Study: 42% of Parents Aren't Teaching Their Kids to Invest Long-Term

Kids pick up all sorts of habits from their parents -- and money habits are no exception.

A growing body of research suggests that parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's approach to personal finance, including investing. At the same time, financial firms are offering products and services to help parents teach their kids about investing, including through custodial accounts.

According to a survey from The Motley Fool, 50% of parents with kids at least 10 years old have already taught them about investing and another 38% plan to do so when they’re older.

The survey also found significant differences among the parents who teach their kids about investing when it comes to investing philosophies they pass down, tools they use to educate their kids, and more.

"Children are like sponges; they typically learn about money by observation and actions," Nilay Gandhi, a certified financial planner and senior financial advisor at Vanguard Personal Advisor Services, told The Motley Fool. "By educating them early and frequently, it’s a good way to begin sharing parents’ vision, values and preparing the next generation for wealth, investing, roles and responsibilities."

One marker of how parents approach teaching their kids about investing is whether they are investors themselves. Parents with investing experience are much more likely to teach their kids about investing, instill positive investing habits, and set up custodial accounts for their kids.

Read on for a deep dive into how parents are teaching their kids to invest.

Key findings

• Teaching early: 50% of parents with kids age 10 or older have already taught them about investing. Another 38% say they plan to teach their kids about investing when they’re older.
• Missing class: 18% of parents don’t know if the school their kids attend offers personal finance classes and 34% know that their kids aren’t being offered a personal finance class.
• Generational wisdom: 38% of parents say their family didn’t sufficiently educate them on investing; 46% say they weren’t properly educated in school
• Passing down knowledge: Parents with investing experience are more likely to teach their kids about investing (93% vs 50% of parents without investing experience), teach their kids investing strategy (97% to 74%), and talk to their kids more frequently about investing.
• Custodial accounts: 54% of parents have opened a custodial account to make investments for their kids. Overall, 26% of parents use custodial investment accounts to educate their kids about investing.

Half of parents with kids at least 10 years old have taught them about investing

Fifty percent of parents with kids that are at least 10 years of age have already taught them about investing and another 38% intend to teach them about investing when they’re older.

Just 13% don’t intend to teach their kids about investing.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

A growing body of research into "financial socialization" supports the idea that parents play a fundamental role in shaping their children's financial attitudes and behaviors throughout their lives. Given that, it’s encouraging to find the vast majority of parents are making an effort to teach their kids about investing.

According to Ashley LeBaron-Black, an assistant professor of Family Life at Brigham Young University, "to raise a child who will become a wise investor, parents should have frequent and open conversations about investing, use their own investing experiences as opportunities to teach, and facilitate hands-on, age-appropriate investing experiences for their kids to practice with their own money."

80% of parents who educated their kids about investing did so before they were 18 years old

Among parents who have educated their kids about investing, 80% did so before their kids turned 18.

Most parents educate their kids about investing when they're between 10 and 15 years old, though many start earlier or later.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

Research has found that financial socialization -- learning and observing financial behavior and habits -- from parents has the largest impact when children are 17 years of age or younger.

Parents with investing experience are more likely to teach their kids about investing

Ninety-three percent of parents with investing experience have either taught their kids about investing or plan to when they’re older, compared to just 50% of parents without investing experience.

The other 50% of parents who have never invested don’t intend to teach their kids about investing.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

Parents that opt not to teach their kids about investing leave a gap in the financial socialization of their children which can affect their kids' financial habits and literacy over the long term.

18% of parents don’t know if their school system offers personal finance courses

Parents that choose not to teach their kids about investing are leaving that education to their child’s school system. However, 18% of parents don’t know if the school their kids attend offers personal finance classes and 34% know that their kids aren’t being offered a personal finance class.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

According to Next Gen Personal Finance, just 23% of high school graduates in 2022 took a personal finance class and only 8 states guarantee a standalone personal finance class for all high school students.

Data source: Next Gen Personal Finance (2022).

Data source: Next Gen Personal Finance (2022).

While those numbers have improved over the last five years, it would be nice to see fewer parents being solely responsible for educating their kids on personal finance.

Buying and holding, diversifying, and buying low and selling high are the most popular investing philosophies parents teach their kids

Among parents that teach their children about investing, the most common philosophies taught are to buy and hold for the long-term and through market volatility (58%), diversify (50%), and buy low, sell high (50%).

Twenty-nine percent of respondents taught or plan to teach their children not to time the market and 26% teach the value of indexing.

