There is no correlation between the amount of money you have and your happiness quotient. However, as long as you have enough money to be comfortable, the stress alleviated by not having to worry about your next month rental payment or other bills can and will make you feel lighter. In a similar vein, people who choose careers purely based on the remuneration they receive will inevitably reach a point where a certain emptiness will take hold which no amount of money can fill. One of the world greatest athletes, Rafael Nodal, has stated on more than one occasion that there will always be someone with a bigger house than you, a bigger TV than you, a better garden than you. You have to be satisfied with what you have achieved rather than viewing it through someone else lens. This is a very valuable life lesson as it relates to how transient the joy provided by material possessions really is. The old fashioned piggy bank as a primer for real world banking The old adage of saving money for a rainy day is one which I think is supremely important and is something kids should learn from a young age. In fact of my kids had piggy banks from the age of 3 onwards in which money given them to my relatives or as gifts were deposited. More importantly, I did not allow them to break their piggy banks but would instead offer them an incentive in terms of a top up aka interest should they continue keeping their savings in the bank. This is a very simple way of teaching kids how banks work and prepares them for when an account is eventually opened for them at a bank. In a similar vein, when they insisted on breaking their deposit in order to buy a long desired gift I am not completely heartless!, I would make a small deduction, aka an exit fee which is what is usually charged by several banks or funds when you break an investment prior to its full term. The concept of Hell Money This is a concept which is more appropriate for older teenagers and was first taught to me by one of my professors at Harvard. Teach kids the fundamentals of investing in the stock market and more recently, crypto. If, like me, you believe that everyone should learn to invest money responsibly, this truly can be done without learning how to invest in stocks. My 8 year old had his first exposure to stocks when he had peer over my shoulder when I had be reviewing my stock portfolio while putting him to bed, which always coincided with the opening of the US stock market. I still remember him telling me Dad, why have you invested in Their products are cheap knock offs and the quality is terrible!. With WISH down almost 90 since its listing price, I should have listened to my son rather than Nobel prize winning analysts! I have since given him a virtual portfolio to play around with and more than anything, it loads of fun and teaches him investment management at a young age.