Olena Sosedka: We learned through practice, and they learned on TikTok. Why do children know more about money than we did at their age?

Last week, my friend was surprised: “How is it to be 25 and already have a crypto portfolio?”, and I thought: yes, maybe it’s no longer a wonder, but a norm for the modern generation?

Modern youth are immersed in the digital economy from an early age and form financial habits radically different from those of the 40+ generation. Unlike their parents, who discovered the concept of “financial literacy” only when a credit card became a problem, or when inflation ate up a “deposit at 18%”, Gen Z learns to manage finances from school age. Sometimes it seems to me that modern children are born with a sense of money in their DNA. 

And their interest is confirmed by real research. According to a survey by U-Report Ukraine, teenagers show interest in financial education: over 80% of young people would like to study financial literacy at school. And this is a great contrast to our generation, for whom the word “budget” once sounded like something governmental, not personal.

Because while we stumbled, lost, learned to count after the fact – our children know from childhood that money is not only about “having” but also about “managing”. They count pocket expenses in apps, not in notebooks. They watch TikTok and YouTube, where bloggers explain what “passive income”, “cashback”, “investments” are. 

But along with this, another challenge arises: there is a chasm between curiosity and competence. Financial “gurus” from the internet promise quick enrichment, dropshipping “in an evening”, crypto “without risks”. Therefore, our task as adults is not only to encourage children to get new information, but also to teach critical thinking: not everything that sounds confident is true.

Another difference between “our” generation and “theirs”. Modern children, unlike the older generation, do not consider saving something “inconvenient”. On TikTok, 10-year-old bloggers enthusiastically talk about how they are saving for a tablet, and teenagers – how they put aside 10% of each scholarship. Frugality has become a trend – “loud budgeting” has replaced the shy “I don’t have enough money”.

And we are the first generation of parents who understand that a child needs to be taught not only to read and count, but also to distinguish financial advice from manipulation. In a world where “easy money” is part of the content, it is we who must show children that financial literacy is not only about earning, but also about critical thinking, planning, and patience.

In addition, it is important for modern parents not to ridicule when a child says: “I want to invest in LEGO shares,” or “I saw that the dollar is falling.” But to help them understand that financial culture is not about numbers, but about responsibility.

And our task is not only to teach, but also to learn. We need to learn from them specifically that money can be talked about easily, without shame, without taboos; that financial literacy is not the privilege of economists, but the language of survival in a changing world. 

And if we, parents, once learned from our own mistakes – then our children have a chance to learn from our stories. And this, perhaps, is the best investment we can make.