She's On The Money - Teaching Kids About Money

Episode Date: September 14, 2021

A highly requested and SUPER informative ep by the money queens V + G themselves - plus input from our community. This episode truly has it all! We mentioned in this episode some resources for your littlies, which can be found here https://moneysmart.gov.au/teaching-kids-about-money and here https://helpkidslearnaboutmoney.com.au/The advice shared on She’s on The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She’s on The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. Victoria Devine is an Authorised Representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management Proprietary Limited ABN 34 132 463 257 - AFSL 339151.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. Hello and welcome to She's on the money, the podcast for millennials who want financial freedom. As we've learned over the journey of this podcast, our money stories are largely influenced by the way we were brought up and by the example that was set for us by our parents. Maybe they were tied on cash, so we've learned to become really good savers. Or maybe we had everything handed to us growing up, so we've never really understood the value

of money. No matter your story, it's really hard to deny that the people who brought us up play a huge part in our relationship with finance. So, how can we teach our kids about money so they understand the basics before they're out in the real world? My name is Georgia King, and joining me to help answer these questions and plenty more is financial advisor, Victoria Devine. V, hello.

Hi, Toll. Why is it so important that we make an effort to teach our kids about money before they're all grown up? Because I said so. No, it's super important to be teaching our kids about money because that's where our money story comes from. Our money story, and I've said this on the podcast and I'm sure it'll come up a lot in this episode, our money story starts to solidify at the age of seven, which means we need to be learning about money far before school, far before we actually start using money and start

actually earning it ourselves. So it makes a lot of sense that if you're a parent or you're in charge of some children, you start teaching them good money habits young because they usually start in the home. So it's one of those things where, you know, it's a little bit fickle and there's no such thing as right or wrong when it comes to money. And I'm sure we'll get into the grand debate of pocket money very shortly, Georgia. But at the end of the day, unfortunately, our money story starts before we get to school. And then on top of that, I believe that the school system is letting us down when it comes to teaching us holistically about money. So it kind of falls back onto us to do that job. For anyone brand new to the podcast feed,

can you just give us a little refresher on what money stories actually are? So money stories are the thoughts, the values, the beliefs, and the behaviors that you hold to be true around money. So these are the things that have been ingrained in you since the very beginning. So if you grew up in a family where money was really tight, maybe you get a little bit of a sick feeling in the bottom of your stomach every single time someone mentions money or splitting the bill. But if you grew up in a family where money was in abundance, maybe you've never worried about money and you slipped really easily into debt because you grew up with credit cards around you. They're really easy to use. You just tap and go, right?

Like there's no form of repercussion around that. So money stories are the things that are ingrained in us. And they are made up of, as I said, the thoughts, the values, the beliefs, and the behaviors. But when it comes to money stories, your beliefs and your values are two very different things. So your beliefs are the things that are ingrained in you and you've grown up with, and you might believe that money is evil, or you might believe that money is inherently bad, but your value around money is creating wealth. So therefore there's a bit of a disconnect in your beliefs and then your values because you value creating wealth and investing, and you really want to do that. But inherently you feel a little bit sick about money because

your belief underlyingly is that money is bad and investing is bad. And it might be related to greed. So we really need to work through these two things and actually be able to separate them out and understand where our beliefs have come from and challenge our own beliefs to say, Georgia, that belief you hold, is it actually true? And if it is true, is it something that helps you grow? What are we actually aiming for here? And a lot of this is going to be picked up in early childhood. So it's not something we choose. It's not ever our fault, but our money story is ingrained. But the thing that is really cool about money stories is that you can change them. So, we can't change the past, but we sure as hell, we can change the future and we can create

the money story that we want to align to. So, for me, that's why talking about money with kids and talking about it from the very beginning is so important. So, from an overarching perspective then, Vee, what would you say the main money lessons that we should be imparting on our kids are. So first things first, I think the value of money and all of the things that I'm going to say right now are going to be a lot easier said than they are done. Because as much as you can say, oh, it's so important to teach your kids about the value of money. Okay, how? Like that is something that is so hard. And it's also so hard in an economy where in 2021, everything is card based. We aren't really a cash society like historically we were. Whereas, you know, I'm not

