UAE: Is your child money-smart? Here’s why you should teach children financial literacy

UAE: Is your child money-smart? Here’s why you should teach children financial literacy

With credit cards and loans becoming readily available and overspending becoming a real problem, experts advocated teaching children how to deal with finances at an early age

Published: Mon 24 Jul 2023, 6:00 AM

Eleven-year-old Zayaan Arfaz learnt how to be careful with his money the hard way when his teacher signed his entire class up for the fun financial literacy website Squirrel. He was allocated 2,000 Squirrel dollars every week. Using that, he had to pay three bills- education, transportation and rent. From the remaining amount, he could choose to deposit in his savings and an emergency fund or spend on whatever he wanted. He earned points for every payment and purchase, but there was a limit of two daily transactions.

During the initial few months, he splurged on a mansion, a sports car and a host of collectibles. "I was spending $800 collectively on the mansion and sports car weekly," he said. "I had no savings or emergency funds and trailed behind on my class leaderboard."

The Grade 6 student soon realised that he had to change his ways. "I stopped buying collectibles and started paying off the debt," he said. "I could earn more points by transferring money to my savings