#204 - Raising Money-Smart Kids: Your Ultimate Resource Guide

Anna Sergunina: 00:00:08

Hey, money bosses Anna's here and welcome back to the Money Boss Parent podcast. I am excited for today's episode, because I've been compiling something very cool and interesting that I think a lot of you out there who have kids, and really are interested in changing their experience around money, how they grew up, or going to grow up around money and lessons that you're going to teach them. So I've been putting together a resource that you can adapt to start these conversations with your own family, and also pass it on to anyone you actually know, have kids and want to help them raise those kids that are better equipped to handle those kinds of decisions. So today, we're gonna dive into teaching kids about money, and what financial literacy is offering a toolbox of resources that you and your family and friends can actually use. Now, something to remind you is that just because I have compiled a list of these resources, it is still takes time, it still takes effort and still takes intentional approach. It isn't just looking and grabbing a list of items, and never really never do anything about your own behavior. So if anything I want you to kind of come to this conversation with with those thoughts in mind. Now it's taken me a while to really put this list of resources together, not because it's hard to do that. And over the years, I've I've had an opportunity to, to connect with people read research, hear others share stuff, look at what clients are doing. But I think it really came together for me when I finally hit the face. With my own family aware these conversations began to be happening more often. And they're starting to be more real. So like once the realness of it kicked in. I was like, Alright, I think it's time for this to be really serious. And that's why I want you to think about this subject in the same. And the same matter. Because what I've seen so far, and this is clients that I've worked with is in the past is like where, obviously, right? We're working on their parents finances. And like towards the end of the conversations, it's it sort of comes comes up last, we're like, Well, what resources or ideas or suggestions do you have, where we can start teaching our kids? And I want to flip that for you. I want that to be the first question you ask someone who you think is knowledgeable and can help you. So all right, without preaching any further, let's dive into it, the list is rather long, and I will provide you all of the information that you need. But today, I just want you to kind of listen and observe and see what you can start to adopt in your life. Take it slow, take it fast, wherever you are, I know we're all busy and trying to make sure that this becomes really a habit. And not just another thing that you listen or you read. Alright, a book that I'm currently going through. And it's sitting on my nightstand and flipping and reading pages of it at the moment is from one of my favorite journalists out there. Ron live bird and he is a journalist for New York Times and very famous column called your money. The book that I'm talking about, and it is a fantastic read for parents is called the opposite of spoiled. And so what it offers is more of a practical advice in teaching kids about money, what values can you instill? How do you develop generosity, and so forth. So Ron is a really, really cool writer, he introduces these concepts in a very amenable and approachable way. I've been fortunate enough to this is just a side note, to have an opportunity to actually be quoted by Ron in 2018 for an article that he wrote for New York time. So it was a big deal. I'm not talking about it as it was a big deal, but it really was where I was interviewed by him. And the story was about how financial planning advice can be accessed by anyone. And so he highlighted a lot of associations that offer services like my company and highlighted our firm and so forth. So I'll link a link in the in the show notes if you wanted to check it out. It's just something that I'm really proud of. And so once as you can imagine once Ron wrote another book that I wanted to be part of My hands were on it as soon as I could think of it. So that's a good read for parents just to start, and there's a million books on Amazon, you can go look for a category of kids and money. But I want you to start somewhere. Okay? Number two, what I want you to start to think about is, how can you introduce materials to your kids that they can be looking at that they can be reading, they can be watching, they can be touching, they can be experiencing? I love books, I think this is a great way for small for young kids, small kids young minds to actually absorb the information. So I've put a lot intention in reading books for Liam. And I'll talk later about what we actually do and how we accomplish that. But the book that I actually learned about on one of the guests on my podcast, is a fellow financial planner named Jim DeGaetano. And he wrote a book called Larry the bunny saves his money. Oh, my God, it's so when I had an interview with Jim, two years ago, Liam was still quite literal, to start to introduce this concept of how do you learn about, you know, the pay? And how do you start introduce the concepts of taxes? And how do you save 20%. And so it's really interesting, simple book. But as as he gotten to be older, and I started reading it, as soon as I heard Jim talk about it on our interview, and it's been kind of hanging out on his shelf. And from time to time, I would pull it out and celebrate the story. And it's just really magically picked up and a lot, a lot of speed lately. And so he's been sort of reciting this in the back of his head, like, Larry, the money saves us money, he saves two carrots after he gets paid. Then he puts the next two carrots for his house. So it is just amazing. And again, very simple, simple concepts, start to introduce the Save the spend, you know, enjoy your money later. So I will also have that link for you. For you as well. I know that some of you may want to find other resources that help you use technology. And I have a couple ideas to my friend Dee from Kids Money Academy is a mom of two kids who put a lot of awesome, cool training resources, practical and down to earth ideas about how do you educate kids about money. So check out Kids Money Academy, she has a really big following on Instagram, and I love watching her videos. But also Her website is a true overwhelming resource of stuff that parents can start to look into. And how do you start having these conversations with kids? Now one of the things I learned from deep as well on our podcast interview is like, here's, here's the age appropriate type of resources that you can start to introduce. And so as she is she's going through the phase of raising her two kids as well. It's really awesome to watch somebody who is actually practicing what they preach. Now, as far as technology go, and I know we live in digital age, there are a ton of fantastic apps out there that kids can start to use and understand. I'm pretty sure and this is a side side note as well. But Liam mentioned or asked or begging more, I think then asked lately is like what am I going to have my own iPhone? And I really actually do not have an answer for that question. Because in my mind, that didn't exist when I was four and a half years old. So I wasn't asking my parents for an iPhone. Maybe you have an idea how to answer that question. Anyway. But the kids still live in the digital age. So a couple of suggestions here. I love and I've done all episodes on this topic as well. I love the idea of having an allowance because in my head that really starts to introduce ideas of being responsible, working hard for your money, and starting to actually practice what do you actually do with that money once you get it.

