Why kids need Bitcoin bedtime stories

Tali Lindberg hears it all the time from young people: “I’ll just move back in with my parents.” For her, that quiet resignation signals something deeper – a generation losing confidence in their future. And she believes it starts with how we teach kids about money.

In Lindberg’s view, financial education can’t wait until high school. By then, many kids have already internalized the idea that money is stressful, confusing, or simply out of their control. 

 Instead, she believes these lessons – including the fundamentals of Bitcoin – should begin as early as learning to read, not through lectures, but through everyday family life.

Why financial literacy starts at home

A longtime homeschooling mother of four, Lindberg began noticing the gap in traditional education around money. While her children learned math and history, they weren’t being taught how to think about value, choice, or long-term consequences.

And even among parents, money talk often felt off-limits. “It doesn’t have to be homeschooling,” she told The Crypto Radio. “It can be dinner table conversations, bedtime conversations. But it has to start somewhere.”

She believes the key is to weave financial literacy into everyday situations – like setting a savings goal for a toy or talking about prices at the grocery store. These moments help kids form a healthy relationship with money before confusion or fear take root.

That same desire to create open, supportive spaces also inspired Lindberg’s weekly adult book club, hosted through her Orange Hatter community. What began as a simple reading group has grown into a close-knit circle where women can explore ideas that often feel too big or intimidating to tackle alone – including money.

“My goal from the very beginning was, and continues to be, that I want the women who feel isolated where they are... to come together,” she said.

Currently reading Fiat Food by Matthew Lysiak and Saifedean Ammous, the group often runs well past its scheduled time. “The ladies don’t want to get off,” Lindberg laughed. The sessions are less about speed-reading and more about meaningful dialogue. “When we gather, it’s like we speak the same language. We don’t have to explain ourselves.”

The book club, like her work with children, is about more than learning facts – it’s about helping people feel equipped to ask big questions and take back agency in areas of life that often feel out of reach.

The mindset comes before the math

For Lindberg, financial literacy begins with self-belief – not with numbers on a page. She often sees young people who don’t feel capable of managing money because they’ve never been given the tools or the confidence.

“We are taking the things that we had – the jobs, the chores, the chances to demonstrate to ourselves that we're capable people – and we’re robbing our kids of those opportunities because we are trying to protect them,” she said.

Her philosophy breaks financial education into three broad phases:

• Kindergarten to Grade 2: Build self-worth and character first

• Upper elementary: Introduce basic ideas like saving, spending, and fairness

• Middle/high school: Tackle more difficult topics like debt, inflation, and financial systems

This gradual approach allows kids to grow into complex topics without fear or shame. “You can’t just drop the naked truth on a teenager and expect it to stick if they’ve never been taught the basics,” she said.

Where stories come in

Photo: Unsplash / Ben Griffiths

It was this need for age-appropriate, emotionally engaging learning that eventually led Lindberg to storytelling. Over time, she began writing what would become her Super K Adventures book series – a collection of children’s stories that introduce financial ideas in gentle, relatable ways.

In one story, a child saves up $10 for a gift, only to find the price has increased – an early, non-threatening introduction to the concept of inflation. Others explore topics like patience, generosity, and making choices.

“The original thought was to teach them money literacy,” Lindberg said, “but I realized you can't just teach money without building character.”

Alongside the stories, she encourages simple reflection exercises, like “hero journaling,” where children spend five minutes writing about a moment they helped someone or made a positive decision.

“We’re not just teaching kids about money,” she said. “We’re helping them believe in themselves.”

Preparing kids for a future they can shape

Lindberg isn’t expecting schools to overhaul financial education anytime soon. But she’s hopeful that parents and caregivers will start to see money talk as just as important as reading or nutrition.

By introducing these ideas early – and in ways kids enjoy – families can help shift the default mindset from fear and avoidance to curiosity and confidence.

“The hope definitely lies in our young children,” she said. “Because they don’t know anything. There’s nothing to unlearn.”

And for Lindberg, that’s where real change begins – not with instructions, but with imagination.

Listen to the whole interview on The Crypto Radio's live player or in Guardians of Bitcoin podcast.