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Talking about money can be hard for lots of people, especially parents and their children. In a 2021 survey by the investment firm T. Rowe Price, 36% of parents with children under age 18 said they were either very or extremely reluctant to discuss financial matters with them. Add in the 26% who said they were somewhat reluctant, and you have a stunning 62% majority of Americans.
Asked about the reasons for their reluctance, 56% of parents said their kids were too young to understand, 41% said they had too many other things to worry about, and 28% admitted being embarrassed by the state of their own finances.
Fortunately for parents who lack the expertise, time, or inclination to discuss money matters with their kids, there are plenty of books on the subject. For younger kids, reading a book together is also an easy way to facilitate a conversation about money, including difficult topics, such as when a parent loses their job or the family can't afford to buy something the child wants.
How young is too young to begin? A review of the academic literature by two child development experts at the University of Cambridge in England suggests that by age 3 or 4, most kids have figured out that money can be used to buy things, though they might not understand that coins have different values (and big coins aren’t always worth more than littler ones) until age 5 or 6. By age 7 or 8, many kids have a pretty good grasp of those concepts and even of how money substitutes like credit cards work.
So in this review of the best financial books for kids, we start with a few titles for pre-readers and work our way up to books that kids can read on their own. For the details on how we chose these particular books, please see the “Why Trust Investopedia?” section below.
We have a huge and ever-growing children’s library in our home, the majority of which were purchased used. [Read more about our ever-growing library, and how we re-label our ex-library books so as not to confuse them with our real library books: How to Re-label Ex-library Books for Your Personal Library.]
This entire set of books for the Giveaway cost me less than $3. The total retail value, if you were to purchase each of these books in paperback format from Amazon, is about $92. (Mike Mulligan is unavailable in regular paperback form, but can be purchased as part of a set or in a travel pack, etc.)
As you can see from the picture below, my books–purchased used, for $3–are all in excellent condition. (Except for Zin! Zin! Zin! a Violin, which has a crease on the cover–in the top right corner–but is otherwise fine.) Several titles are Caldecott winners, one is a hardback and all of them came from a local thrift shop on the weekly all-books-half-off day. Each of these books has been loved by one or more people at my house.
Summer is typically major “library book sale” season, so be sure to check with your local library to find out their sale schedule. Our county has one large library system, with multiple locations. Every summer, there is a giant used book sale for the entire county. Throughout the year, each library location runs their own periodic sales. So I always hit the giant sale in the summer, as well as several local sales here and there.
**Local friends should check out the Loudoun Library Foundation’s 24th Annual Used Book Sale. {Next week!}
Suggested reading:One of my favorite home-educating resources is Educating the WholeHearted Child by Clay & Sally Clarkson, and in it they share a humorous list called “Whole Book Fever.” (“Whole Books” are also known as “living books”–they provide the backbone of our Charlotte Mason homeschooling method.) One of the “symptoms” I identified with was You schedule your vacation around the annual community used book sale.
Yep, that’s me. I’ve had this year’s sale marked on the calendar since the date was published last year. In fact, the wonderful Mr. Native Texan even takes that day off work so that I can shop solo! (Isn’t he wonderful?)
Check your local thrift stores to see if they have any special book sales. As I mentioned above, the store where I purchased the ten books for the giveaway sells all books at half-off on Saturdays. Another favorite thrift store had so many books that they sold them for $5/box for months on end, just to reduce their inventory. And those boxes were big! I scored quite a few treasures during that time. Since then, the store has gone back to their regular book prices, but every once in while they’ll run another daily sale for $5/box.
Even without special sales, thrift stores can be an excellent source for quality used books. One store I used to frequent sold all children’s books for $.10 each! Check around to see which thrift stores near you have excellent prices, great sales and consistent inventory.
When I need (or want) a specific book, I almost never purchase it new. My favorite online retailers for used books are Amazon and AbeBooks.com. I’ve saved lots of money on necessary books by purchasing them used through these sources.
I always look for sellers with high ratings (5 stars), and generally purchase books in Like New or Very Good Condition. After purchasing countless books this way, I can recall only two specific incidents in which I was not happy with the condition of the book (because the condition did not match the description). In both cases, the sellers issued an instant refund. Which made me extremely happy!
Some folks would rather have fewer books in excellent condition, but not me. Most of our books are in very good condition, and purchasing them used allows us to enjoy many, many more titles than we could otherwise afford.
I would rather expose my children to a great quantity and variety of excellent volumes in good condition, than limit our collection to books in pristine condition.
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