I’ve shared their car insurance bills with them to help them understand how to read the bill. They are also required to pay part of their car insurance if they want to drive.”

“I show my daughter how we save and what we invest in so she’ll understand what to do.”

“They plan the monthly food menu and price the groceries.”

“We’ve discussed with our kids where our accounts are, what bills we have, and where important paperwork is located in the house.”

All brilliant answers.

When I asked parents what are your reservations about sharing family money insights, here were their answers:

I don’t trust them to make a good decision independently - 35.9%

They may share our money situation with their friends - 29.5%

I don’t want them to know about our debt - 16.7%

I don’t want them to know what we earn - 12%

I’m embarrassed about our money situation (debit, credit, earnings, savings, etc.) 5.8%

I don’t know if it says more about kids or us when we don’t trust teens to make good decisions independently. What do you think?

As far as who were these parents:

48% - Dads

52% - Moms

The majority were in the sweet spot of child-raising 30-49 years old.

As far as household income, it was the full range from Less than 10K a year to over 200K a year. The bulk of parents reported household income between $25K-99K.

What questions should I consider including next time I poll parents?