Our Kids Are Growing Up Without Ever Touching Cash & It Shows

I’m about to reveal my age, but trust me: It’s relevant to this story. When I was growing up, my parents gave my brother and me cash. It might have been our weekly allowance or money for a Saturday afternoon at the mall, but whatever we had in our hands was our budget. There was no tapping the phone, swiping a screen, or asking Mom to Venmo us another 10 bucks.

Melissa Murphy Pavone, a certified financial planner, remembers it the same way. She recalls counting coins, organizing bills, putting money into a piggy bank, and physically handing cash to a cashier when she wanted to buy something. Her philosophy was simple: “When the money was gone, it was gone.”

But for today’s kids, that lesson is becoming increasingly harder to teach because cash is disappearing from everyday life.

Think about how different the world of money looks for Generation Z and Generation Alpha. Venmo launched in 2009, giving people a quick way to send money digitally. Apple Pay followed in 2014, allowing consumers to pay with their phones. Zelle entered the cashless arena in 2017, making it easy to transfer money directly between bank accounts. The US Mint stopped making pennies in 2025, and many companies have stopped issuing checks, replacing them with direct deposits.

With fewer people carrying cash, kids are growing up in a world where money is virtual rather than something they can hold... and moms and dads are taking notice. While some parents have tried to find humor in this growing epidemic by jumping on the "Mom Can You Send Me 4/5 Bucks" trend on TikTok, where a kid repeatedly asks their mom for varying amounts of money to a catchy jingle, others are not amused.

Jeanine Bobenmoyer, a mother of two teenagers from Indianapolis, describes the money her kids spend as invisible money. To them, she says, money doesn’t always feel real. Robbie Hyman, author of The Money Savvy Teen, agrees, saying, “There is a major difference in the way today’s teenagers experience spending money because many transactions are digital. When money is reduced to a tap, click, or swipe,” Hyman says, “children can begin to see it as more of an abstraction, and giving them access to those digital accounts can get expensive — fast.”

Bobenmoyer learned that lesson the hard way. Like many parents, she added her 15-year-old daughter to her Apple Wallet for emergencies. Instead of using it only when necessary, her daughter went on a shopping spree at Target, Sephora, Culver’s, the movies, and American Eagle. The damage? More than $1,000 in one month. Oy!

Murphy says this is a big problem. “Kids may see the purchase, but they don’t necessarily see everything behind it, such as the hours their parents worked to earn the money, the time it took to save it, or the account balance getting smaller after every purchase. Without those connections,” she says, money can feel unlimited.”

New Jersey mom Dr. Lisa Nissim has lost her patience more than once when she tried to talk to her three kids about their spending habits. The wall she’s up against is that her children have a weak understanding of money because they’ve hardly touched or managed it to pay for things, so the physical reality of what money means has diminished. Her 20-year-old son has Venmo and Zelle. Her 17-year-old daughter uses Zelle, and she describes her 13-year-old son as the Apple Pay king. Nissim says her big concern is that kids lack the knowledge that they should save money on big-ticket items, such as a car, rent, or a mortgage for a home.

Hyman puts it this way: “It’s difficult to feel ownership of something you’ve never physically experienced, and money is no exception. When a teenager’s entire experience with money is watching numbers appear and disappear on a screen, it can be much easier to spend it without thinking about what those numbers represent, and that’s not the financial habit parents want to pass down.”

Does that mean we should bring back the old mason jar method, a popular and visual way for kids to grasp budgeting, saving, and giving away money? Maybe! According to Murphy, there’s something powerful about cash. She says cash can teach children patience, limits, and trade-offs because they can physically see what they have and watch it vanish after they spend it.

The good news is it’s never too late or too early to start. Financial Coach Kristen Ricupero recommends going old school by giving children aged 3 to 10 an allowance in cash. The goal is to help them learn how to divide their money between saving, giving, and spending. For kids 10 and older, Ricupero suggests giving them cash when they go out. That way, they are forced to look at prices, make choices, and figure out what they can afford with the money in their pocket.

Murphy says parents don’t need to stop using Venmo, Apple Pay, or Zelle because technology is not the enemy. She says, “They are the tools our children will use as adults, so they need to understand how to use them responsibly. The problem,” she says, “arises when convenience replaces conversation, so start having discussions and explain how to connect the dots.”