AOA 016: Your Kids as Your Business Owners — With Guest Dave Hanley

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“Preparation isn’t scary. […] It delivers you peace of mind.”

-Dave Hanley

My guest on this episode of The Art of Allowance Podcast is Dave Hanley, a Fulbright Scholar and a father of four. Dave considers himself a digital entrepeneur and is the founder and CEO of Tomorrow, a company whose app allows users to ensure their families’ financial futures by creating wills and trusts for free.

Dave and I discuss the following topics during our conversation:

    • How he involves his kids in his business
    • How he introduced his older children to investment as pre-teens
    • How his “spender” son protects himself by putting money in his brokerage account
    • How he basically ran two experiments: one with his older kids with an allowance and one with his younger kids without an allowance
    • Training his kids’ brains about compound interest
    • College finances: how his dad helped him and how he’s helping his own kids

This episode is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Radio Public.

If you enjoyed this conversation, then be sure to check out my discussion with The Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) Director of Science Chuck Kalish, whose work for the CFPB is mentioned.

SHOW NOTES

    • Dave as an “incurable entrepreneur” and the CEO of Tomorrow [1:59]
    • The benefits of Dave’s having his four kids as shareholders of his company [2:54]
    • Dave’s allowance system for tweens and teens [6:12]
    • A discussion of money personalities [8:18]
    • Dave’s two allowance experiments and how he missed the proverbial boat [11:32]
    • The concept of spending on consumption [13:38]
    • What Dave learned about budgeting from his parents [14:00]
    • Compound interest and “magical money” [15:36]
    • The challenges (or lack thereof) of having kids as investors [19:12]
    • Corporations as constructs [20:19]
    • Tough questions and indirect money conversations [21:31]
    • What Frank Herbert’s Dune has to do with life insurance [24:45]
    • The social problem of wills and how Dave’s app works [27:34]
    • What prompted Dave to start Tomorrow [29:02]
    • The investing conversation for younger kids (Don’t feel you need to be an expert.) [30:39]
    • Dave’s lessons learned from his father’s “income statement view of finances” [32:46]
    • The college conversation and the ability to make trade-offs [36:07]
    • College scholarship resources and tools [38:01]
    • “Money-empowered” as money demystified [39:26]
    • Travel as the best investment [39:42]
    • Some self-love advice from Bohemian Rhapsody [40:25]
    • Preparation and peace of mind [42:02]
    • Journaling as a tool [42:39]
    • Finding Dave on the Web and improving his app [44:30]

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 themoneymammals.com/aoa 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.