Even a child who's above average on self-control could improve their financial outcomes in mid-life if they improved their self-control skills early on.

Even a child who's above average on self-control could improve their financial outcomes in mid-life if they improved their self-control skills early on.

Although self-control is inheritable and does run in families and has a genetic component, it's more like height than anything else. Height is one of the most strongly inherited traits that human beings have and yet when we improve the nutrition of the population everybody gets taller. So you can shift the entire population by an effective intervention.

One of the most effective strategies to make your child more self-control is the weekly giving of allowance or pocket money as an opportunity for parents to teach self-control and model self-control. So rather than just handing the child the money and leaving it at that, the parent hands them a modest amount that has to be managed through the week, sits with the child and takes the time to anticipate what's going to be coming up next week, what the child would like to do and helps them to make choices and understand the limited amount of money they have.