What changes when children get to practice making money decisions for themselves? 

In this episode, Tony Steuer talks with Braden Cobb, founder of Kidz Economy, about why financial education should be an ongoing experience, how children learn from their own decisions, and why everyday money conversations can help prepare them for the future.

Key takeaways

• Give children opportunities to make age-appropriate money decisions and reflect on the results.
• Start with foundational ideas such as needs versus wants, saving, spending, and sharing.
• Create a safe environment where children can make mistakes, learn, and choose differently next time.
• Build financial literacy around active experiences rather than simply telling children what to do.
• Focus on habits and consistent practice alongside financial knowledge.
• Connect financial education with a school’s goals, values, and existing priorities.
• Make money part of everyday conversation so lessons move naturally from school into the home.

Tony’s Take: Children begin forming money habits and making financial choices earlier than many adults realize. Giving them a safe place to practice helps them build confidence, understand consequences, and see mistakes as part of learning.

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Connect with Braden Cobb: 

• Website: www.kidzeconomy.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/braden-cobb-9096a7291/

Bio: 

Braden Cobb is an international educator, entrepreneur, and founder of Kidz Economy. He grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and began his career in finance before transitioning into education in 2008, when he moved to Busan, South Korea. His teaching journey later took him to China and Singapore, where Kidz Economy began as a classroom project, before moving to Kuala Lumpur, where he is now based.

With more than 16 years of experience in international education, Braden is passionate about helping children develop healthy money habits through practical, engaging, and age-appropriate experiences. His work has earned international recognition, including the Pearson International School Innovator of the Year Award and the Money Awareness and Inclusion Award.

In collaboration with The Money Awareness and Inclusion Awards (the MAIAs) which celebrate the increasingly important work being done to help people understand money better. Learn more: https://www.maiawards.org.  

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Transcript

Tony Steuer:
The earlier children experience financial literacy, the more powerful it becomes.

Welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens. I’m your host, Tony Steuer.

Today, I’m joined by Braden Cobb, founder of Kidz Economy.

Braden, welcome to Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

Braden Cobb:
Thanks, Tony. It’s great to be here and great to be talking with you.

Thanks for having me.

Tony:
I’m excited to share what you’re doing with the audience.

What inspired you to create Kidz Economy?

Braden:
Kidz Economy really grew out of my own experiences with money.

I had a career in finance, but even with that background, I still made plenty of poor financial decisions when I was younger.

I remember thinking:

“Why didn’t anyone teach me this in school?”

Years later, when I became a teacher, I started experimenting with ways to make money and financial decision-making part of the classroom experience.

About three years ago, I started implementing what I thought of as a classroom economy.

The students weren’t simply learning financial definitions.

They were actually making decisions.

They had money to work with.

They experienced consequences.

They learned from mistakes.

That was really what inspired Kidz Economy.

If I can help one kid start saving 20 years earlier than they otherwise might, or avoid buying a Jaguar on a credit card off eBay, not that I ever did anything like that, then that matters.

I studied finance and worked in the field, yet I still didn’t feel financially literate.

I think what I was missing was the foundation.

So I wanted to create an experience and an ecosystem for kids starting around age five.

That was how old my son was when I started working on this.

The goal is to give kids an opportunity to talk about money and understand it before it becomes something real and consequential in their lives. Pasted text

Tony:
And kids start absorbing money lessons much earlier than we tend to think.

How does Kidz Economy work?

Braden:
Almost everyone says they want financial literacy in schools.

The tricky part is getting it into the timetable without overloading teachers with one more thing to teach.

As a teacher, I understood those barriers.

Right now, our offline programs include an investment series, an entrepreneurship series, and a personal economy series focused on day-to-day money decisions.

We offer versions for younger primary students and older primary students, roughly ages five to eight and nine to eleven.

One of the easiest ways for us to work with schools is through after-school programs.

We currently work mainly with international schools in Singapore and Malaysia, where extracurricular programs are already part of the school model.

Kidz Economy sends in an instructor once a week to lead the program.

The key is that our programs are experience-based.

Kids are put into situations where they have to make choices about spending, saving, sharing, investing, or earning.

They go through ongoing simulations.

At the end, they can reflect:

“That was a good decision.”

“That didn’t work.”

“Here’s what I would do differently next time.”

We’re basically trying to give them a sandbox where they can experience financial situations they’re likely to encounter later in life.

We also offer camps using the same approach.

Tony:
You raise a really important point about schools.

I was on the board of my son’s school, and we looked at bringing in a financial literacy program.

Funding was one issue.

But the bigger issue was simply fitting it into the school day.

In California, the curriculum is already packed.

