AOA 018: Getting Your Kids Started with Investing and Facilitating Money-Smart Conversations with Allowance – With Guests Evan Wilson and Todd Yuzuriha

“It’s not about the money. It is about the conversation. The money is the tool to generate the conversation to have with your kids.”

-Evan Wilson

Interested in investing with your children but unsure of how to cultivate “the right relationship with risk?” Looking for ways to facilitate better money-smart conversations with your family? Then be sure to check out the latest episode of The Art of Allowance Podcast.

This episode is the first to feature two guests, Evan Wilson and Todd Yuzuriha. Evan is the CFO of The Official Manufacturing Company and serves as a board member or a strategic advisor for several young companies. Todd is the retired Vice President of Engineering for Logitech and a current board member of his local library and school districts. Together they host The Money JAR, a weekly podcast from Junior Achievement helping families navigate their kids’ relationships with money.


SHOW NOTES (Find what’s most interesting to you!)

  • A few tidbits about Evan and Todd [3:00]
  • How PBS and a pharmacy led to Todd’s getting started in finance at age 12 [5:16]
  • Todd’s main focus with his children [9:20]
  • Allowance structure and parenting approaches (including no allowance!) [9:54]
  • Getting started on investing [11:59]
  • Evan’s allowance system [13:49]
  • New allowance challenges [15:08]
  • “Permission to Screw Up”: money-smart challenges [16:49]
  • A money-smart success: The Give Jar [21:59]
  • Beginning the money-smart conversation with intentionality [23:19]
  • A charitable approach to allowance [27:27]
  • De-mystifying the idea of allowance as a giveaway [28:08]
  • Sunday night dinner as a conversation facilitator [29:01]
  • The guys’ interpretation of “money empowerment” [31:17]
  • Education and time spent with kids after a career change as investments [31:57]
  • “The right relationship with risk” [33:11]
  • The guys’ relationship to John’s grandfather [35:13]
  • The guys’ book recommendations: George Clason’s The Richest Man in Babylon as well as Thomas Stanley and William Danko’s The Millionaire Next Door [36:05]
  • Finding the guys on social media (Facebook and Twitter) and the Web (their podcast) [38:21]

You can listen to Evan and Todd interview me on The Money JAR podcast here.

Are you dealing with a child who struggles with the typical allowance system and who is not necessarily interested in setting savings goals, like Evan’s daughter? Then you might like my discussion with mom Sondi Sepanuk. She explains how she’s dealing with a son who’s focused on giving away most of his money. This section begins at 17:26 of her episode.

Want more strategies related to investing? Then be sure to check out my chat with Bill Dwight of FamZoo.

The Art of Allowance podcast is available on iTunesSpotifyStitcher or Radio Public.

Please subscribe to our show to allow me to have additional conversations with parents and discover new ideas to help us all raise money-smart, money-empowered kids. You can find out more about our movement at theartofallowance.com as well as download a sample or get a copy of my new book, The Art of Allowance.

You might also want to check out The Money Mammals, our program to get your children excited about money smarts when they’re young. Until next time, I wish you and your family well as you journey forth. Thanks for listening.