Anna Sergunina: 00:09:26

Now some parents love the idea of just given an allowance and a certain amount every week. Others like the idea to introduce chores, activities and responsibilities, whatever your preferences is great either way, this is just a tool so an app called I allowance would be a great choice. And so you download it on your you can have it on your phone and you can also put it on your kids device, whether it's an iPad, iPhone, or whatever else you have. And so it first of all allows you to manage their allowance and so then you can assign whatever tasks they're doing. If they are and they it's very visual, it can start to introduce these ideas of like that I was just talking about simply saving, spending and giving, it's all digital, it's really easy to use kind of like, you know, swipe and slide from one screen to another, and you can get the whole family involved. Now, for kids that are a little bit older, something called bankaroo, B, A N, K. A. R. O. O. Bankaroo, it's a virtual bank. Now, I think this is definitely for older kids. But it's a really safe environment to learn the value of money, the budgeting, how do you save for goals? How do you become responsible for with the saving? And as money comes in? And you starting to earn it? Like what do you actually do with it. And so it's really, it's like a virtual finances all in one spot. So I would probably not a four, four and a half year old resource, but I really been hearing a lot of good reviews on it. Now, there are a ton of different board games or games altogether that you can start to introduce, if you want to kiss stay away from screen now parents to you cannot go wrong with monopoly monopoly, Jr. And there are lots of different themes like one I got for Liam is Spidey in France, and there's Disney characters and Nemo. And so it teaches kids about buying, selling and how do you manage money. So we've all played Monopoly in the past, and I think it's one of those games that board games that you should have. At home. I also researched and found this one called Lake Shore Allowance game. Now again, going back to how do you want to teach the actual money concepts to kids and I am very big supporter of the fact that if you have an opportunity to touch and practice, like, so if you have real money that the kids can handle like coins and dollar bills, this game really allows for that, too. Now, of course, these are not real dollars and coins, but the concepts can be practice. So they they can, you know, there's a there's boards that they set up and the same thing, like they go through collectible coins, doing chores, and they deciding how they want to spend their earnings, where it's all going. So it's a little bit more of a you know, game, but still kind of reinforces those same concepts. I've put something really exciting together as well. As you can imagine, over the last three years, I've had a lot of different guests on my podcast. And it seems like this topic keeps coming up, right, because we're are focusing on families and working on all kinds of ideas and resources in what what else is out there. So I put together a playlist of all of the top podcasts that would be really useful for you to listen through. And actually the two of the podcast guests I mentioned, Dee and Jim are part of that resource list. Now for that, you will have to reach out to me directly. And I'm happy to share that my playlists link with you. But it called Coins and Kids playlists. And so it's a collection of all the episodes that are designed to help you as a parent to have these tools. And one of one of the few favorites. I think all of them are my favorite but one in particular, actually, to where we do talk about allowance. And we get in a lot of details there. And then which savings accounts do you actually set up for you kids savings and investment account. So I would love for you to get your hands on this playlist. And just it's a private podcast playlist that you can listen to on your own at any time. And I feel like all of those episodes are like evergreen that never go out