Tooth Fairy Finances: How to Raise Financially Savvy Kids with Certified Financial Planner Deana Healy of Ameriprise
Teaching kids the value of money can feel like a challenge, and many parents feel pulled between today's expenses and long-term goals. In this mini episode, certified financial planner Deana Healy of Ameriprise shares findings from the Parents & Finances study of more than 3,000 American parents, reveals what the Tooth Fairy pays on average, and offers simple ways to help children build good money habits.
Watch the video above, then scroll down for the key takeaways, guest links and the full transcript.
What you'll learn in this episode
Talk about money openly. Deana says one of her biggest tips is to have open and honest, age-appropriate conversations with your kids about what money means for your family. She says this helps instill your values and shows children it is okay to talk about money.
Expect some tension. Deana says the study found parents feel a tension between managing day-to-day finances and thinking about long-term goals. Nearly all parents said they find joy and purpose in parenting, but that it is harder than expected either emotionally or financially.
Go easy on parental guilt. According to Deana, over a third of parents said they feel the need to be the perfect parent, and over two-thirds reported parental guilt. She says some parents spent more on an experience or a gift than they had intended.
Use the Tooth Fairy as a money lesson. Deana says nearly all parents enlist the Tooth Fairy, who on average brings $5 per tooth. She suggests it is a small way to let kids decide whether to spend the money now on something like a candy bar or a Pokemon card, or save it for something later.
Teach trade-offs and delayed gratification. Deana explains that making small choices with their own money helps a child learn at a young age that they can weigh what they want now against a future goal or purchase.
Consider an allowance or earning. Deana says 55% of parents in the study give an allowance, and many pay children for things like achievements, grades, babysitting, athletic achievements or even acts of kindness. She sees these as chances for kids to practice good financial decisions.
Sit down with a financial advisor. As a certified financial planner herself, Deana says one of the biggest steps parents can take is to meet with an advisor, understand their goals and values, and put a plan in place that supports good long-term decisions.
Bring your kids into the conversation. Deana says 55% of parents in the study had already introduced their kids to their advisor. She describes advisors who set aside about 20 minutes for clients' children to ask anything, since a first job brings questions like setting aside money for taxes or starting to save into a 401(k).
Remember the big picture. Deana sums it up as having open and honest conversations about money and enlisting the help of an advisor to make good decisions today for your future. She says tips and ideas for raising financially savvy kids are available online, and Marijo says the links will be in the show notes.
About the guest: Deana Healy
Deana Healy, CFP®, is Vice President, Financial Planning & Advice for Ameriprise Financial. Healy and her team are responsible for executing the overall financial advice strategy at Ameriprise, which enables the firm's more than 10,000 financial advisors to help clients meet their goals with confidence. In this role, Healy also leads Advice Operations, Advice Policy, and the Advice Sales Enablement Team, helping advisors efficiently and compliantly engage with clients. She has nearly 25 years of experience within the financial services industry and is on the board of The Nijuba Project, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of underprivileged Ugandan children through quality education, health and well-being.
Healy is a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional. She holds a Master of Arts from Princeton University and a Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College.
About the research: The Parents & Finances research was created by Ameriprise Financial and conducted online by Artemis Strategy Group from January 3-31, 2025, among 3,010 American parents with at least one child age newborn to 30.
More information: ameriprise.com
This episode is for general information only and is not financial advice. Talk with your own qualified financial professional before making financial decisions.
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Full episode transcript
Read the full transcript
Intro (recorded)
Guess how much the tooth fairy pays out. You'll never believe it, but today you're going to find out along with several other ways to help instill financial responsibility in your children. Our guest today is Deana Healy. She is a certified financial planner and also the vice president of financial planning and advice for Ameriprise Financial. She and her team are responsible for executing the overall financial advice strategy at Ameriprise, which enables the firm's more than 10,000 financial advisors to help clients meet their goals. She's going to talk about a research project that was just executed by Ameriprise called the Parents and Finances Research Project. It was conducted online by Artemis Strategy Group throughout the month of January 2025 with a 3,000 over 3,000 American parents that have at least one child newborn to 30 years old.
So I know you're going to get a lot of great information today. I hope you enjoy the show.
Marijo: Hello, this is Marijo Tinlin from the Teaching Your Toddler Show. Today we have a great guest. Deana Healy is here to tell us about a new study of parents and finances as well as a little bit about the tooth fairy. So, Deana, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about this study that you all did.
