(Photo credits: Unsplash – CDC)
Financial Education Week this year took place between March 20 and 26. The theme ? “Plan your money, plant your future”, in other words, plan your money, sow your future! A week animated by multiple workshops across the country, supervised by the Banque de France.
Let’s take advantage of this event to review the results of the 5th study conducted by the French Banking Federation and Harris Interactive on financial and budgetary education. Surprise, today it is the children who have the floor, since the survey was carried out among 1031 children aged 8 to 14 years.
children with money
Contrary to what some may think, children are quite aware of the notion of money. As we talked about in our previous article on financial education, it is generally common to approach this subject from the age of 6.
This does not scare them, quite the contrary! 93% of children surveyed speak it fluently with their parents, 78% with their friends, 69% at school and 67% with their grandparents.
It is therefore not surprising that 97% of the children surveyed have already made their first purchases. On average, they make their first expenses when they are 9 years old, with their own money, and at the rate of 2 purchases per month. In their shopping list, we find sweets for 37% of them, toys (33%), video games (31%), books (30%) and clothes (29%).
Children spend, of course, but they also save. When they receive money, 50% of children save it, 47% spend it and 3% share it with others.
Read also: Financial education: from what age do we talk about money?
Children and the bank
Most of the children who took part in this study know what pocket money, expenses, salaries and ATMs are. However, there are also many of them who want answers on certain banking topics. 48% of them answered that they were waiting for education on the bank account, 52% on the question of budget, 54% on credit and the savings account, and 68% on the stock market or shares.
The week of financial education was therefore an opportunity for the banks to correct the situation. Indeed, during this week, the French Banking Federation launched the operation “I invite a banker in my class”, with the aim of raising awareness among CM1-CM2 students of the concepts of means of payment, budget, purchase, savings or even security.
This program, validated by the Ministry of National Education and Youth, has been labeled EducFi by the Banque de France and has already been presented to 80,000 students across France.
Children and digitalization
The most recent generations have grown up with the Internet. In fact, more than one in two children has already made a purchase on the Internet by the age of 10 and a half. 12% of them even made this purchase alone, without the authorization of an adult.
Among those who buy online, at least 40% have already suffered scam attempts on the Internet.
Finally, even if their main influence remains their friends (at 80%), children are also very influenced by advertisements on television (68%), social networks (57%), advertisements on the Internet (56%) and influencers (54%).
Children facing the economic climate
Don’t say they don’t feel it, that’s wrong! 71% of children questioned during the survey think that prices have increased when they buy things with their money. Inflation, even if they don’t fully understand it, is no stranger. 92% of them have already heard about it from their parents, 76% from television, 47% at school and 41% on the Internet. It is especially the 13-14 year olds who are the most aware of this phenomenon.
The children then imitate their parents. Faced with such an economic situation, some already have a ready-made strategy to save money: 78% of them wait for the sales to make purchases and 69% prefer to buy second-hand products.
Interestingly, they are even 32% to have declared buying to resell more expensive on second-hand sites. A new phenomenon that highlights two important desires of this generation: to save and to make money.
In conclusion
Today’s children are not the same as yesterday. They are much more aware of banking concepts but also of the value of money in the broad sense. Their financial autonomy is much earlier, and they no longer hesitate to use the Internet to make their purchases. Also, they are aware of the current economic situation and seek to save money whenever they can.
The good news in all this is that actions such as the week of financial education are more and more talked about. Children are curious and eager to learn more about concepts that previously did not interest them. A small step that will ultimately bear fruit and enable a generation of young adults to make the right choices.
Full study can be found here:
Barometer Children and Financial Education by Harris Interactive for FBF.
Written on April 4, 2023 by Amélie Yem Business Development Manager at
BFG Capital
