---
title: "Following the money: teaching children about money | Elina Lappalainen | Negotiator 218"
titleOriginal: "Rahan jäljillä | Elina Lappalainen | Neuvottelija 218"
episodeNumber: "218"
guest: "Elina Lappalainen"
datePublished: 2023-10-31
duration: "44:50"
youtube: "https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw"
originalLanguage: "fi"
topics: ["free_speech_society","investing_markets"]
subtitleMethod: "none"
provenance: "Owner page assembled from YouTube metadata, the neuvottelija.fi episode record and the publisher's own chapter marks, translated one for one; their spacing is irregular and matches the recording. No transcript is published here — the channel has no English caption track for this episode and the Finnish one is YouTube's automatic track. The episode is a book interview and closes with a discussion of the firewall between journalism and commercial collaboration on a channel that carries both; the long-form write-up in the Neuvottelija AI editions states that."
fiCanonical: "https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/334-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen-neuvottelija-218"
canonical: https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep218-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen/
---
# Following the money: teaching children about money | Elina Lappalainen | Negotiator 218

English subtitles are not available on this page. This is an episode summary, not a curated transcript.

## Chapters

- [00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=0s) Elina Lappalainen: HS Visio, and a career as a children's author
- [01:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=100s) The illustrator Mitja Mikael Malin, and game addiction on both sides
- [02:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=150s) Playtika's reputation as a ruthless acquirer, and games built for recurring billing
- [04:02](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=242s) Lappalainen's other books, and the acquisitions that were good ones
- [05:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=338s) A child's question: which character did you identify with most
- [08:34](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=514s) Lappalainen's youth as an entrepreneur, journalist and photographer in eastern Finland
- [10:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=610s) How to teach children financial responsibility: incentives, pocket money and saving
- [12:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=755s) Fund investing on a child's behalf, and compounding
- [14:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=840s) A child's question: did you have to do background research, and who is the book for
- [15:25](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=925s) A child's question: what is interest
- [16:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=969s) Fact boxes inside the story: the value of money, inflation, deflation and interest
- [16:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=992s) A child's question: what is the difference between entrepreneurship and paid work
- [17:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1075s) A child's question: what does low-paid mean — income differences, unemployment and envy
- [21:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1291s) The book is not political, but it is pro-enterprise
- [22:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1350s) The illustrator's easter eggs in company brands
- [23:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1410s) Cameo characters revealed through the illustration
- [24:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1464s) Children's books should be bought as picture books
- [27:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1620s) Finnish adults are weak at financial skills, but schools now teach them reasonably well
- [30:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=1820s) Nudging toward equity saving: society against parents
- [34:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2083s) Households in focus, and the book's possible blind spots
- [37:32](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2252s) Journalistic economics desks against commercial collaboration
- [41:11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2471s) Media criticism, and the firewalls around content marketing
- [42:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2571s) An MP's Yle-funded podcast
- [43:50](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2630s) Tornihuoneen salaseura – Rahan jäljillä
- [44:15](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw&t=2655s) Inner Circle: how to talk to a financial journalist

## Summary

Growth-company journalist and non-fiction author Elina Lappalainen discusses her children's book Tornihuoneen salaseura – Rahan jäljillä. The episode has an unusual structure: some of the questions were written by the host's child, and they are the best ones in it. There are two surprises in the substance — Finnish teenagers are not weak at financial literacy but near the top of the PISA comparison, and the most important money lesson for a child is not investing but a buffer. It ends with a direct conversation about the firewall between journalism and commercial collaboration, on a channel that does both.

## Two findings that cut against the assumption

Finnish teenagers are near the top of the PISA financial literacy comparison, not the
bottom — the weakness is among adults. And the first lesson worth teaching a child is a
buffer rather than investing, which is an unusual thing to hear on a channel that talks
about index funds most weeks.

## The interviewing lesson

Some of the questions were written by the host's child, and they are the best in the
episode: what is interest, what does low-paid mean, what is the difference between
working for yourself and working for someone else. The adult questions do not reach the
same clarity.


## Watch

The recording lives on the Neuvottelija channel: [Rahan jäljillä | Elina Lappalainen | Neuvottelija 218](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTS23YXVXw).
A Finnish edition of this episode is published at [www.neuvottelija.fi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/fi/episodes/334-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen-neuvottelija-218).

## In depth

The Neuvottelija AI editions carry a long-form write-up of this episode:
[English](https://www.neuvottelija.com/ai/ep218-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen/) · [suomeksi](https://www.neuvottelija.fi/yhteiskunta/ep218-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen/).

---

Cite as: Sami Miettinen, Neuvottelija — Following the money: teaching children about money | Elina Lappalainen | Negotiator 218, https://www.neuvottelija.com/podcast/episodes/ep218-rahan-jaljilla-elina-lappalainen/, 2023-10-31. For quotes include episode 218 and timestamp.