of style. Now I want to take a little pivot here and just maybe share some ideas with you as to how you can help. If you have kids that are at Liam's age. I call them young learners, right? Like this is like the early four year olds, and so forth. And this is actually one of those interesting concepts that I learned from Dee, in our conversations. And when she started kids money Academy was that's the age where kids are starting to comprehend a lot more not just money questions, but just you know, life questions. And so age four is, is probably a good age to begin having these conversations. Now, when Liam was three I thought well, you know, I can start now but some of this stuff was not resonating even just like a simple. I simple thing is reading a book that talked about some of these money concepts. So these ideas that I was really looking at what do we do as a family? What kind of activities, intentionally or unintentionally, are happening that are, you know, are really worth noting. So here are just a few. First one is like a classic piggy bank, I know that all of you parents out there probably have one or you've gotten one when your child was born, I certainly have, and it has his cute name on it. And then we've gotten one later on as well. And so ours kind of sat on the shelf empty for a while until the idea was introduced, that you can start dropping coins and dollar bills into that. I think it's I think it's a good practice. Because it encourages the kids to save a portion of you know, if the money if they already have some, if they're starting to get into the into the chores around house, it gives them like this opportunity to touch and feel. So it's like a really tangible, the practical way to introduce the idea of saving the money. I haven't really gotten into the hardware we talk about, how do we take money out of the piggy bank, I mean, he knows like, there's way to open it. But it hasn't quite happened yet. So stay tuned for that. Okay, my next idea is, and I've bought two of these myself, just because they thought it was fun and engaging. But toy cash registers, I noticed that about two is because I bought one. And he was, you know, he wasn't old enough to really get a hang of it. And so it got broken. So I had to buy another one because I thought it was I still think it's a great tool. Now there are we start to like, you know, play the the whole idea of a pretend store, or it was actually his was cash register with a farmers market calendar. So he was selling, you know, groceries and all of that stuff. And I was the customer. And so it introduces the basic idea of counting things, exchange of money. And these toy cash registers are crazy. They had actual credit cards, so they had all of the technology built in and they have the actual monies, you can use the coins and and dollars, obviously, they're all fake, but or pretend. And then they also had a credit card and coupons and all kinds of stuff. And the thing is like, you take your kids with you to the grocery store, wherever you go, they are watching. They know it's like it's like it's an intuitive practice, that when they do sit down to actually play and imitate all of this, it's like, wow, how do you know these things? And so I think it's a really useful tool. And so if you make an A list of gifts that you may want to add to your Christmas shopping list, I think this would be a really, really cool item to do. And so something along those lines that go goes with the cash register would be like a fart Farmers Market calendar or if you have a little lemonade stand, right? I mean, we can talk about lemonade stand in a whole other episode. But it's still teaches kids, how do you come up with, you know, money? Where does it come from? How do you exchange goods for for those services or products. And so I think it's a really fun, fun way to introduce that. Now, I do want to talk about this, this this piece to it because it's, I think I think a lot of you can benefit from it. But how do you create a system for allowance for your child, I've been really researching this topic.

