Source: Hayley Brooks and Jeff Brooks
- ‘The A to Z of Money’ was co-written by father daughter duo Hayley Brooks and the late Jeff Brooks
- The book won Bronze in the People’s Choice – Product 2025 category at the 2025 AusMumpreneur Awards.
- Research commissioned by the Ecstra Foundation found that 57 per cent of parents said their child was not learning about money concepts at school
With Australian parents and teachers overwhelmingly calling for greater financial education in schools, father-and-daughter authors Hayley Brooks and the late Jeff Brooks wanted to help children get a head start with their award-winning book, The A-Z of Money.
Designed as a simple and engaging introduction to finance for young children, The A-Z of Money takes readers through the fundamentals of money and entrepreneurship in an accessible format aimed at what its creators call the next generation of “tiny entrepreneurs”.
Illustrated by Trent Lambert, the book addresses increasing concern about how well Australian children are being prepared to manage money.
Research commissioned by the Ecstra Foundation and conducted by YouGov in March 2025 surveyed 2,123 Australian teachers, parents and students. It found 98 per cent of teachers and 97 per cent of parents agreed financial education should be taught in schools. Yet 57 per cent of parents said their child was either not learning about money concepts at school, or they did not know whether they were.
The same research found 95 per cent of teachers, 98 per cent of parents and 93 per cent of students believe learning about money and finance is important.
Almost three-quarters of teachers and more than two-thirds of parents also said financial education had become even more important over the previous 12 months amid cost-of-living pressures, inflation and economic uncertainty, increasingly complex financial systems, digital transactions, and the influence of social media.
The father-daughter team recognised a gap in children’s financial education and wanted to create a resource that could introduce financial concepts early, long before children ever have to make decisions about spending, saving, and managing money.
Hayley brought a different generational perspective to the project. Her career in real estate and experience building her own property portfolio reinforced the value of understanding money and investing from an early age.
Says Hayley, “Financial literacy is one of those life skills that can have an enormous impact on a person’s future, yet too many people don’t start learning about money until they’re already having to make important financial decisions.”
“We wanted to help change that by making conversations about money simple, engaging and accessible for children from an early age.”
Published by Little Steps Publishing, the 56-page children’s book is aimed at children aged three and over and uses an A-to-Z format to introduce the basics of finance.
The A-Z of Money is available on Amazon Australia.