Only 5% haven’t taught or don’t plan to teach their kids any investing strategy.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

It’s good that most parents are preaching Foolish investing philosophy, which calls for holding a diversified portfolio of at least 25 stocks for five years, regardless of market volatility.

Parents with investing experience are more likely to teach their kids positive investing philosophies

Our survey found that parents with investing experience are more likely than parents who have never invested to pass constructive investing strategies on to their kids.

Among parents with investing experience:

• 97% teach or plan to teach their children some investing strategy.
• 28% teach or plan to teach their kids not to time the market.
• 51% teach or plan to teach their kids to diversify their portfolio. 26% teach or plan to teach them about indexing.
• 56% teach or plan to teach their children to buy and hold for the long-term and through market volatility.

Among parents who have never invested:

• 26% haven’t taught or don’t plan to teach their children any investing strategy.
• Only 14% teach or plan to teach their kids not to time the market.
• Just 30% teach or plan to teach them to diversify their portfolios. Only 8% teach or plan to teach their kids to index.
• Only 23% will teach or plan to teach them to buy and hold for the long-term and through market volatility.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

74% of parents with kids 10 or older have educated them on investing risks; only 63% have educated them on risks associated with cryptocurrency and NFTs

Nearly three-fourths of parents (74%) have educated their children on risks associated with investing, while 63% have talked to their kids about specific risks associated with cryptocurrencies and NFTs.

All investors, even the most conservative ones, take on risk, so it’s important to educate future investors on what to watch for and how to manage risks.

Cryptocurrency and NFTs pose unique risks given the lack of regulation and consumer protection and propensity to be the vehicle for investment scams, so it is doubly important for parents to talk to their kids about risks associated with those assets.

59% of parents who have educated their kids on investing used conversation and discussion, 35% used educational websites

How do parents teach their kids about investing? Conversations and discussions are the most common method (59%), followed by educational websites (35%) and apps (30%).

"The best tool is actually something unexpected: it’s a basic conversation," said John Boroff, vice president of Youth Investing at Fidelity (FNF -0.74%). "We’ve found that the simple act of talking about money with parents and guardians helps teens feel more confident about financial topics and encourages them to continue learning."

"Teens that have talked to their parents about investing are more likely to open checking and savings accounts, secure their first job, or start investing themselves," Boroff added.

Some parents use a more direct method to educate their kids about investing. Twenty-eight percent gift their children stocks to teach them about investing, 27% teach by showing their portfolio to their kids, and 27% introduce their kids to stock market games geared toward children.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

According to Emily Shallal, Executive Director of Customer Strategy and Innovation at Ally (ALLY -0.42%), "one of the most effective -- and fun -- ways to introduce saving, budgeting and investing concepts is through gamification."

"That’s the inspiration behind Fintropolis, a Minecraft game that teaches middle-schoolers financial literacy, including an investing component with growth and risk lessons built into a stock exchange simulation," Shallal added.

There’s some merit in a more practical approach. For example, parents can use their child’s favorite companies, like Disney, Coca-Cola, or Nike, to teach them the ins and outs of stock ownership. These are companies kids already know and love and may get them excited to become shareholders as well.

"Parents can make [investing] approachable and interesting by connecting investing to things their kids are interested in," Christopher Caltabiano, chief program officer at the Council for Economic Education, told The Motley Fool.

"If they like sneakers, have them follow a publicly traded sneaker company. If they like video gaming, have them follow their favorite publicly traded gaming company. Make it relevant to their lives and what is important to them," he said.

14% of parents never speak to their kids about investing

Education about investing and financial socialization -- picking up good habits -- takes time and repetition, but 14% of parents never talk to their kids about investing.

Another 24% talk about investing with their kids less than once a month. The final 62% are evenly split between talking to their kids about investing every week or at least once a month.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

25% of parents don’t talk to their kids more about investing because they don’t think they have enough knowledge

A quarter of the parents surveyed said they don’t talk to their kids more about investing because they don’t know enough about investing to do so.

This is worrisome because it suggests that a lack of investing education or confidence to teach about investing may be passed down to generations.

The most common reason parents don’t talk to their kids more about investing is because they believe they already talk to them enough about it (49%).

Thirty percent said their kids are too young to understand investing.