that old I don't think I mean a lot of our listeners would probably look at me and be like oh my gosh 30 she is ancient but that is not the case at all but I remember when I was younger and we're on school holidays and mum would give us like two dollars and we'd get two dollars each my sister and I and we go down to the shops in Tassie and we get two dollars worth of hot chips together and then we'd go halves because that was dollar each for hot chips and then we'd have a dollar for lollies and I mean we probably didn't get as many lollies as my parents got if they ever had a dollar to spend at the shops. But at the end of the day, I remember learning the value of money and what it could get for me. And the fact that I could exchange money for goods or

services. And for me, that was a really big part of my life. And as time goes on, I started to learn the value of, you know, saving up for a top that I really wanted from Supray, which had like the OC on it. Yeah, it was iconic. And I really wanted those big belts. Like, do you remember the like, they were made of stretchy material. They were horrendous. They were heinous, but they were heinous starting at the time. Stunning, like supreme. I would wear them to the roller disco, but I started to learn the value of money because I realized it could help me get the things that I wanted. But it's really hard to teach kids about the value of money now, because again, it's just tap. So we need to be a little bit more creative. We need to be able to start to

impart these things on a more regular and ongoing basis. I think another thing that is really important to teach kids is budgeting and what that actually means and not teaching them that it is something that restricts us, but rather something that helps us align our values and our goals to what we're trying to achieve. So maybe that is sharing with the kids what grocery shopping looks like, and this is the budget we have, and how are we going to allocate that? And can we actually get these snacks? Are they in budget or are they not? It's not necessarily about teaching kids that we can't afford that. And I mean, that's a really valid lesson as well. But at the end of the day, usually a budget is not about we can't afford that, but rather we're not prioritizing

that and why, and what are we prioritizing over that? And I might say to you, Georgia, those fancy snacks are not actually in our budget at the moment. Cause remember, we were really trying to save to go on that family holiday to the beach in a couple of weeks. Like, don't forget like if we save the money now we're going to be able to do a few more fun things on that trip together and I think it's about really explaining to kids what that means because as a child and as someone who doesn't fully comprehend the value of money they're going well why not why are you personally stopping me from getting something I want and it's not about that it's actually about them understanding how money works and teaching them about gratification and what

delayed gratification could look like, because that's the thing that's actually going to serve them well into the future. I think also work ethic comes into this as well. When you're talking about saving and budgeting and money, explaining to them where money comes from, the fact that you worked really hard for that and that you are trading your time for money. And I think that that's why I'm such a positive advocate of pocket money. And I know that it's a very topical conversation because some people don't believe in it. Some people do. Whereas I'm more of the opinion that you do need to give kids a level of responsibility so that they can learn how to save themselves and they can learn how to earn money, whether that's, you know, a set amount of chores

or a set amount of things, or maybe there's a certain amount that you pay them to wash your car. But I do believe very inherently that pocket money is an exchange. It's not paying your kids to exist. It's not paying them because they should have their own income. It's paying them because they might be doing something. And I think it needs to be something, again, this is all very personal opinion and I'm not someone who has kids yet. So who knows, maybe in a few years when I have kids, this will go out the window and my opinions will change. But I think it's also not about contributing to the household in general. So like Georgia, if you and I live together, I would fully expect you to be contributing to the household. Like we used the dishwasher

it together. So we have to empty the dishwasher together. It's above and beyond tasks that are potentially rewarded with pocket money, if that makes sense. I don't want to pay you to do something you should have been helping me with anyway. I think the final thing I really want to impart on the younger generation or children is credit and what that means and not just teaching them that credit is good, but rather the fact that it's not just a free money tip. It is actually something that you're delaying and there's you know implications of that so teaching them the value of saving for things and wanting them as opposed to instant gratification and I just feel like not enough children and young people are taught about the dangers of credit and going

into debt and what that actually means for their financial future because also it's very hard to teach someone about a financial future when they've never had any emotive response to finances before like Georgia I could sit you down when you were like 12 and try and explain all these things and how dangerous it is and it's kind of like cool mom I'll hold your hand while I cross the road if that's the rules like they just don't care as much because they've never had to comprehend what that might mean and I think that for us as adults is really hard to comprehend because for us it's often a really emotional conversation because we've been through that whereas a kid's kind of like, okay, can I have my pocket money? Um, and I think that getting through that it's okay,

