Hey there, 

It’s time for another edition of Mini Millionaires. Welcome! 

We hope you’ve had as much fun implementing some of the tips and tricks as we’ve had sharing them.

Please keep those replies and DMs coming. We love hearing from you.

In this week’s Mini Millionaires, we’re talking about how to teach kids the difference between needs and wants with a mindset to cultivate, a habit to form, and a tip or trick to try. 

We also have another free, downloadable resource to help you teach them the difference between needs and wants. 

Let’s get into this week’s Mini Millionaires.

Game On

• ⚖️ Weigh it up: Teach kids the difference between needs and wants.

• 🔨 A cool tool: To distinguish between wants and needs. 

• 🎲 Roll the dice: Become financially literate.

• ✖️ You voted: The biggest hurdle to teaching them about business.

Money Smart

They might want it, but do they really need it?

We’ve all been there. 

Out at the shops with the shopping list, our game faces on to stick to our grocery budget (you do have a grocery budget, right?).

Suddenly, you hear “Mom/Dad, can I have this?”.

And you just know they’re not holding up a bag of veggies, or a cleaning product with which they’ll be cleaning their room later.

It’s some or other toy, or treat, or worse: it’s both! 

But what they’re really holding is an opportunity for you to talk about “Needs vs Wants” and why it’s important for us to know the difference to make smarter money choices.

1. A mindset to cultivate

Money isn’t just for fun. It also has a function.

Kids seem to think their parents have deeper pockets than they actually do, and that money = toys or treats. 

But this presents a really great opportunity to teach them about needs and wants. After all, some things we buy are for joy, others for survival.

It’s crazy to think that 84% of shoppers admitted to making impulse purchases when shopping. So it’s key to help them learn this lesson early. By the time they’re 7, they’ll already be well on their way to establishing their future money habits. Good or bad…

Takeaway: Help your child see that money is a tool for covering our needs first and then our wants, not the other way around.

2. A habit to form

Ask them: Start sorting everyday items

A simple conversation about items already in your home can spark a considered approach to buying items, cementing the habit of prioritising needs over wants.

Something to drink:
A need is water.
A want could be juice, a cooldrink, or a milkshake.

An item of clothing:
A need is a warm jacket for winter.
A want could be light-up sneakers

Recreational equipment:
A need could be a pair of boots for soccer.
A want is a new gaming console.

According to Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, kids at the concrete operational stage (from 7 to 11 years) are capable of logical thinking, rational thought, and deductive reasoning, the perfect age for them to grasp the concept of “needs and wants”.

Takeaway: Use simple moments (snack time, shopping, packing a bag) to casually label needs vs wants out loud. 

3. A tip/trick to try

Use the Needs and Wants Activity

Kids learn best by seeing and doing. 

So this week’s resource is all about giving them a visual activity (and you a hands-on tool to go with the conversation) to help them know the difference between needs and wants. 

Get your hands on our free, downloadable resource that’s ready to print down below.

Takeaway:  Kids learn best by doing, our Needs vs Wants activity makes the difference stick.

Your Thoughts…

Use This

A Printable Needs and Wants Activity

This week’s free, downloadable resource is a needs and wants activity board. 

How it works is that there are two columns, “Needs” and “Wants”, on Page 1. On Page 2 is a sheet of cut-out images or icons (e.g. food, toys, clothes, a house, a tablet, water, candy, books, electricity, a trampoline, etc.), plus a few extra spaces to label your own, cause every family is different.

Tip: If you laminate both the “Needs” and “Wants” and the images/icons, you can run this activity over and over again.

Cut out the images together and ask your kids to stick each one under Need or Want.

Talk through any tricky ones, like whether a car, for example, is a need or a want? It might be a great convo starter.

A nice little bonus lesson is to ask them to re-rank the needs from most to least important.

Plus: Try This

School Night Meets Game Night.

Play your way to wealth with FinMaster.

It’s a great way for kids to learn how to be smart with money, one smart money move at a time.

FinMaster turns your next game night into a fast-paced, wealth-building adventure. Buy assets, survive market swings, and outsmart your opponents as you learn real money skills along the way.

• Learn smart money strategies.

• Grasp real investment concepts.

• Beat every other player to become: The Ultimate FinMaster.

Our first drop SOLD OUT completely, so we are excited to announce that the pre-orders for the 2025 edition are LIVE! Don't miss out, there’s limited stock available.

The Tribe Has Spoken

Last week, we asked What’s your biggest hurdle in teaching kids about business, and the biggest hurdle is: a tie between they’re not ready yet, you might not be that confident in business, and you’re already building.

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🧭 I don’t know where to start

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️ 😐 My child isn’t interested (yet!)

⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 🌀 We’ve tried, but it fizzled out

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️🤷 I’m not confident in business myself

🟩🟩🟩⬜️⬜️🚀 No hurdle—we’re already building!

Follow along on our journey, hopefully you (and your Mini Millionaire) can learn a thing or two, or get a boost of inspiration for their next big idea. We’re in this together. 

Let’s Connect

Have you tried any of today’s featured exercises yet?

What worked, what didn’t? Or did one of them get you particularly excited?

We’d love to get your thoughts so please hit reply to this email and share your thoughts.

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