Teaching young children about money: the MPFA’s storybook approach to “saving for tomorrow”

Over lunch at a teahouse, 積金仔’s colleague 奕偉 vented about his five-year-old son’s tantrums. Fellow parent 碧琪 sighed that today’s children, raised in material abundance, are easily spoiled — she had her primary-school daughter do housework and opened a bank account for her to deposit lai-see money, learning responsibility and the proper use of money. 奕偉 asked: isn’t financial education too advanced for a five-year-old?

How do you teach a five-year-old about money?

Teaching a five-year-old about money is not too advanced: the MPFA says financial concepts should be instilled from childhood, with parents using everyday settings — sharing housework, opening a bank account for lai-see money — so children learn saving and wise spending step by step. For the new school year the MPFA produced a kindergarten storybook, Braving MPF Island, teaching concepts like “saving for tomorrow”; parents can pass on sound money knowledge through shared reading and the book’s games, downloadable from the MPFA website’s youth education zone.

Financial education goes beyond kindergarten

The MPFA also runs education activities in various formats for primary, secondary and even tertiary students, instilling age-appropriate financial knowledge — money education is a long-term project that advances with age, not a one-off lesson.

Parents lead by example: review your own MPF regularly

積金仔 reminded parents to lead by example and review their own financial strategies regularly — including their MPF investments. MPF is long-term investing: fixed monthly contributions buy fund units at prevailing prices — more units when markets fall, fewer when they rise — and dollar-cost averaging smooths the purchase price over time, cushioning short-term volatility; compounding on reinvested returns means the earlier you start, the greater the potential payoff. MPFA hotline: 2918 0102. The MPF education hub covers money concepts from scratch.