but we really need to be ingraining those things from the very beginning, not sitting them down and being like, okay, cool. It's time to talk budgeting. Okay. So the main lessons we've got the value of money, how to save and budget, how to work hard and how credit works. So those are the lessons we want to instill in our kids. How do we actually, how do we teach them oh my gosh there are so many different ways to teach kids about money but probably the most important thing to do is highlight that kids are little sponges and they are very likely to follow what their parents do and as you said Georgia in our very elaborate introduction today for this podcast money stories are so often informed by the way

that we're brought up and you cannot you literally cannot underestimate the influence that you can to have on your kids. Like at the end of the day, as I said, they are tiny little sponges and they are going to soak up your values, your beliefs, the things that you want to do, whether they are good or bad, they're going to take on your tone of voice. They are going to take on the things that you hold to be true. So I think the hardest thing about this and teaching your kids about money is actually the confrontational piece. That means, hey, gee, if you're going to teach your future kids about money, you've got to be pretty comfortable with it yourself. You need to be on top of your budget. You need to be on top of your cashflow. You've got to be comfortable

teaching this because if you're inherently not doing the right thing for you, how are you going to impart on somebody else these values that you hold to be so important? So Georgia, with all of that in mind, I think the most important thing here is to just be really conscious of your personal behaviors around money. And remember that little people and their little eyes are literally always watching and that your actions are often speaking louder than your words are. So you could tell someone, Hey Georgia, like it's really important to budget. But then if you're not doing that yourself, you're not exactly showing them how to model that behavior. Like you are not showing them that those are the right steps to be taking. You're saying one thing and doing another.

And I promise kids do really pick up on that. So as kids get older and have more comprehension of money and how it actually works on a base level, you could actually start involving them in your money management, which can be really confronting because as I said before, involving somebody else in your money management is only going to be something that you're comfortable with. If you are comfortable with your own money management at the beginning, whereas if you're spiraling out of control. The last thing you need is a 13 to 16 year old coming in and being like, what are you doing with your money? Like I would simply pass away. So I think the most important thing here is really understanding yourself and your money story so that you can start to pass that down

a generation, which is actually really special. And when I say involve them in your money management, that could mean a number of things. So it could just be the money conversations around the dinner table that you're going to start having. It could also be involving them in grocery shopping. And I say this a lot because it's actually a really easy way to segment a part of money management off from the bigger picture that has a number of different complex decisions that need to be made while still having a more restricted budget. If you were my daughter, I might go, all right, Georgia, like I'd love for you to help me with the money management around the supermarket. And then you've got to make decisions around how we allocate that. So

we're not talking about just going and buying food. We're like, okay, have we got breakfast, lunches and dinners if kids go to school have we got stuff for school lunch boxes if we're having dinners has everybody's dietary needs been taken into consideration you are now going to realize very quickly how expensive meat is so how much of our budget are we going to allocate towards that and you know are we going to have a fancy takeaway dinner maybe once a week or is that actually not something that's within our budget do we need to do that once every two weeks so grocery shopping as much as it's a simple task for an adult more often than not, it's actually more of a complex process for a child or an adolescent who maybe has never experienced that and never comprehended

how much a piece of roast is. And so for me, I think that that's a really powerful thing, but also when you're doing that, you need to be really open to their insights and their feedback. So not just telling them how you're doing it. Maybe they could come up with a creative idea to lower the budget. Maybe they're going to suggest, oh, well, actually, mom, I've been thinking we could do like a meat-free Monday. And on Mondays we do like meat-free tacos. I think that that could be a really creative way for them to get involved, but also feel like they're having an impact. And it's so important to make sure that if you're going to involve your children in the money management of your home, you're not just doing it at a token level. I feel like that's

a really hands-on way of getting the kids involved as well and it also kind of teaches them how marketing works as well like when you're in the supermarket and there's all the sales on some you can definitely take advantage of if that's something you were going to buy anyway but you can also learn how to resist those sales and resist putting the two dollar chips in the basket because that's actually a marketing tool yeah back on to some tips about money management with kids, if you're comfortable with it and you want to involve your kids in resetting your family budget as a whole, I think it's really constructive to sit your kids down and teach them about your budget and get them involved in the drawing up process of your budget and what income looks like

versus what expenses look like. That is absolutely not for everybody. And that's why I'm always such a big advocate of the grocery shopping part, because it's such a non-confrontational way of teaching money management. But at the same time, I think it's just so important for kids to understand money management as a whole. And let's be honest, the best way to do that is to actually get into the nitty gritty of it and explain, hey, this is how much it costs to keep the lights on. This is why your dad yells at you about the heater being on and that you need to just put another pair of socks on. Like when I was young, I just had no comprehension of what that meant, except for quote, the electricity bill was expensive. So I think really getting kids