Anna Sergunina: 00:18:31

And I mentioned already that I had did a couple of other podcasts interviews. But I think starting with the simple simple system, and I'll link in the show notes as well for you a few of my resource favorite resources. Now Amazon has has these four plastic jars, they're like these little canning jars, they're plastic, and that's why I love them because we don't have to worry about them breaking that you can add you can attach labels, we only really need three but comes on pack of four, you can have spend, save in gifts, you have three jars that you can introduce to your child. And as as the idea of earning money starts to sink more in there really are getting them getting the actual money. And this is this is where you can try both I mentioned there's an online app and resource and you can actually have real tangible dollars in coins. They can have those in your in their room. And I will share the labels with you as well. That you can change you know like sometimes you can have them set around Christmas holidays or birthday or whatever theme like the ones I have are Spiderman Superheroes and then like Disney princesses, so whatever whatever theme you may like they're all out there. But I like this idea because it again it's like I see what Liam we're it's, it becomes like more of a habit. For him to, to check and see what's happening or like, we had to head out to the stores, like, can I bring my jars? You know, with me or my jar? Just one right? The one he wants to spend money on? And also teaching generosity? Like how do you start to introduce that concept? So we haven't we just we just like lightly touched on it. He's, he's still experimenting with setting them up. But I am kind of taken further on. It's like, okay, let's talk about how do you give something that you have, how do you, you know, allocate for the giving, and, and, and so forth. So figuring out what your system would be like whether he earns, he or she earns the money, or it's given to them now, and there, you have to go back and search for some for some episodes to talk about that loans. But one, one tip I have for you today, if you're don't want to have chores as part of your household. One easy way to kind of figure out how much allowance to give would be to look at the age of your child. And so like in the case of my son, he's four, okay, four and a half. So that's probably as much as I would give him every week. So if he gets $4, every week, now when he turns five, then I'll increase his allowance to $5. Now, I personally liked the idea of doing chores. So we kind of starting with that, but I don't know, we'll see. Maybe when he gets older, that could change for him somewhat. I mentioned things like involving your kids in going shopping, and you know, bringing them in on you know, on the journey with you. I know Liam actually loves to come with me because he gets to sit in a cart. And then so you know, he knows every pretty much everything we buy, because he sees what we grab from the shelves, he has his favorite items, what started to come up out of that, too, is like when we get home, he starts to help to unpack, you know, all the groceries and what goes in the fridge, what goes into, into the pantry, at the same time, like when we pay for the groceries, can I you know, he's asking if he can do the credit card. So like these practices are really good ways to start teaching these concepts. And the one tool that I think has all the power in the world is telling stories. So what kinds of stories or examples can you teach as you go through your day? Like I'm a big believer that that there should be a lot of transparency with families. I know it's hard to explain these concepts to younger kids. But think about as they get older. How would you want to have a conversation with with them. And so Yuri and I are very intentional about right now talking about our days and really like, I mean, as simple as having your kids understand what it is that you do to earn your money. Like Liam was just telling you everybody school that mommy just goes to the office, and that's her work. But I you know, I sat down with him one day and said, Do you know what I actually do? And why do I go to the office? Because he knows I have an office, he's come to my office, but how does the connection between what you do and the money that shows up in your bank account? Or, you know, in your wallet? How would that make your kids understand, you know, the overall theme, so I think it's probably the best way for you to have any impact onto these conversations. And I know for some of us, it may not be the way you were brought up, like my parents didn't talk about money, my parents were focused on making sure that we can survive in that's, that's amazing, right forever grateful for that. But these conversations in practices definitely can be different if you put all the intentions in the world so I am excited because I think this is just like the tip of the iceberg of what we can talk about how we can really put all of this together and it's like I see as like as a phase as as I personally go and you're kind of hanging out with me as we go through this phase and our kids grow more ideas will start to be introduced more resources will show up and I would love to hear from from you feedback on what are you using what what works for you. Maybe you've tried some of these things already. And if there's more stuff out there, please I'm all ears because I am really like it's if anything like my mission is to work with people and help them you know, at the very basic like, let's make sure you have your financial ducks in a row. But I feel like if we can make the most if we want to make the most impact. It is definitely impacting the younger generation and how and what they learn about money at the very early age. That's all my friends for today. Let's wrap it up. I hope that you found this useful shared with anyone you think it would be helpful and until next time. Remember, you are the bosses of your own money.

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