How can I better equip my children to handle money wisely? Here are some money lessons to teach your kids

Let’s discuss simple techniques you can use to raise money-smart kids.

Show Notes:

• My nine-year-old is in debt, and I’m loving it
• Teaching Money Management to a Disorganized Teen
• What I’ve Learned from Teaching Money Management to a Disorganized Teen

Full Transcript:

The Reality of Financial Literacy [00:05-00:45]

Alex: So Anthony, there’s a disconnect between financial literacy and the real world. People have these expectations that you know, a kid is going to grow up to become an adult and the second they become an adult they’re going to know exactly how to handle money, they’re going to know what to do with their finances to become a successful, you know adult in the future.

Anthony: And I think people rely, you know, too much on just the schools that are going to teach them money. Teach kids about money and unfortunately, that’s not happening and we have to stop waiting for that.

Alex: So we kind of have to take the reins into our own hands and Anthony you have three kids of your own. So I’m sure you have stories and principles that you could share in terms of you know, what are you doing to raise your own Money Smart Kids and create a Money Smart Family.

You Don’t Need A Finance Degree to Teach Money [00:55-01:14]

Anthony: Yeah and we have recognized that it’s important to teach our kids financial management. So we’ve been more proactive about that. A lot of people think that what you have to sit down with these lessons or have a finance degree to be able to teach your kids. It’s really about just talking real life with them and helping them through.

Alex: Now you actually had written an article a little while ago talking about Henry and some of the fun financial challenges that you’ve been teaching with him right better learn these lessons now than later in life.

The Power of a Simple Life Lesson [01:18-02:09]

Anthony: Yeah, so we’ll post a link to that. But basically it was a couple years ago. He wanted to buy a video game online said, okay, you know, do you have the money? No, I don’t have money. So I said, ah, I’ll loan you the money and set out this plans for him to learn.

Alex: Your evil master plan to teach him lessons of over a video game.

Anthony: Yeah, I’d rather have them learn it now than later and it was it was basically, you know him learning the perils of having to pay back this money, working for it and charging him interest when he wasn’t quiet on time. Yeah, and you know his whole thing was well, you know interest is terrible like I don’t want to do this again.

Alex: Right but a powerful lesson and I love that story because it doesn’t require some advanced degree or some sit down. Okay, let’s open a book on what interest is… Like he probably wouldn’t even have cared anyways, like this is a real life example. He learned the lesson. It was probably powerful, he’ll remember it for a long time to come but then on the other hand you got you know, your oldest son Jake who as you’ve described as kind of getting someone who like a typical teenage boy, probably a little bit less than organized and still getting them organized and teaching those principles.

Anthony: Gianna our middle child she’s pretty organized and she’s just kind of on top of those types of things but like with Jake, and I have chronicled some of that through blog post is you know him being responsible for certain expenses failure success and really just kind of leading that journey with him and he’s the type of kid where like money just really isn’t all that important to him. Which can be a good thing in itself. But what I’ve noticed over the years is he’s getting ready to graduate high school now is that he really has learned the lessons over time. They have caught him and he does a good job with managing finances.

Financial Education Must Start in The Home [03:05-04:14]

Alex: So again, here’s the thing and we’re seeing it live here. We can’t wait for schools or the government to step in to teach these lessons. It has to start in the home and you really have to embrace that mentality that I as the parent or grandparent or Guardian. Whoever responsible for this child. I need to teach them the principles to raise a Money Smart Kid, but we understand that it can be a little scary.

Anthony: So we started Money Smart Families here at One Degree and we’re really proud of this program that we put together for our clients and it basically provides just a lead in of some curriculum for families to teach their kids and it’s all age-based.

So for example, when a child is getting ready to learn to drive then they have a worksheet that says here are my responsibilities here are the parents responsibilities. It’s about setting expectations when they’re younger. There are lessons on giving, saving, little bit on investing and they’re just very real life simple things. Like my family’s really busy. So these are meant to be just part of everyday life plenty of time to be able to do it and it’s just consistently teaching them these lessons.

Alex: Definitely right just designed to equip and empower parents because like you said and like I said earlier, it’s we understand that these things can be a little bit scary, right? If you don’t have your own financial house in order you might feel like how could I possibly teach this to my child and that’s what we’re going to help you with. That’s why we give you the tools to do this. Year in and year out.

Well, listen, this is something that We’re very passionate about and something that we love to help families with. If you’d like to learn more about this program, you know how we use it in conjunction with your own personal household finances. Give us a call or visit our website. We’d love to talk with you.

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