to understand what that means and how that works. That's going to be really constructive for them in the long term. And then I guess to add onto that, when we're talking about things like electricity and gas bills, if you're reviewing a bill, show your children the bills and explain how essential items like this need to be paid and how you do it and what that process looks like and how you actually go and review a better deal. Where do you look for that? Why would you look for that? I promise you children will be so much more interested than you think they'll be and it's for exactly the same reasons a child likes to not play with their toys and they're really interested in your makeup as opposed to you know what they've got in front of you they just have

a yearning for learning I think it's really important to embrace that as well so in terms of being a little bit more hands-on especially for the younger kids having piggy banks is a really good ideas so that they can pop their pocket money or their tooth fairy money or coins that they've found in there and actually have a tangible way of tracking those. And as I said before, credit cards, we want to start education on this really early. So explaining how cards work, debit cards, credit cards, all of the cards work. And in the age of tap and go, it's just so much harder for us to grasp the concept of money and the value of money, let alone for small kids who have potentially never seen you take money out to pay for groceries from the ATM. So teaching

them about cash and how cards work and what that balance looks like is really important. How do you do that, VD? Because Hayley in our group actually asked about this. She's in a completely digital household, as most of us are. If you don't have cash, how do you teach your kids? So I think it goes back to really explaining to them what mum and dad go to work for, or what mom and mom, or dad and dad, or just dad, or just mom goes to work for. Why do you go to work? To earn an income. And why do we need an income? And what does that mean? And how does that work? And explaining to them maybe, hey, mom does the budgeting, and this is how we filter our money. And on this card is about $300. So when we are going to the grocery shops, we want to make

sure that all of our groceries come to below that. Otherwise, we're not going to be able to pay for them. So I think teaching kids about the transaction and about what that means and what actually sits behind it is really important. And don't be afraid to go back to a money system. Don't be afraid to go, you know, aren't we completely digital? Yes, it is a little bit harder because you're going to have to get some cash out. And the worst thing ever is when you go to an ATM, you're going to have to get cash out and it's always notes. You're not able to get change out. Like it's, it's just a bit of a fickle process, but I promise you that paying your kids in cash and actually teaching them that way is going to be far more constructive. Again there

are a number of banks that have kids debit cards so you could absolutely do that and teach them about the balance on that and what is being contributed to that and how that works and how they can check their balances I think could also be really helpful. Do you know how old you need to be to have a debit card as a child? So there are lots of different options I know there's a company called Zap. And also another option is Spriggy, which is essentially just a pocket money card. And kids from the age of six to 17 can have those. It's going to be always managed by a parent at an upholding level, because obviously they don't have complete transactional authority. But at the end of the day, there are really specific cards that you can get to teach kids

about money. And they actually often have apps that go along with them so that kids can start looking at their balances and seeing what's going on. But still, as a parent, it gives you the ultimate authority, which is quite nice. So you can always do that. I think there's a lot of different options. And to be honest, every family does money differently. So not every option is going to fit your circumstances. But if Hayley wants to start teaching her kids about money and not actually do the cash thing, going and getting a card like a Spriggy card could be a really great way about going about it so that their pocket money can go onto there and they can start tracking that and understanding what is there and comprehending how to spend and save and donate

that. So I think that that's another really important point as well, because we're not just spending, we're not just saving. There are actually a lot of different buckets we need kids to consider because as life goes on, it's not always just about saving your pocket money. Like we might save a certain percentage. We might donate a certain percentage. We might want to actually start teaching our kids what investing means, but then also teaching them what they can spend so that when they do become an adult, they don't have that guilt associated with spending money. Okay. You mentioned pocket money there. And it has come up a few times already today. Are you a fan or not? Okay, cool. Tell me why. Massive fan. Everybody does this

differently. And I don't want you to think that because I'm a financial advisor, this is the right way. Again, every family does money differently. I think from my perspective, it is a really great tool that children have to work for. And then they're rewarded for the work that they're doing as you would in the quote real world. I've seen lots of different examples of the ways families allocate money and allocate pocket money. And, you know, all the way from people just giving their kids a certain amount per week to, you know, people going, all right, well, if you do your chores, you will get that to people going, you know what, it's only extracurricular activities. So if you go and wash my car, for example, then I will pay you to do that. And there's no set

