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In this issue: Seeking shelter from the marketing monsoon, progressing towards a protopia and being more mindful of what we give and receive. “Helping parents raise money-smart kids.” 3 Ideas to Share & Save Hello, friends! I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving weekend. Can you feel the marketing monsoon blowing us towards the holidays? Since it’s Cyber Monday, I want to let you know about a few gifts to consider to help you and your kids deal with the deluge: 👉🏻 The Art of Allowance is available on Amazon in both paperback and Kindle versions. In addition to being a guide to raising money-smart kids, this book is peppered with “Memos from the Chief Mammal” (yours truly 😉) to help parents survive the swell of stuff that threatens to swallow us all this season. 👉🏻 The “Share & Save & Spend Smart” trilogy makes a great family gift pack! The final book in the series, Joe the Monkey and Friends Learn About Spending Smart, helps kids stay afloat amidst the stuff and fads that often rain down during the holidays. (I remember you, Tickle Me Elmo!) Now on to this week’s ideas! — 1 — Come in from the Downpour: One way to seek shelter from the marketing monsoon is to ask your fellow travelers for aid. Returning podcast guest Josh Golin, the Executive Director of Fairplay, offers three tips to help your family on the journey. Josh suggests it’s not as hard as you might think to find folks willing to provide umbrellas to keep your kids (and yourself) from getting soaked this season. ☔ — 2 — Up with Protopia: Ronald Reagan switched parties in the early sixties. In his speech “A Time for Choosing,” he quipped with a clarity that often comes from changing one’s mind, “There is no such thing as left or right. There is only up or down.” I like the idea that progress transcends political leanings. Podcast guest Kevin Kelly coined a term that aligns with Reagan’s sentiment: protopia. He describes the concept here. While a dystopia is scary and a utopia is unachievable (and usually also scary 😵💫), a protopia is a process of “slowly crawling towards betterment.” It’s more of an undertaking than an ideal, and it aligns with the notion I’ve shared with you about building behaviors using 1% gains, as Atomic Habits author James Clear explains in this short snippet. According to Kevin, a protopia is also built upon 1% gains — slow and steady. A protopia parallels compounding as well: Both can’t be cheated and must be earned over time. And a protopia doesn’t spring up suddenly. We can only create one by improving ourselves and our society bit by bit. “Part of protopia is to envision a desirable future.”
—Kevin Kelly
I like to think that this, The Art of Allowance Project, is part of that future. We envision lives for our children in which they learn to use money as a tool through early experiences with it. Ultimately, these experiences will help them discover how money can make their lives more fulfilling. Our protopia. — 3 — Weekly Wisdom: “Ironically, people eat their favorite foods quickly. Binge eaters also report that they keep on eating in an effort to recreate the pleasure of the first bite. Because the taste receptors tire out quickly, this will never work.”
—Jan Chozen Bays
This advice in my meditation app, Waking Up, seems applicable to what happens with holiday gifting. As the presents pile up, the pleasure of each one dulls. So to combat this effect, my family has made an effort to focus on experiences more than gifts. Admittedly, this idea requires tweaking. When we went gift-free and enjoyed a destination holiday a few years ago, I discovered I should have planned a morning activity to fill in the time usually allocated to opening presents. Live and learn. 🤷♂️ Whatever we do, being more mindful of what we give and receive helps us determine the optimal mix of things and experiences that will differ for each of our families. As always, enjoy the journey! John, P.S. A little something fun, courtesy of the Marginal Revolution blog. 📗 Get The Art of Allowance (for parents) P.P.S. Please consult with a financial or investment professional before making any decisions that might affect your financial well-being. Forwarded this email? Sign up here.
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