When my parents got me a bank account as a kid, the banker explained to me how great compound interest is. Then I asked what my APR is, and she said 0.01% but I still make some money off my $500, then I asked if it's rounded up or down... A few months later, I took out all the money and invested it in my favorite company Apple, though my dad talked me into diversifying it.

I learned as a kid that savings accounts are a scam, and that's still what I think. Even if it's 4% today, that's basically losing wealth each month, and I'm not putting anything more than emergency money in there.

No, because their savings accounts actually have fairly decent interest rates for kids accounts. However, I do give them extra money on birthdays and Christmas. Also, when they do really good things, (ie, achieve something good at school) they always get a cash bonus.

Interestingly, even though the the non-ADHD one does better at saving, he doesn’t understand the concept of interest yet. However, the ADHD one clicked on very quickly to how interest works, and his bank has a policy that if you withdraw from your savings more than once in a month, you lose the interest for that month. So now the older one has started to plan withdrawals around that idea. It’s not the exact lesson I would like him to learn, I’d prefer that he just didn’t withdraw. But I like that he’s coming up with his own strategy to manage his money (and impulse control issues).