pocket money. And then I've also heard of families and I have a client that does this, that pays their child a certain amount per week to go to school. So I'm not saying that that's a lot of money by any stretch of the imagination. I think that they get like, maybe it's like, it does seem like a lot of money actually. Their kid is a teenager and they get $50 a week. But the way that this family has decided to teach their child about money is mom and dad go to work to earn money. And your job right now as a teenager is to go to school and earn money and get good grades. And that is your job as a teenager. So we will pay you to do that job so that you can still enjoy life on the weekends and not do that. That is obviously something

that's not going to be financially accessible for a lot of people, but I can see where they're going with it. And their child seems to be really receptive to the fact that they're like, okay, cool. I'm going to treat my school as a job. Mom and dad go to work every day. I go to school every day and I get paid. If they don't go to school, they don't get paid. If they don't have good performance, i.e. good grades, they don't get paid, which makes sense because the real world's a bit like that. So, you know what, each to their own. And at the end of the day, like I grew up with pocket money, not a lot. And again, it's different horses for different courses. Like it is definitely not one size fits all, and it's going to be what suits your family. But at the

crux of this, my push is not necessarily saying you need to be paying your child pocket money because that's not the case. But I do believe you do absolutely need to be teaching your child about money and whether that means allocating them some money of their own or not, it doesn't actually matter. And I also think that if you're not in the financial position to be giving your child pocket money, that's fine. Do not feel guilty about that at all. Like you are doing the best thing that you absolutely can. And no child quote needs pocket money to learn good money habits. They do not need that growing up to become a well-balanced human who can do money well. Don't for any amount of time, think that this is a necessary component. Again, completely personal

decision. And I just don't want people to think like, oh, like they're going to have to get pocket money to learn. Absolutely not. There are so many different ways that you can educate children on money, Georgia. In terms of how much fee, I know it will be individual for every person. Yeah, absolutely. How much though? You're like, how much? Again, I don't think that there's a right or a wrong, and I don't think that there is a perfect amount. I think it's an amount that you guys as the parents or the guardians, you need to make that decision. Not me, not a financial advisor. It's kind of like saying, hey, Georgia, how much should I be spending on groceries? Like, I don't know. Like, I think that there's no right or wrong, but Georgia, this is probably

more of a personal point. I don't think kids should be getting paid to contribute to household chores that they should just be doing anyway. So like, I don't think that kids should be paid to empty the dishwasher or clean up after the dog or clean their rooms. Like for me, that's a base of living and existing in a home because we all should be contributing to that home. Like if you live there, that's also your responsibility. It's not the mom's job or the dad's job to clean up after you so I think for me it's about that above and beyond thing or explaining to them what that is for or you might just be giving your child money each week so that they can learn about money but it wouldn't be tied to if you do those chores like those chores should be a given regardless

what age should we actively start teaching our kids about money um you should do it from birth no that's a bit aggressive but you best believe like wait until I have babies and they come out of the womb and they'll be wearing like their female financial empowerment from a very early age but at the end of the day there's absolutely no right or wrong if you haven't done it yet that's totally okay there's always time to start there's no such thing as too late but according to a pbs.org article by the age of three kids can actually grasp the basic money concepts which kind makes sense, Georgia, because kids love playing shops, right? Like, I feel like even younger than that, they start really comprehending what money gets you and that you swap it for things and that

that makes sense. But by the age of seven, there's a lot of research out there that says that your money habits have started to solidify and that your thoughts and your values and your beliefs and your money story has started to really set in. So there's no such thing as too early, but there also isn't such thing as too late. We can start at any point, but the answer I think, Georgia, that we are looking for is now. And if you've never spoken to your child about money before, even if you don't have children, which a lot of people listening to this podcast are going to be like me, they're going to be young women or young people who don't have children yet, but it's kind of in the back of your mind. I think it's all very complex, but at the end of the day,

for me, it's actually just about making a conscious effort to teach kids about money and starting as soon as possible. All righty, guys, we will be back after a very short break to chat through the importance of delayed gratification and we will also be hearing some of the She's on the Money community's top tips for teaching your kids how to manage money. So don't go anywhere. Okay, V, back into it.

So Georgia in our group has asked about... Not you? Not me? Not a planted question? No. Could have been. She's asked, she's asked about the Dolomites program. So basically they are, well, can you explain them how they actually work?

