You can teach these three simple financial lessons to your kids with activities that illustrate the basics of financial planning.

Wendy Marsden had the opportunity to meet with some people in their late teens to answer their questions about finances. This is the letter she wrote them afterward. The thing with being an adult is that you generally have to hear the same information from a couple of different directions before it starts to gel . . . when you encounter these concepts later in the wild you’ll be ready for them to click.