Kids Interested in Financial Concepts?
Last week I spoke to a colleague about ways to keep kids interested in saving money. We talked about our experiences growing up and discovered that both of use did not receive adequate instruction between home and school concerning financial concepts. We compared our stories to the book Rich Dad, Poor Dad, by Robert T. Kiyosaki. I realized that I should make a plan for creating an interest in financial concepts for my children.
Both of us would like to give our kids more instruction and opportunity to invest money rather that spending unscrupulously. Sadly enough (or, should I applaud the marketing efforts of creditors), many young people feel that with credit they have buying power. I watch many kids who take every birthday dollar an spend it up without any thought of making a deposit in a savings account, or making an investment in project that could return even more money than contained in the birthday cards. Most kids fully understand how to empty their wallet and ask for more money when theirs is gone.
A simple idea that came from our conversation was to play Monopoly™ with the kids, while having fun, pointing out the values related to investing. I know it’s a long game, but it does open up a widow for instruction that will have a great return as the experience solidifies the return on investment from owning property. Consider the alternative, I can let a high school economics course be all the financial instruction my kids get. So much more is caught than taught.
Another important financial concept is to teach and show an example of giving and supporting the poor. While dining a man placed a small stack of stickers on our table. The kids were very excited, “Yeah! Stickers!” they hollered as one grabbed the stickers. They were actually high quality stickers and the right brand was offered for our little girls, Strawberry Shortcake®. My older daughter didn’t realize that these were for sale, or available by donation. The restaurant was not in our home town, but in a city where I lived in some time ago, before I was married. It was daylight and I felt it would be a good time to dine; however, I knew that I would need to alert my wife and kids to be aware of their surroundings. Besides, this was perhaps the best Mexican restaurant in all of Southern California. So, I paid the deaf man top dollar for his fancy stickers while explaining our responsibility to help the poor. I think the kids caught the concept, while enjoying great food and learning to be thankful to live in the suburb we call home.
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