Okay. So Georgia, Dolomites is a fickle topic. And if you've read my book recently, you know, I throw it straight under the bus. And the reason I do is because longitudinal studies, so studies that have taken place over the long term show that Dolomites actually had absolutely no impact on the levels of financial literacy of Australian school children, which is something that is really disappointing, but also really kind of heartbreaking because we all thought with our little yellow checkbooks and our names on the front and that kind of like pink Pumba guy, who is the Dolomites guy for CommBank,

we thought that that was the right thing for our children. But at the end of the day, school banking programs like the Commonwealth Dolomites program have actually been booted from schools because they've been proven, as I said before, to not have had any impact. but at the end of the day I think that given it's now 2021 and we've been able to do these studies things are coming into play and things are coming into place that are more constructive that are teaching children about money beyond having a little yellow checkbook that they put money into one of the things that I really didn't like about the Dolomites program was that it was run by a bank and a lot of that actually ended up in children taking up CommBank as their bank of

choice purely because that was the bank that they were exposed to for the longest period of time. They already had their account. They were already ready and set up. And when they decided to go start their first job, of course, they trotted on down to ComBank to open another bank account when they started a job and wanted something beyond Dolomites because that was the only bank that they knew. So I think it was a little bit predatory if I'm being honest, and I don't think I'm the only one that thinks that, but people like the Barefoot Investor, like Scott Papers doing a really good amount of work in this space about teaching kids about money and getting into schools. And that is something that I would adore doing in the future, but the opportunity hasn't

arisen just yet. So if you are listening and you were like, wow, I have the ability to help you do that, Victoria, slide on into my DMs. But at the end of the day, I don't think that they were that powerful and I don't think that they were productive, but that's why I'm such an advocate of parents and guardians taking charge of teaching kids about money because there aren't a lot of programs in schools that are actually helping do that at this point in time. So when our kids are older, V, and they are a little more autonomous, maybe they've started a part-time job, how can we guide them at that stage of their adolescence without kind of controlling them and cramping their style? Teach them about budgeting and cash flow. Honestly, I probably should make a teenager's

version of my budget and cash flow program so that kids can go in and put in their pocket money and see what's coming. Actually, that's genius. I'm going to do that. This is what I'm doing after this episode. Like you think I'm going to do work for the rest of today. You're wrong. I'm going to make a spreadsheet. But I think that there's been a few things that have been really constructive and teaching kids about money is very different. But Maria from our group, she actually had a really good idea. And her daughter got her first job at the age of 15 and she helped her transfer half of her earnings into a savings account that she didn't touch while the other half, they decided that she could just have fun with it. And now her daughter's actually 17 and she's

actually bought a car. She paid for her learners and her car lessons with that money, which I think is a really great idea. And I think that this is going to be different for everybody. And again, personal opinion because Georgia this is my podcast I can say what I want I mean within reason and obviously with general financial advice like legislation but I would really love to see people starting to do spending saving investing and donating for kids so teaching them the importance of investing but also teaching the importance of giving back I think is something that is a really beautiful learning that can be taught from a really young age and I'm very very lucky in that that was something I was taught from a very young age. Like my mom was always

about giving back and how we could do more. And I think that that has now become ingrained in me. And I would say that, that, you know, without putting too many tickets on it, that's quite evident now in the way that I function as a human. So I think that that was a really good idea from Maria, but then I think it's also really important to not be controlling. So it's not your money. It is not your money to tell your child what to do with. I think that we are here to give them all the tools and resources, and for them to then adapt that to what they might want to do. Because at the end of the day, sometimes we just have to learn from our own mistakes. So letting your kids spend money their way while gently steering them in the right direction and

providing them with all the tools and resources that they need so that hopefully by the time that they've reached the age where they're going to be fully equipped to make good decisions, they're able to make the right decisions. But if not, as I said before, making mistakes while they're young and they're actually supported financially by family is a really good way to learn lessons that they're going to take with them for the rest of their lives. So I really wouldn't be stressing too much. The end of the day, like if your kid isn't putting money into savings and they're 14, like that is not the end of the day because I promise you at some point in the future, they're going to go, I really want X. And you go, you can't afford it. You didn't

