Colman Noctor: Teaching children the value of money in a cashless economy 

Picture: iStock 

I was not affected by the closure of barbers during lockdown. I am privileged to have my own barber at home - my eight-year-old daughter. She's had the weekly job of shaving my head since she was five years old, and has become quite proficient at doing it, and it would appear she is quite the proficient entrepreneur.  Her fee has increased over that time from €2 to €5.

Last week when she had finished shaving my head she had asked me to buy her €5 worth of Robux, a digital currency in an online game Roblox that she plays.  She tried to get me to give her €10 by offering to shave my beard as well. When I disputed the charge, she became disgruntled. She wanted to purchase some form of virtual unicorn that costs €9. We agreed that if she saved her weekly €5 fee over two weeks she would have enough money to get the unicorn the following week.

Our family has become a cashless economy over the past 15 months. This was made even more visible when my six year old got his first visit from the tooth fairy as well last week - the crinkly €5 note found under his pillow was something of a novelty for him. As he started to draw up a wishlist for what he was going to spend it on, it struck me he was more fascinated by the value of this piece of paper than its equivalent in digital currency.

Cashless society is here to stay

Contactless payment has become so pervasive over the past year and a half that it has become harder and harder to keep track of our spending. A recent online bank statement revealed that I had spent almost €10 a day over the last year on takeaway coffees. It is reasonable to assume that the cashless society is here to stay and will outlive Covid-19, but it is interesting to imagine how this might impact our children’s sense of cost, value, and currency?

In a world where digital money, digital goods and digital ownership have become the order of the day, how can we teach our children about managing and budgeting money? My son turned 11 this week and to mark the occasion, his grandmother gave him a receipt showing she had lodged some money into his post office account which she has kindly set up for him. When she revealed his savings total, which was not insignificant, he had little or no reaction. Although this particular generational gap is not new to the digital world, it got me thinking about how the move from physical to virtual payments is affecting my children's concept and value of money. 

The introduction of e-commerce is not just affecting children’s appreciation of hard-earned cash. When I was 11 years old, I can remember going to Golden Discs to buy Aswad’s single Don’t Turn Around and treasuring this physical record in my hand and reading the sleeve in detail when I got home. This was the beginning of my meaningful relationship with music. The vinyl single was something that I had to be careful with, to make sure it didn’t get scratched.

By contrast, my children have a passing interest in music, despite it being played at home and in the car all their lives. I wonder if the fact that now we rent music virtually, whether this is playing a role in their distant relationship with music?

I notice this trend in my clinical work too. Fewer teenagers seem to be engaged with or invested in music in recent years. Along with the absence of a Ramones or Morrisey T-shirt,  there is also something diluted in young people’s relationship with music.  

Over the past two decades, I have had many discussions with young people about music. Many describe it as a voice to their frustrations, a vehicle for their angst, a companion to their heartbreak, a support through their loss and providing a sense of connection and relatedness during a time of confusing lonely emotions. I wonder if the loss of this emotional investment in music, lyrics and artists has had an impact on the coping strategies employed by young people and whether the digitisation of music has diluted our relationship or investment in it?

Will the same dynamic occur with the digitisation of money and other physical things in the world that have become digitised? Does the non-physical nature of things make them more disposable or feed into a growing throw-away culture?

The cost of everything but the value of nothing

The advent of Revolut, Apple Pay and other digital forms of monetisation has been welcome in terms of convenience but unwelcome in terms of meaning.

 Will the evolution of a cashless society impact our children’s sense of money and value? I fear that sometimes we tend to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing and that doesn’t bode well for a meaningful and fulfilling future society.

Do our parenting approaches and school curricula need to adjust to these new developments? While homeschooling my children, I saw how the primary school maths curriculum still presents the scenario where ‘Mary goes to the shop with €1 and buys two sweets for 40c each, how much change will Mary get?’ This narrative helps children to visualise the scenario, as they begin to count using their fingers to figure out the answer by using this tangible metaphor. However, I wonder if this method of teaching maths is becoming more obsolete with each passing day?

As I handed over the €10 this week to my daughter, I asked her if she was going to get the digital unicorn now, to which she replied ‘No, I have changed my mind’. As I beamed at her newfound financial savvy I asked if she was going to save it for our holiday in August? Alas, that wasn’t the case. Apparently, there is a particular "furry unicorn notepad" she has her eye on.

Adults having differing views to children on what they should spend their money on is not new nor problematic. The fact that I think paying €10 for a furry unicorn notepad is extortionate and ridiculous is just something I will have to get over and accept.