My parents simply told me they had too much in savings for me to get financial aid so filling out the FAFSA was a waste of time. But the entire time I was growing up they acted like we weren't in the best financial shape and couldn't afford name brand cereal and stuff so I learned to be thrifty through a false sense of being worse off than we actually were.

It is important to teach kids to live with in reasonable means and how to prioritize needs over desires to stay within budget when everything is accounted for. It is not important in my opinion for them to know an exact amount anyone makes, but the article does outline a way the former was achieved by doing the latter.