save for it. That's not an option. And they'll go, oh, I wish I'd done that. So I think it's just sometimes you need to let people make their own mistakes. Even if you can see the right answer straight in front of you, it doesn't mean they have the clarity that you do. Yeah. It's kind of like a good time to be learning with that complete safety net. If you're privileged enough to have that safety net. Yeah, exactly. And like being short of money when you are 16 and living at home and the implication of that is that you can't go out with your friends on the weekend is very different to being 23 out in the world on your own renting, and then finding you don't have enough money to pay rent or put food on the table. They're two very different things. And I know

where I would prefer people to be making money mistakes. So how do we resist the urge then V to give our kids everything? Because, you know, we, we want to set them up for this beautiful life. And if we're, if we have the finance to buy them everything they want, what, what are the dangerous in doing that? Why should we resist doing that? I think that this is again, a really fickle conversation to have because I've been incredibly lucky with the types of clients that I work with to have real diversity in the people I work with. So I've got clients who don't earn a lot and I've got clients worth literally hundreds of millions of dollars. And I think that the one thing that they have in common when they have kids that are really good at money, it's actually not

about having handed them everything. Even if you're worth $100 million, that doesn't mean that you are spoiled. And I think that spoiled is very different for different people. And I think it's more about expectation and not understanding parameters and limits and rules. And I'm very different when it comes to that. But the one thing that they all have in common is delayed gratification. They know that by sacrificing now, there's a bigger, better something hanging out in the future that they're going to be able to access. And at the end of the day, that's what wealth creation is. If we can actually teach ourselves delayed gratification and understand what that means. And that means giving up a smaller something now so that we can have a bigger,

better something in the future. I think that we can all be better off. So when it comes to kids and wealth and giving them what you want, I don't think it's necessarily about going, no, well, we don't buy that for our kids. Like it's not actually about that. What it's about is actually just being balanced and having good money conversations and teaching them the value of a dollar so that when you do buy them their first car, if that's what you're going to do in that, maybe that's a gift. They comprehend that that's a really generous gift and they understand that that's really impactful instead of expecting it. So I think that there's, you know, there's different ways of doing it and you know not everybody's gifted a car when they start to

grow up it's actually not normal at all and i remember growing up um and you grew up in the same location as me georgia and there was a very big difference between the kids that i went to school with for example like i went to school with kids who got gifted bmws for christmas and i also went to school with kids whose families couldn't afford to put you know dinner on the table every single night. So I think that there's no right or wrong way. It's actually just about teaching people how to earn things for themselves and what gratification means and the value of a dollar. Because if you can teach all of that, when it comes to expecting things, I almost, almost guarantee that the kids that understand those things, regardless of how quote spoiled

or looked after they are, they're going to appreciate those things more than the kids that just expected that that was going to happen. 100%. All right. To finish off today, V, I thought it would be nice to integrate the community into the chat. I actually reached out to them last week, V, to ask how they teach their kids about money. And they had so many good ideas. So I thought we'd just run through a few of our faves. Thank you to everyone as well who replied. It was great to see so many amazing ideas. So the first one was from Tony. Yes. Tell me all about it. So every Monday they have their Monday money meal where they sit down as a family, hand out their pocket money for their weekly jobs

and their overtime jobs and have a chat about money. That's a good idea, isn't it? It's cute. So they then distribute this money however they want into their savings and their spending so the kids have that autonomy there. Then they discuss lots of things in regards to money like their savings goals, how extra hard work gets extra money, as well as some life lessons thrown in there.

I love that. Their number one rule is to never get a credit card, which we love. And after eight weeks of money meals, they both had saved enough money to get what was on their big goal list, which was brand new bikes. So that's a very wholesome idea. They were probably getting a lot of overtime. Those kids were working hard. But how cute is that?

And I really like that. That's something super simple that I think regardless of what our income is, we could all do. Like we can all sit down and have a meal together. It doesn't matter what that meal is. and talk about money. And I mean, Monday money meal, that's pretty catchy. I like it. Tony's a genius.

