Teaching children about money – our top 3 tips

The video starts with gentle music. We see a selection of photos, showing people at different stages of their life. We learn during the video that these are of father and daughter, Jeff and Susannah Streeter, and their family.

The following text appears alongside "Family. A safe place to grow, flourish and thrive."

The view transitions, and we see more photos of Jeff, Susannah, and their family. As the text on screen changes to say:

"Where a helping hand and wise words are passed on through generations."

The music continues as we skip to a film showing Jeff and Susannah sat at a dining room table. Throughout the video we see different shots of the two talking as they look through photo albums or talking directly to the camera on their own.

We start by hearing from Jeff, the camera first focuses on his face, we then see him and Susannah looking through a photo album before seeing Jeff sat in a chair with a bookshelf behind him.

Jeff: "I think I've talked about money to my children all the time, to be quite honest."

"I've encouraged them to be aware of the value of money - that it doesn't grow on trees. And very often if you want money, you go out and earn it."

We then see Susannah and Jeff looking through photos talking about their memories: We see a family photo on the beach.

Susannah: "That was when I was really little. Look at my swimming costume."

Jeff: "Gosh look at the hair I had then."

We then see a montage of old photos from Susannah’s life, starting with a picture of her parents, a group of family and friends sat on a rocky hill and then Jeff coming out of a tent.

Susannah: "My mum and dad were pretty careful with their money. As we were growing up we had lots of fun. We went on adventures."

The photos change and we see Susannah looking through a wedding album.

Susannah: "But we didn't splurge and as a result that's meant that my mum and dad were also able to help us on lots of kind of key moments in our lives, helped pay for our weddings - my wedding - and helped me contribute to a deposit towards my first home.

Jeff (to camera): "Well, investing has allowed me to help my children at various crucial times in their life."

The shot changes and we now see Susannah flicking through photos of family until she lands on a picture of her first home.

Susannah: "This one is my first house, here. There we are, you helped me get a deposit on that flat."

Jeff (to camera): "I'm pleased to say I think I helped all my daughters to get onto the housing ladder. Not a lot, but just enough to enable them to get the deposit. Enough deposit to be able to get started."

Susannah (to camera): "When I was younger, like many people, you just kind of think about your own future. Now I'm older, I have three children. I'm now thinking about their futures and I want to help them perhaps go to university, buy a house, get married maybe, in the same way that my mum and dad helped me."

We now see Susannah and Jeff sat at a dining room table looking through photos, talking about a camping trip.

Susannah: "We had a lot of stuff, look at that."

Jeff: "Well I know, we all had a rucksack each and a bag."

Susannah: "That was a great trip."

The camera breaks to Jeff talking to the camera "We used to go camping. I didn't have a lot of spare money, so we didn't have sort of package holidays. So we used to go camping."

We then hear Jeff talking to Susannah, sharing a memory, recalling a time from a previous holiday, we see a montage of photos from camping holidays across the screen:

Jeff: "We had the Trangia stove to cook on and I run out of methylated spirits. I didn't know what methylated spirits was in French. And I went to the shop to try and find out what it was. And we were doing all these miming trying to mine what methylated spirits was in French. And they ended up, they gave me a blow-up ring with a duck on the front."

Jeff (to camera): "I’ve always been used to planning ahead and budgeting and I hope I pass that on to my family. Secure in the knowledge that if push comes to shove, there's always a bit of money which I can help my family out with."

Susannah: "There are economic times which are a lot tighter, but if you have built up a rainy day fund and then on top of that are able to invest and see your money grow, well, that just gives you that extra resilience when times are tougher."

Jeff and Susannah now share a memory of a Covid Christmas, while looking through the photo album.

Susannah: "That was so sweet. That was the fake Christmas in July we had because of COVID. So that's why it's all green outside".

Jeff: "That's right. That's why I wore that Christmas Cracker T-Shirt."

We see more photos on screen as we hear Susannah’s voice:

SS (voice over): "What I've been able to do is spend some of the money that I've earned on some of my investments, and that's enabled me to have a lot more freedom and to spend time with friends and family."

JS (to camera): "The most important advice I’d pass on to my family is don't spend money you haven't got, but, you know, enjoy, enjoy yourself. Don’t save just for the sake of saving, but have a good time if you can."

SS (voice over): "It does make me feel much more confident and pretty empowered, actually, that I feel as though I've set up more for the longer term. That doesn't mean to say that I'm not still pretty frugal at times. You know, there's a lot of expenses. Particularly when you have a family to bring up. But I would say that I do feel more empowered."

The music builds towards a final touching moment as Jeff says, "I feel very proud about Susannah, proud and very pleased."

The music starts to wind down, we see Jeff and Susannah again sat at the dining room table looking at photos. We see the following words appear: "Wise words. A helping hand. Pass it on."

This transitions to leave a final message of "SWITCH YOUR MONEY ON".

The film ends on a final screen with the following important information:

This video isn’t personal advice. Please seek advice if you’re not sure. Investments can go up and down in value, so you could get back less than you invest.