Concerningly, 15% of parents surveyed said they don’t think it’s appropriate to teach their kids about investing and 14% said they don’t think investing is a good way to build wealth. Investing over the long term is critical to building wealth, and while not every child is going to aspire to be the next Warren Buffet, it is still worthwhile to educate them about investing before they have the responsibility of making critical financial decisions on their own.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

78% of parents are confident in their ability to teach their kids about investing

Seventy-eight percent of parents are confident they can teach their kids about investing, and parents that invested younger are more confident and talk to their kids about investing more often.

Among parents who have never invested, just 42% are confident that they can teach their kids about investing. On the other hand, 89% of parents who began investing between 18 and 25 years old are confident about teaching their kids about investing.

Over 80% of parents that began investing when they were younger than 18 or between 26 and 33 years old are also confident about their teaching abilities.

A similar trend is present in how often parents talk to their kids about investing.

Forty-nine percent of parents with no investing experience never talk to their kids about investing. Just 10% talk to them about investing weekly, and 12% talk about investing monthly.

Meanwhile, less than 10% of parents who began investing before 34 years old said they never talk to their kids about investing. Instead, they were likely to talk to them either weekly or monthly.

38% of parents say their family didn’t sufficiently educate them on investing; 46% say they weren’t properly educated in school

Over a third (38%) of parents surveyed said their family didn’t sufficiently educate them about investing and nearly half (46%) reported that they didn’t receive a sufficient amount of education on investing in their K-12 education.

Parents’ lack of financial socialization and formal education in personal finance may be responsible for some being less involved in teaching their kids about investing.

26% of parents use custodial investment accounts to educate their kids on investing

Custodial accounts are not only a way to gift investments to a minor – 26% of parents use them to educate their kids on investing.

Fifty-four percent of parents have made investments for their children in a custodial account. Thirty-six percent haven’t. The last 11% said they don’t know what a custodial account is.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

Among parents who have opened a custodial account, 49% did so to educate their kids about investing while another 49% did so to help their kids build wealth over time.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

Custodial accounts offer parents a way to show their kids how to invest as well as the value of investing, especially if parents keep their kids up to date on how investments in the account are performing and why certain investments are being made.

"Children who are given hands-on experiences with money tend to grow up into young adults who are confident handling money," LeBaron-Black told The Motley Fool.

"If children have accounts in their name and are involved as much as possible in those accounts, they will likely feel a sense of ownership and be more invested (no pun intended) than if you try to teach them about investing solely by words or example," she said.

Parents who began investing younger are more likely to have opened custodial accounts for their kids

Just as parents who invested at a younger age are more likely to talk to their kids more regularly about investing, they’re also more likely to have opened a custodial account for their kids.

To that point, 62% of parents who have never invested also haven’t opened a custodial account for their children and 28% don’t know what a custodial account is. Meanwhile, 72% of parents who began investing when they were 18 or younger have opened a custodial account for their kids. Only 7% of that group said they don’t know what a custodial account is.

However, just 50% of parents that began investing between 34 and 40 years of age have opened a custodial account for their kids. And only 21% of parents who began investing when they were over 40 have opened a custodial account for their children.

Data source: Motley Fool survey distributed via Pollfish on June 13, 2022.

How to teach your kids about investing

Teaching your kids about investing can set them up for a lifetime of financial success. It can also be a rewarding experience for them before they begin investing themselves - what kid doesn’t want to own part of their favorite clothing brand or toy company?

According to LeBaron-Black, "to raise a child who will become a wise investor, parents should have frequent and open conversations about investing, use their own investing experiences as opportunities to teach, and facilitate hands-on, age-appropriate investing experiences for their kids to practice with their own money."

So how can you begin to teach your kids about investing?

First, begin with the basics. Show them how you pay bills, including things they may take for granted like heat and electricity. Teach them money management by providing them an allowance or rewarding them for chores or neighborhood jobs like mowing lawns.

From there, you can move on to teaching them about compounding interest -- the real power and magic of investing.

After that, it may be time to introduce them to the stock market and explain what owning a stock means. A great way to do this is by picking out companies you know they love and helping them set up a model portfolio to track the performance of those stocks.

Once they’re comfortable with a model portfolio, you can open a custodial account to highlight the risks and rewards of investing.

Teaching kids about investing isn’t something that can be done overnight. However, putting in the time and effort to educate them will pay dividends over the rest of their lives.

Methodology

The Motley Fool surveyed 2000 Americans on June 13, 2022, with children over the age of 10. Respondents were 42% male and 58% female.

Sources

• Journal of Family and Economic Issues (2021). "Financial Socialization: A Decade in Review."
• Next Gen Personal Finance (2022). "NGFP’s 2022 State of Financial Education Report."