Yeah. Sell that to someone. What else have we got, Georgia King? Okay. So the next one was from Samantha. So this was from her experience as a child. So she said, as kids, we had a pocket money book each. And if we wanted to save our pocket money each week, we would get something like a $1 bonus for that week. Oh, so you were investing. Precisely. So it was all on paper. They'd have to ask mom and dad to cash it out if they wanted to buy something and it really it made them think more about their spending as they didn't have cash

just laying around um and then there was the benefit of increasing their balance faster by waiting um a little bit longer to make that purchase delayed gratification yes i love that and that's a really good investment return because i guarantee you like she wouldn't have been getting paid a hundred dollars a week a one dollar return on a hundred bucks is good but imagine that probably like five bucks a dollar return i will wait that's great thank you the next one here was from larissa a bit cheeky that i threw this one in but she said having the shoes on the money podcast on the car radio when they're in the car subliminal messaging i love that i love that get it larissa the next one is from jamie so she said they would get loans from mom for the things they

wanted to buy and then they'd have to pay her back if they were too far behind on their agreed repayments, then they'd have to start missing out on the extra things like going to see their friends or getting ice cream when they were out. So it really taught them the importance of repaying loans. So that's a different strategy there. Hey, that's quite cute. I like that. And I know that I don't like debt by any stretch of the imagination, but I think that that's a really good lesson to learn early. Like it's not something that I would want to promote all the time because obviously I'd much prefer a child to save for something that they really want because that really goes back to that delayed gratification and actually make sure that they really want it

and Georgia can you remember when you were really little it was like the anticipation of Christmas like you knew it was coming like that's what saving often feels like to children because you're like all right you want the bike like we can work towards it like it's x amount per week and like you can actually make saving really exciting like putting goal sheets on the fridge for their savings goals and like they get to color in a square each time they get it and back to the cash thing you don't necessarily have to pay them that cash you could have a little checkbook that you make and this is actually inspiring the hell out of me georgia to make a whole heap of resources for our community like imagine you know how we have our little savings

hacks for she's on the money that our community members put on their fridge imagine if there was kids ones that's a great idea i'm gonna do it i'm so excited what else did the community have to say Okay, so the last one is from Christy. So her six-year-old really wanted a skateboard. That's terrifying. Can you imagine a six-year-old on a skateboard? Is that a good age? I really don't know.

I feel like from ages three to 11, they're like the same to me. Yeah, I don't know. Same. Same. Sorry, Christy. We're showing off the fact that we don't have children here. So young. So Christy's six-year-old wanted a skateboard.

Then they worked out some weekly jobs that he could do so that he would get some pay at the end of the week. and he would have to do those tasks without being asked and she said he was really dedicated so cute um when he got to his goal he then decided to wait for another week so he didn't leave himself with an empty wallet oh he was learning the importance of an emergency fund early exactly what a genius what a genius he's coming for my job christy exactly your child genius watch back off um when he did go to buy the skateboard it was more than they thought so now he's paying off a little debt to mom so great learning experience all right um yeah so

many good ideas in there as well we obviously can't get to all of them but do head to the facebook group guys and have a little flick through them oh my gosh i love it i don't know what you should search search teaching kids about money and it'll pop up um yeah but yeah really great ideas in there so thank you to everyone who contributed yeah absolutely um v before we head off today any resources for our listeners um to refer to to back up this chat absolutely and you all saw this one coming are you ready it's the money smart website our favorite the money smart website this time really pulled through with the goods guys they have a breakdown of different activities that you can complete with your kids based on their ages to help them learn about their

money. So we'll link that in the show notes so that you don't miss out on that one. And then there are also board games like pocket money, which Kylie from our community recommended was great. Monopoly is also another course of action if you want to teach them about money. But again, if you don't want to have family fights, maybe avoid that one because that's how that game ended in our family each and every single time. And Thief from our group actually shared a link last year to a resource from the Smith family, which is great for younger kids. So we'll also link that in our show notes. And yeah, I think that there are some really fun resources there. In fact, I'm probably going to post on the day that we drop this, a thread asking people more questions

about pocket money and how they learn about pocket money and money growing up, because I just think it's such an interesting topic to see how you grew up with money, but how you are with it now like that's super pervy so unfortunately georgia with that i think we're done for today and that is we are yeah that is all we have time for so as always just before we head off we'd like to acknowledge and pay respect to australia's aboriginal and torres strait islander peoples they're the traditional custodians of the land the waterways and the skies all across australia we thank you for sharing and for caring for the land on which we are able to learn we pay our respects to elders past and present and we share our friendship and our kindness

and remember everyone that the advice shared on she's on the money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances she's on the money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or a financial decision and we promise victoria Devine is an authorised representative of Australia Pacific Funds Management, Proprietary Limited, ABN 34132463257, AFSL 339151. How good. All right. See you guys next week.

Bye, guys.