Finance
Better late than never: teach your kids good financial lessons
How to save money in unexpected ways
There are hidden discounts and forgotten savings you can use to save money.
ProblemSolved, USA TODAY
Parents spend many years reviewing their children’s report cards. A recent study essentially turned the tables on that, with young adults reviewing their parents’ performances, particularly in regard to financial matters. The findings weren’t good: Gen Z (people between ages 12 and 27) is the least financially confident generation, and a third of them say their parents didn’t set a good example for them.
There’s a reason for the parents’ poor performance and a reason why young people should feel more confident about their financial futures.
Why many parents set poor examples
Before you blame your parents for not helping you get savvier, financially, put yourselves in their shoes. You might be lamenting that your school never taught you much about money, but your parents likely got even less financial schooling.
According to a 2023 Edward Jones survey, 80% of respondents said they never learned money skills in school. So, like most folks their age, your parents were just doing the best they could.
Many ended up deep in debt or facing other financial troubles, often without realizing how dangerous it is to overuse a credit card and how debt at high-interest rates can balloon over time.
How parents today can set good examples
Here’s what your parents might have done had they known more about financial matters, and what you might do with your own kids now or whenever you have them:
- Talk about money frequently – your financial goals, your financial challenges, how you’re overcoming those challenges, your smartest and dumbest financial moves, etc.
- Show them your household budget and help them learn how much things cost.
- Have them watch you shop in stores, online, wherever; talk about how you’re choosing to spend your money and point out when you decide to postpone or cancel a planned purchase.
- Show them how to have fun without spending a lot of money, such as by hiking, playing board games, reading, playing sports with friends, and so on.
- At the right time, start discussing the power of long-term investing in stocks. Show them how they might become millionaires one day if they save and invest.
- If you’re an investor (and most of us should be since Social Security will not be enough to provide a comfortable retirement), let them see you investing. Talk about the investments you choose and why you choose them. Perhaps talk about companies of interest together. Eventually, help them start investing, too.
Basically, you want them to grow up fully aware of financial matters and of how to manage money sensibly.
Meet the millionaires next door. These Americans made millions out of nothing.
Why young people have a lot to be confident about
Finally, no matter how much they’ve learned or not learned from their parents, young people don’t necessarily have to despair over their financial futures, because those futures can be quite bright. Why? Simply because young people have a lot of something that’s vital to wealth building, something that most of us have much less of – and that’s time.
Check out the table below, which shows how money can grow over time. It assumes 8% average-annual growth, though no one knows exactly how quickly the market will grow over any particular period. In the past, it has averaged close to 10% over many decades.
Source: Calculations by author.
Young people should see that once they’re earning money, if they can regularly invest meaningful amounts, they can amass significant sums, which can help them reach all kinds of goals, such as a reliable car, fully-paid home, supporting a family, enjoying a comfortable retirement, and so on.
You – and young people you know – would do well to take some time to learn more about investing. And then teach others.
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The Motley Fool is a USA TODAY content partner offering financial news, analysis and commentary designed to help people take control of their financial lives. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY.
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The Catalytic Climate Finance Facility (CC Facility), a program jointly managed by Climate Policy Initiative and Convergence, along with the Government of Canada, is hosting an event during London Climate Action Week focused on Scaling Climate Investments in Emerging Markets Using Blended Finance.
The event will explore opportunities and challenges in mobilizing private capital for climate action in emerging markets, including the role of catalytic capital instruments such as grants and technical assistance in scaling innovative blended climate finance solutions. Discussions will draw on practical insights from actual blended climate finance transactions and also highlight key lessons emerging from programs such as the CC Facility, which leverages these instruments to accelerate and scale such solutions. The event will bring together investors, government funders, DFIs and MDBs, philanthropies, climate finance practitioners, and ecosystem partners, and will provide an opportunity to network with key stakeholders across the blended and climate finance ecosystem over drinks.
Due to limited capacity, this is an invite-only event. If you are interested in attending, please register your interest here.
MAGNOLIA, Duplin County — The Town of Magnolia will hold a special meeting next week to swear in two town officials.
The meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, May 26, at 5:45 p.m. at Magnolia Town Hall on East Carroll Street.
Town officials said the meeting will focus on the swearing-in of the town’s finance officer and town clerk.
According to the town’s website, the town clerk supports the mayor, town manager and Board of Commissioners by preparing meeting materials, keeping public records and helping with official town documents.
The finance officer is responsible for the town’s financial operations, including budget oversight, financial records, payroll, audits and regular reports to commissioners.
Magnolia Town Hall is located at 110 East Carroll Street.
OTTAWA — Large online streaming services must contribute 15 per cent of their Canadian revenues to Canadian content, the federal broadcast regulator said Thursday.
That’s three times the five-per-cent initial contribution requirement the CRTC set out in 2024, which is being challenged in court by major streamers, including Apple, Amazon and Spotify.
Contribution requirements for traditional broadcasters, which currently pay between 30 and 45 per cent, will be lowered to 25 per cent.
“The total contributions are expected to stabilize the funding at more than $2 billion in support of Canadian and Indigenous content, such as French-language content and news,” the regulator said in a press release.
The CRTC also set out rules on how the money must be spent for both streamers and broadcasters, including contributions toward production funds and direct spending on Canadian content.
Most of the streamers’ financial contribution can go toward content, though the CRTC is imposing rules on how that money must be spent for the largest streamers.
For instance, streamers with Canadian revenues of more than $100 million annually must direct 30 per cent of spending toward partnerships with Canadian broadcasters and independent producers.
The new financial contribution rules apply to streamers and broadcasters with at least $25 million in annual Canadian broadcasting revenues.
The CRTC made the decisions as part of its implementation of the Online Streaming Act, which the U.S. has identified as a trade irritant ahead of trade negotiations with Canada.
The regulator also said Thursday online streamers will have to take steps to ensure Canadian and Indigenous content is available and visible to audiences.
“This will make it easier for people to find this content on the platforms they use, while giving broadcasters flexibility in how they meet the new expectations,” the CRTC said in the release.
Details of those requirements will be determined at a later time, the CRTC said.
The CRTC is also establishing a new fund to support specific TV channels, including CPAC, the Canadian service that provides direct coverage of political events.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 21, 2026.
Anja Karadeglija, The Canadian Press
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