The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast 1KHO 751: Kids Need More Practice With Money | Dr. Stephen Day, Teach a Kid to Save
Mar 28, 2026
Dr. Stephen Day, economics professor and author of Teach a Kid to Save, trains teachers and helps families build real money habits. He describes creating a mini household economy where kids practice saving, spending, pricing, and running small businesses. Short-term or scalable, the system teaches stewardship, planned spending, and how money ties to character and real-life decision making.
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Classroom Mini Economy Scales To Homes
- Mini economy classroom systems teach autonomy, entrepreneurship, and money choices by letting kids run jobs, stores, and currencies.
- Stephen Day adapted his father's 1970s classroom mini economy into a household model parents can run with play money and coupons.
Run A Household Mini Economy
- Start a household mini economy where everyone, including parents, earns play money for jobs and buys from a household store.
- Use it to let kids practice spending, saving, giving, and negotiating without real-money pressure.
Use Buckets And Family Taxes
- Create money buckets (share, save, spend) and treat giving/taxes as first priorities so kids learn responsibilities.
- Use family 'tax' to fund shared goals like fair trips or an amusement park to teach collective saving.
