This paper departs from Westheimer & Kahne’s (2004) three citizen conceptions and investigates students understanding of an individual’s financial situation in terms of responsibilities, agency and societal change. In line with calls from previous research, it aims to discuss what kind of teaching is required to enable students to critically review financial issues in a way that is in accordance with a broad definition of citizenship. The data consist of 97 accounts collected in collaboration with teachers where students discuss who ‘should’ be responsible (cf. Davies & Lundholm, 2012). Findings demonstrate that students’ understandings correspond with the three conceptions and give important indications what needs to be included in teaching in order to address financial issues as citizenship education.