MONEY lessons that will shape children’s financial futures often happen outside the classroom, according to a leading finance expert, with parents playing a crucial role in filling the gaps.
The SCSA 2026 curriculum showed financial literacy concepts covered from primary school to Year 10 included needs, wants, choices and consumer decisions.
Students were learning about opportunity cost and income flows by Year 7, work, income, markets, pricing by Year 8, risk, taxation, and redistribution of income by Year 9 and budgeting, planning, financial safety by Year 10.
Swan Christian College principal Darnelle Pretorius said students can benefit from practical involvement at home in areas such as deciding and opening a bank account based on interest rates and costs, buying a car, emotional and behavioural money skills, consumer traps and modern financial risks.
“At primary level, opening and managing a savings account, basic financial literacy, commitment to savings goals, managing pocket money, making wise purchasing decisions and understanding choices and sacrifices, coming to terms with needs versus wants, are the most important financial lessons parents can reinforce at home,” she said.
“At secondary level, becoming aware of financial scams, personal financial privacy and identity protection, resume writing and part time job application process, tax effects and requirements, superannuation options and long-term consequences are important lessons to complement what students learn at school.”
RMIT University finance professor and deputy dean of research and innovation Angel Zhong said while schools cover foundational concepts like counting money, simple budgeting, and understanding bank accounts, the most important financial lessons come from real-world context.
“The curriculum is a starting point but lived experience, family conversations, and real money decisions fill the most important gaps,” she said.
“Kids learn (the ability to wait for rewards) when they save for weeks to buy the toy they’ve been eyeing, or when their pocket money runs out mid‑week (which are) experiences that help them understand that money doesn’t appear magically and choices have consequences.
“A teenager needing school shoes but wanting the $200 branded pair opens the door to discussions about value, priorities, and shared responsibility.
“Schools understandably try to avoid scenarios where students ‘fail’ at money, but at home, a $5 mistake like blowing pocket money on stickers and regretting it becomes a powerful, safe lesson that can prevent a $5000 mistake in adulthood.”
In Years 1 to 4, students begin learning about Australian currency and calculations in math-ematics which give them the foundational skills needed to build financial literacy but the growing cashless model poses new problems to solve.
Dr Pretorius said children these days have less exposure to coins and notes with most exchanges being cashless and many children accruing pocket money on debit cards.
“This then impacts how much practice they have building those fundamental money math skills,” she said.
Schools may touch on interest, but Professor Zhong said young people often only grasp its meaning when they start using debit cards, encountering bank fees, or accessing credit for the first time.
“Parents are in the best position to explain that interest earned on savings is usually tiny, while interest paid on debt can be significant,” she said.
Retirement savings and compound growth are among the most powerful financial concepts impacting a young person’s future but are surprisingly rarely covered in formal curriculum.
“Even small super contributions at age 18 can snowball into significant retirement balances because of compounding,” Professor Zhong said.
“Start talking openly about money in simple, everyday terms.
“You don’t need to be a finance expert.
“What matters most is making money a normal, ongoing part of family conversations.
“Kids learn from what they see and hear, not from perfectly structured lessons.”
