DO YOU TEACH YOUR KIDS ABOUT MONEY?

Do you teach your kids about money? Im 43 years old and Im just now learning about money. Why is it after 12 years of grade school and four years of university that Im so ill equipped to deal with money? Its because Ive never learned. Ive never learned because no one ever taught me.

I simply followed the example my parents laid out thinking it was the only way (which occurs all through our adult life in many different areas).

Why is it I had months of learning about math and chemistry and world history but no education on finances? Why don’t we teach kids some basics about budgeting or the power of the one object they will spend their lives working for and possibly worrying about? Lets teach our kids about money.

Why do we have these old paradigms like: “Money is the root of all evil!” ?

I for one think that’s super stupid! Money is an inanimate object. Why don’t we instead say human greed is the root of all evil? This is really what that quote means. Why instead do we blame an inanimate object? Doesnt money pay for things like hospitals?

I believe that these types of negative sound bites coupled with the lack of education creates negative attitudes toward money. So I want to teach my kids about money.

That’s why I want to teach my kids what Im just learning now as it relates to what I consider the most important “object” in the world (this is not the same as being the most important thing in the world).

3 THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH MONEY

Im teaching my daughter that we can do 3 things with money.

We can save it. This is sort of like putting it to bed. Its in her piggy bank just sitting there

We can spend it! arguably the most fun you can have with money perhaps because we are taught from a young age how to be consumers

Lastly we can put money to work. This begins our current grade 1 money building project.

 

Before diving into this I need to thank my buddy Nathan Munro for suggesting this project. He actually said we should start showing kids how to grow money from kindergarten to grade 12. We are starting with grade 1.

My daughter understands that money can be saved and spent. Educating her on money making more money was more difficult. So I started with the example of a lemonade stand. You buy some lemonade for $1 and sell it for $2 you have more money. This she understood

 

 

SHE DECIDED ON A BUSINESS

So I asked her how she would like to make more money. She cam up with a cupcake business! This should be no surprise as her mom is a wonderful baker and the proud owner of the Incredible Cakery. I gave her $5 as her seed money and we were off.

 

We started by figuring out the cost of a recipe. As she didn’t understand why she had to pay her $5 for the ingredients that we already had at home. So I set up a “store” on our kitchen table and she had to “shop” for what she needed. She spent her $5.

 

She then had to use some math and reading skills to make 12 cupcakes. She did all the work except with the oven. She then decorated her cupcakes. Next she made a list of people to sell them too. We decided that $2/cupcake was a fair price for most people to pay. We immediately hit up the neighbors who bought 6 cupcakes.

 

SHE CALLED HER CUSTOMERS

She then called her grandparents. This is where the unexpected happened. She had a little pitch that we practiced and at the end grandma ordered 18 cupcakes! Her aunt bought 12! Her other grandparents bought another 12! Another aunt bought 6 more! She has currently sold 4.5 dozen cupcakes in just over 1 week!

She has decided that she would like to re invest some of her money into making Christmas ornaments. I want to offer her options and let her decide for herself. We will repeat this process until the end of the school year then we will talk about what to save and what can be spent. Perhaps we will then learn about banks, or stocks.

 

We have talked about a goal that she can be excited to obtain. the goal currently involves some shiny plastic from Toys r us. Whatever she picks is up to her. I have added the wrinkle that she needs to save half of what she makes therefore needs to make double the price of her target item. Stay tuned! I hope this inspires you to teach your kids about money.