We eventually adopted a program, but it got divided across different teachers.

One thing I noticed was that some of the teachers weren’t especially comfortable with money themselves.

Is that something you see?

Braden:
Absolutely.

Whenever you work with a school, there’s always an adult making the decision about whether financial literacy belongs there.

And a lot of adults overcomplicate what financial literacy means, especially for kids ages five to eleven.

I’ve worked with teachers who say:

“I don’t know anything about investing.”

“I don’t know about stocks or bonds.”

And I say:

“That’s okay.”

At this age, we’re not teaching an eight-year-old how to calculate the price-to-earnings ratio of a stock.

We’re building a foundation.

Where does money come from?

What’s the difference between needs and wants?

Why is saving important?

What is opportunity cost?

What is delayed gratification?

Those are foundational concepts most adults can help teach.

When you get into more advanced investing or portfolio analysis, then yes, you may need more expertise.

But for the basics, any adult can do it.

That was actually one of my design tests.

Could I give this program to a substitute teacher who had never taught financial literacy before and have them understand exactly what to do?

That’s the goal.

A lot of teachers say they don’t know how to teach financial literacy because their definition of financial literacy is more complicated than it needs to be.

Tony:
I think that’s an Achilles heel in a lot of financial literacy programs.

They jump into advanced concepts before building the basics.

You have to start with the foundation.

For people listening around the world who are also trying to get financial education into schools, what have you found works?

Braden:
Our strategy is to find a pain point the school already has and show how financial literacy can help solve it.

When I was teaching at an IB school in Singapore, the school had learner-profile attributes like being caring, a critical thinker, a risk taker, collaborative, empathetic, and so on.

Schools promise parents they will develop those qualities.

But those qualities can be difficult to teach in a concrete way.

So we started incorporating them into financial literacy activities.

For example, in a stock-market-style simulation, students might be able to earn “leadership stock,” “time-management stock,” or “critical-thinking stock.”

Instead of those values simply being posters on the wall, kids experience what those values look like in real situations.

So financial literacy becomes a vehicle for teaching broader life skills.

That has resonated with schools because we’re not simply saying:

“Add another subject.”

We’re helping them accomplish something they already care about.

Tony:
That makes a lot of sense.

Schools have a long list of priorities, and financial literacy can easily fall down the list.

Connecting it with something the school is already trying to accomplish makes it more useful.

One thing you talk about is building confidence.

How does Kidz Economy help children build confidence around money?

Braden:
Confidence comes from experience.

Kids need opportunities to make choices, including making mistakes.

When children are given responsibility and the freedom to make choices, they start seeing themselves as capable.

In Kidz Economy, a student might manage a budget.

They might invest.

They might start a business.

They might hire classmates.

They might negotiate a deal.

And they may make a bad decision.

The important thing is that they learn mistakes are part of the process.

For example, we had an auction in one of our programs.

Parents donated little toys and other fun items.

Some of the kids spent all their money at the auction buying yo-yos or stuffed animals.

Then the next week, they were given an opportunity to make an investment in the simulation.

They realized:

“I can’t do that because I spent all my money last week.”

That’s a powerful lesson.

And they learned it in a safe environment.

The next time they faced a similar choice, they could think:

“This happened before. I know what I want to do differently.”

That process of trial, error, reflection, and trying again builds confidence.

It sticks much more than circling a multiple-choice answer on a worksheet. Pasted text

Tony:
Nothing beats experience.

It’s great that kids can learn from a mistake when the stakes are low.

In adult life, sometimes you make a decision you really wish you could undo.

So when parents or educators are choosing a financial education program, what should they look for?

Braden:
The first question I would ask is:

Are the children actively involved?

When I started putting Kidz Economy together, there wasn’t much available for younger kids.

A lot of what existed was worksheet-based and fairly boring.

Financial education shouldn’t simply be adults telling children what they should or shouldn’t do with money.

The program should also be age appropriate.

And it should cover more than one concept.

Kids should learn about saving, but also spending, earning, investing, generosity, risk, and decision-making.

Most importantly, they need practice.

If children never get to make a choice, experience the consequence, and reflect on what happened, the learning probably won’t stick.

So I would look at:

Is it lecture-based or experience-based?

Is there hands-on learning?

Are kids learning from their peers?

Are they learning from their own decisions?

Is there a safe environment where they can practice?

That’s what I would focus on.

Tony:
And that applies to adults too.

A lot of financial wellness programs are simply a collection of videos and articles.

People watch one or two and then stop engaging.

Experience and engagement matter at every age.

So what are three things people should know about teaching financial literacy early?

Braden:
First:

It’s never too early.

I’ve had schools push back on offering programs to five-year-olds because they think that’s too young.

