Talking about money
For the teacher, the parent, the youth worker, the support worker. Talking to someone about money almost always fails for the same reason: we start with advice. A session that works starts with a calculation the person does themselves.
A forty-five minute session, ready to run
It needs no preparation, no handouts and no connection once the pages are open. It works in front of a class, in a workshop, or one to one at the kitchen table.
- Five minutes, an open question. “If you borrow one thousand, how much do you think you give back?” Let the answers come without correcting them. The spread between the answers is the real starting point.
- Ten minutes, the calculation live. Open the cost of a loan and enter the figures the group suggests. Then change the term without touching anything else. That is the moment the room understands, and no explanation replaces it.
- Ten minutes, time at work. Move on to interest at work. Have them guess the result before showing it: the gap between intuition and result is the lesson itself. Give them the rule of 72, which sticks for life.
- Ten minutes, one trap. Take one of the trap pages, read the bait and the signs, then ask: what do we do, in what order? The list of reflexes is short and it sticks because the group said it out loud.
- Ten minutes, their own budget. Everyone opens the budget on their own device. Nobody shows their screen, nobody says their figures out loud, and you remind them why that is possible: nothing leaves the device, nothing is saved. That is what allows the exercise to be honest.
No account is needed, no data is collected, and the whole site works without a connection once the pages are open. A room with no wifi does not stop the session: see Offline and on paper.
What works
- Their figures, not yours. An example invented by the adult stays a school exercise. An amount proposed by the room commits the room.
- Guess before you show. The gap between intuition and result is what is still there six months later.
- One idea per session. The total cost, or time, or one trap. Not all three.
- Name the mechanics, not the brands. Products change, the mechanics stay, and naming a brand mostly teaches which one to imitate.
- Say what you do not know. Schemes vary from one country to the next: point to Your country rather than improvising a rule.
What loses the room in two minutes
- Starting with the moral. “You should save” says neither how much nor on what: there is nothing to do with that sentence.
- Using examples out of reach: a mortgage in front of teenagers, an executive salary in front of people counting every day.
- Asking someone to say their figures out loud in front of the others. Nobody talks about money without safety.
- Confusing explaining with advising. A support worker who recommends a product steps outside their role, and often outside the law.
- Ending without a concrete step. A session closes on an action: check your direct debits, work out what is left, reread a contract.
Talking about money with a teenager
Three things change everything, and none of them needs expertise. First, talk about their sums: ten, twenty, fifty. Second, never turn a mistake into a judgement: a lost sum is a free case study, and the only real risk is that they stop talking about it. Third, say the three requests that are always refused, clearly and without drama: receiving money to send it on, lending your login details, paying to receive a win. The Your first money page is written for them, and it reads on its own.
Why this session is missing almost everywhere
According to the OECD international survey of adult financial literacy, recorded in 2022-2023 across 39 countries and economies, only 34% of adults reach the minimum financial literacy score, and only 42% answer a question on compound interest correctly. These are not pupils’ results: they are the results of the adults raising them.
Do you work with people in financial difficulty, at a drop-in service or in social support? The For organisations page says what is reusable, and how, without asking us for permission. The text is under the CC BY 4.0 licence, and each illustration carries its own, written under the image.