Deana: Thank you, Marijo, for having me. We surveyed, we asked 3,000 American parents who had kids from age newborn to 30 to get a sense of how they thought about their finances both in the current state and future. And we really found that parents were feeling a tension between managing their day-to-day finances while they're thinking about their long-term financial goals. Good news, nearly all parents said they found joy and purpose in being a parent, but they said it was harder than they expected either emotionally or financially.
Marijo: Absolutely. And what what were the some of those challenges that they felt?
Deana: So parents, over a third of parents said they reported feeling the need to be the perfect parent. And that really we you found a sense of feeling parental guilt for wanting to give their kids the best that they could. Over two-thirds of parents reported that feeling of parental guilt and that they found in the moment they might have made decisions to perhaps spend more on an experience or a gift than they really had intended. And they found that there was tension between wanting to do the best in the moment while while continuing to make progress towards their future financial goals.
Marijo: So with that tension, how do they sort of instill this financial responsibility in their children?
Deana: Well, you mentioned the tooth fairy earlier. We found that nearly all parents enlisted the support of the tooth fairy. And in fact, the tooth fairy on average brings $5 per tooth. And so that's just a small example where parents can help kids start to make decisions about money because as you have as a child, if you have $5, you could choose to spend that today on a candy bar or a Pokemon card, but you also might want to save that and save that up for something in the future that you might want to buy. And so that's an example where a child is learning at a young age that they can make trade-offs or make decisions in the current moment versus delaying gratification perhaps for a future a future goal or future purchase.
Right? We also found we also found that parents many parents are giving children an allowance. So 55% and many parents are paying children for things like achievements or grades, babysitting, athletic achievements, or even acts of kindness. So there again, those are opportunities for parents to help their kids practice making good financial decisions.
Marijo: That's really interesting about the allowance. I hadn't I hadn't heard that about good works. That's pretty that's a pretty cool and a benevolent way to teach your kid about money for sure. Are there ways that parents kind of role model or can do them do well themselves to show children what to do with their money?
Deana: Yeah, one of the biggest tips I would would call out first of all is having open and honest conversations about money in your family with your kids. There are age appropriate ways you can do that to talk to kids about money, what money means for you, for your family. That's a great way to instill financial values that are important to you to help your children see it's okay to talk about money. I think the second piece that I would highlight is taking time and finding a financial advisor to sit down with. As a certified financial planner myself, that is to me one of the biggest steps you can take to sit down, understand what your goals and values are.
How do you want to set aside money and then putting a financial plan in place that can help you make good decisions over the long term?
Marijo: Are there parents who involve their children in conversations with you ever?
Deana: They do, in fact, and I think that's a great step. The parents in our study reported 55% had already introduced their kids to their advisor. I think it's a great way first of all for kids to start to understand what kind of decisions you may need to make as an adult. One of the best practices I've seen advisors opening up time say setting aside say 20 minutes to talk with the children of their clients. Ask me anything because when you're a new when you're a new young adult and you have your first job, you have a lot of financial decisions to make. So, it may be how do I set aside money for taxes?
How do I start saving into my 401k and how to allocate it? And an advisor can start to help you make those great decisions early on in your adult life.
Marijo: Oh, those are great. That's that's really good to have parents kind of bring them in at as they're as they're doing their own thing, too. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much. Anything else from the study that we should know?
Deana: I think if I had to sum it up in one one piece is to remember to have open and honest conversations. Enlist the help of an advisor to help you make great decisions today for your future.
Marijo: Excellent. Deana, where can we go to find out more information?
Deana: Certainly, you can go to.com/parents to find tips and ideas to raise financially savvy kids.
Marijo: Excellent. We'll make sure that those links are in the show notes. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Deana: Thank you.
Outro (recorded)
This has been the Teaching Your Toddler Show with Marijo Tinlin. Thank you so much for joining us today. If you enjoyed today's show, please leave a fivestar review or a thumbs up so we can reach more parents like you. To be notified when new shows post, please subscribe by sending an email to subscribe@teachingyourtoddler.com. For more expert interviews, fun activities, and storytime podcasts, please visit our website at teachingyourtoddler.com. All of our shows are also posted as videos as well on our YouTube channel at Marijo Tinlin. Find us on Facebook at Teaching Your Toddler, X at Teaching Toddler, Instagram at Teaching Your Toddler, and make sure you check out our past shows.
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