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Money can be a great tool to help pass your financial values along to your children. Here are some ideas for using Money to introduce children to basic financial concepts:
Separate Money files Create a separate Money file for each child as soon as they get bank accounts. If the child has a source of income (such as an allowance) to put in the account, the child can enter deposits and withdrawals from that account in Money.
Budgeting Let your children create their own budgets and help them stick to them. You can print out the How I'm Doing on My Budget report to review with them, and talk about the choices they make with their money.
Saving Entering recurring transactions in the Bills place is a simple way to see how current patterns turn out over time. Children can learn the value of saving if they see how their allowance adds up over time or how long they must save to be able to buy the latest video game or toy.
Investing If you have an investment targeted for an older child, such as a mutual fund earmarked for college, update its price regularly and show the child the chart.
Older children might enjoy tracking the stock of a company that interests them (such as a favorite store or restaurant chain) and creating charts of the stock's performance. They don't have to own the stock to make it fun, but you might consider a gift of stock (many brokers will sell you a single share) to make it even more interesting.