Educating Children About Dollars and Sense : Money: Consumer groups, comic books, even summer camps are trying to teach ‘financially illiterate’ youngsters such things as the difference between a compact disc and a CD.

NEW YORK —  Meet Dollar Bill, or Buck, as his cartoon cronies call him, and Small Change and Penny Bright and Not-So-Bright. . . .

Don’t forget the comic book heroes Little Money Bags or Red Cent.

They’re part of a diverse cast of characters that have been popping up in book stands and elsewhere to teach children practical knowledge about money.

Neglected in the schools, the subject is gaining attention among parents and consumer groups worried about the financial education of children. Businesses, recognizing the purchasing power of young people, also have taken an increasing interest in what juveniles know about borrowing and spending.

American children spend at least $50 billion a year on food, clothes and fun--largely with money from after-school jobs or allowances. They play an influential role in how another $40 billion of their parents’ money is spent.

Most know little else about what to do with their money.

“All kids are financially illiterate . . . because many of their parents don’t know how to control their finances,” said Neale S. Godfrey, who heads Children’s Financial Network, a Mountain Lakes, N.J., company that provides educational materials for teaching children about money, including “The Kids’ Money Book.”

The key to raising a financially literate child, Godfrey and other experts say, is to start young.

“You may not realize it, but you’re going to be teaching your children about money from the time they go to the grocery store with you . . . when they’re 2 or 3 years old and sitting in your grocery cart,” said Bonnie Drew, a Houston-based author of two books about kids and cash.

“They will hear your attitudes about money, whether you use coupons or comparison shop or whether you spend freely. . . . They will see all the ads on TV,” she said.

A survey by Liberty Financial Cos., a Boston-based money management concern, seems to confirm that.

It found that 88% of all junior high and high school students questioned said they had learned everything they knew about money from parents, although nearly half said their parents didn’t usually discuss family finances with them.

Drew’s latest book, “Money Skills: 101 Activities to Teach Your Child About Money,” published last year, contains games and activities for parents to teach money skills to children, from preschoolers to adolescents.

Among her suggestions: Encourage grade-school children to hold a neighborhood sale of old toys. “You’ll get the house cleaned up, and the kids will learn valuable lessons about working together and managing money,” she writes. Older children could keep a money diary to track their financial worth through high school.

Godfrey’s book uses cartoon-like characters such as Buck, Penny Bright and Small Change to explain everything from historical facts about money--the Pacific island of Yap had the heaviest monetary unit, weighing more than 500 pounds--to the duties of the Federal Reserve--it’s “like (being) a traffic cop for money.”

“This is an area that has been neglected. But we’re seeing more publications on the subject . . . as advertising directed at children has increased dramatically,” said Jeanne Kiefer, managing editor of Zillions, the kids’ version of Consumer Reports and itself a pioneer in educating children about money.

While the economy has gotten more complicated, Kiefer said, children’s concerns about money have remained the same: They want to know how to earn more and conserve what they have.

That’s no easy task, considering that many adults have been trying vainly to do the same.

With the U.S. personal savings rate among the lowest of industrialized nations, the message most children have been getting is that it’s better to consume than accumulate.

“This is a society that is based on debt. Every youngster has learned that since Day One, that this is the way of life in America,” said Paul Richard, vice president of the National Center for Financial Education, a nonprofit San Diego group that counsels parents and teachers on teaching children about money. The center also distributes educational games and publications, some in comic-book form.

Richard said that each person born today inherits about $40,000 in debt, if the federal budget deficit, liabilities for pensions and social security, and all the debts of state and local governments are factored in.

“Today’s children are not going to have nearly the standard of living we’re enjoying today (because of) . . . the debt that’s built up in their names,” he said.

One way for children to learn about the perils of debt is to differentiate needs, wants and wishes when it comes to spending, Richard said. Teen-agers, for example, may need sneakers for gym. While a less expensive, no-frills pair would do, they may want the latest $300 deluxe model.

Youngsters, at least the older ones, can learn about spending decisions if they are given regular allowances and taught to budget their money, experts say. But most warn against tying pay to regular household chores.

“The day will come when they say, ‘Dad, I don’t need the money this week. Find someone else to do the job,’ ” said Richard.

Richard’s group, along with several businesses and trade organizations, has taken the lead in educating children about money, largely because the nation’s public school system has not.

“Few people are taught the basic financial know-how in the schools that it’s up to the private sector to get the word across,” said Steven L. Sanders, a Philadelphia financial adviser and author of the 24-page booklet “Money Matters for Young Adults,” distributed by Citibank.

Other financial services companies, such as Fidelity Investments and Liberty Financial, publish guides for parents, while some groups and businesses offer special money-related activities for kids.

The Breakers Hotel in Palm Beach, Fla., for example, sponsors a money-management summer camp for children ages 12 to 16. The Securities Industry Foundation for Economic Education in New York offers the Stock Market Game for elementary students and older.

Sanders visits 25 to 30 cities a year, speaking to at least 20,000 high school students. He says most youngsters are hungry for information.

“They know about a compact disc. They hear about this other CD that banks offer, but they don’t know what it is,” Sanders said.