But children are already making choices about money.

My son wanted a soccer ball and a Neymar jersey.

I told him:

“You have $35. You can spend it however you want. But if you buy this, you won’t have enough for that.”

He was six years old.

He can understand opportunity cost.

The language and activities simply need to be age appropriate.

Young children can understand choices, saving, and needs versus wants.

Second:

Habits matter more than financial knowledge.

We can fill kids’ heads with definitions, but if we’re not helping them develop habits, we’re not helping very much.

A child doesn’t need to understand the stock market in detail.

But they can learn patience.

Planning.

Responsibility.

Delayed gratification.

Those habits will serve them later.

Third:

Financial literacy needs to be ongoing.

One class or one after-school program can spark interest.

But deeper learning comes from repeated conversations and repeated experiences.

And one thing parents tell me is that when kids learn about money at school, they bring those conversations home.

A child starts talking about budgeting or something that happened in the program.

Suddenly, there’s a money conversation at the dinner table.

That can help the whole family.

The goal isn’t to create financial experts at age eight.

It’s to build habits and confidence they’ll use later in life. Pasted text

Tony:
I love that last point about kids taking the conversation home.

I’ve heard the same thing from other people working in youth financial literacy.

It can also help parents who may not feel comfortable admitting that they don’t understand something about money.

Kids can become little financial literacy ambassadors.

So Braden, let’s wrap up with the Get Ready Hot Take Trio.

What’s one myth about kids and money you’d like to break?

Braden:
That children are too young to understand money.

They aren’t.

They may not understand a mortgage or an interest rate.

But they’re already making financial choices.

Do I buy the cheap toy now?

Do I save for the drone I really want?

Do I spend?

Save?

Share?

Trade?

They’re making those choices every day.

The earlier we give them a safe place to practice, make decisions, and build confidence, the more responsible they can become.

Tony:
Little kids are dealmakers.

Let’s get out the time machine.

If you could go back knowing what you know now about money, what advice would you give your younger self?

Braden:
I’d tell myself that being able to afford a monthly payment doesn’t necessarily mean you can afford the purchase.

I learned that the hard way in college when I used part of a student loan and an American Express card to buy a Jaguar on eBay.

Tony:
Oh boy.

Braden:
Exactly.

I’d also tell myself to start investing earlier and avoid unnecessary debt.

It really comes back to long-term habits.

I tell students:

“You have one advantage over me and your parents that we can never get back.”

That advantage is time.

If you start young and save consistently, time does a lot of the work.

I actually remember being around 10 or 11 and somehow learning what a Roth IRA was.

I wanted to open one.

My mom basically said:

“How did you learn about that? You don’t need to worry about that yet.”

If I could go back, I’d tell that younger version of myself:

Find a way to start.

Open a savings account.

Put birthday money in it.

Put part of your allowance in it.

Start early.

Build the habit.

Pay yourself first.

Tony:
My own mistake was debt too.

I was a finance major, but most of the focus was on investments.

We didn’t spend nearly enough time learning how to manage debt.

As a college student, getting a credit card with a $2,000 limit can make you feel rich.

Then reality arrives.

You’re not rich.

You’re on the hook.

So this stuff really does matter.

To close, what’s your number-one tip to change the way we think about financial literacy for kids?

Braden:
Stop treating financial literacy as a lesson or a nice-to-have.

Start treating it as an experience.

Children don’t learn to manage money by memorizing definitions or completing worksheets.

They learn by making choices.

Experiencing consequences.

Solving problems.

Trying again.

And they need to be able to do that in a safe environment.

Whether you’re a teacher, a parent, or a school administrator, make money part of everyday conversations.

Give children genuine opportunities to practice.

For me, it all comes down to experience.

Tony:
That’s wonderful advice.

Make money part of everyday conversations.

That also helps remove some of the stigma adults may carry around money.

Braden, where can people learn more about you and Kidz Economy?

Braden:
Our website is KidzEconomy.com, with a Z instead of an S.

You can learn more there about our programs, workshops, and camps around financial literacy and entrepreneurship.

We also have Instagram and YouTube.

The YouTube channel was actually one of the first things I created for Kidz Economy.

There are videos kids can watch on their own.

So the website is probably the best starting point.

Tony:
Fantastic.

For everyone watching and listening, we’ll include all of those links in the show notes.

Braden, thanks for joining me on Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

Braden:
Thanks a lot, Tony.

It’s been great.

Thanks for having me.

Tony:
It was a pleasure.

And thank you, everyone, for tuning in to Get Ready: Before Life Happens.

If something today changed the way you think about financial education for kids, please share the episode and subscribe.

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