“Working to help parents raise money-smart kids.”
Hello, friends!
With the dog days of summer upon us, I bring you relief in the form of “3 {Cool} Ideas to Share & Save.” 🥵 🧊
— 1 —
Changing the World: A good friend recently related what I call a “reality hammer” story. His colleague had excitedly explained how he was helping to alleviate climate change by riding his bike to work and starting to compost.
That’s when my friend’s reality hammer dropped. “You know, none of those efforts are going to affect the global rise in temperature.” My friend’s point: The infinitesimal emissions reduction his friend created by switching from auto to pedal transport couldn’t possibly begin to offset, to use one example, the choking smoke pouring from coal plants.
My friend is less contrarian here than realist. And he wasn’t even suggesting his colleague curtail his efforts. He only wanted to point out that while his colleague’s actions were making him feel better about himself, he was deluding himself by thinking he was meaningfully curtailing climate change.
I take a more idealist stance than my friend about how change works, and I couldn’t help but recall anthropologist Margaret Mead’s famous words about making a difference:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
For example, just last week, I spoke with one of our credit union partners during one of our quarterly success calls. In these calls, we connect with actual representatives at our partner credit unions about how to best use our program to drive the kind of large-scale change we are hoping to bring about. I felt inspired by one story in particular.
Jillian Kerekes is a representative at one of those wonderful partners, ​SECNY​, in upstate New York. Her daughter had been saving for her pet, and she wanted her mom to come to her classroom to read my book Joe the Monkey Saves for a Goal to her classmates so that they could begin to save for goals too.
So while my friend is right that his colleague’s contribution won’t meaningfully move the needle, that doesn’t mean that he isn’t part of collective change that can make a difference. Just like Jillian and her daughter, Genevieve, are part of our money-smart movement.
Change starts locally, and, as Mead suggests, a small, committed group can become a big movement. And big movements can bring about major change.
— 2 —
Change Takes Time: People were bewildered when Southern California’s legendary In-N-Out franchise first opened and fast food pioneer Harry Snyder installed the first microphone (which he built himself) for drive-thru service in 1948. It took time for customers to adapt – and even longer for other restaurants to copy – Snyder’s innovation. In fact, McDonald’s only added drive-thru ordering in 1975!
Now we can’t imagine a world without efficient drive-thru service.
Ideas that seem obvious now are rarely apparent when introduced.
Often, the inventor doesn’t even know how his creation will be used. When Thomas Edison invented the phonograph, he was excited about its potential to store archival voice recordings (for relatives to remember those who had passed away). Initially, he barely gave the revolutionary idea of listening to recorded music a thought.
And while the idea of introducing our older kids to money has gone mainstream (which is terrific news, BTW), it’s not as obvious to many parents like us that we should begin money conversations when kids are as young as two.
We’re not talking about quizzing our toddlers about The Rule of 72, of course: “Quick! If the interest rate is 8%, then how long with it take for your money to double?”
Rather, we’re talking about exposing them to the language of money.
Think of it like this: We read to our kids from a young age, way before they can read and write themselves, because we know we are providing them with the fundamental building blocks for reading and writing. This concept is known as emergent literacy.
Similarly, Martha McCormick and David Godsted coined the phrase “​emergent financial literacy​” back in 2006. Exposing our kids to money experiences and conversations – the language of money – prepares them for more detailed conversations and richer experiences as they grow older.
So I believe in another seventy years – hopefully less – talking about money with our young kids will be as obvious as ordering a “Double Double Animal Style” in an In-N-Out drive-thru. 🍔
— 3 —
Make it a treat! “We have the tendency to run into the future in order to look for happiness,” wrote the Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh. “Running has become a habit. […] Many of us have been running all our lives.”
There’s an obvious irony for consistent readers of this newsletter: We tend not to be very nice to our future selves, yet we’re also not particularly good at living in the moment. And while it may be trite to invoke the mantra “Be here now,” it’s a fact that all money choices are made “in the moment.”
As we discussed ​last week​, one of the core money-smart skills is making smart money choices. We can help our kids improve their decision-making by giving them the early opportunity to learn through their own experiences.
To that end, I want to share with you an idea from ​Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending​ to take with you on your money-smart journey. (The full book is well worth a read.)
Saving money is an important topic, and it gets a lot of attention here and just about everywhere else in the money-smart movement. Still, money is designed to be exchanged, and helping our kids spend smart can include helping them discover how their spending might make them happier.
Happy Money actually presents five ways we can use money to buy happiness, though today we’ll focus on just one: “Make it a treat.” From the authors Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton:
“In cultures where the Protestant work ethic has taken hold, treats often seem improper, or even immoral—leading people to feel that they should only indulge when they have a good reason for doing so. American college students expect to feel guilty when they splurge on a treat like a spa treatment or dinner out for no particular reason. For most of them, though, these expected feelings of guilt never materialize, overshadowed instead by the pleasure of the treat. Yet they continue to believe they will feel guilty about future indulgences. The little treats of daily life may provide a purer source of pleasure than people realize.”
This seems seasonally appropriate. Summer is the time of treats. So while it’s our job as parents to moderate treat consumption, now might be a good time to let our kids indulge a little. If they want to buy themselves a treat, then let’s allow them to use their allowance money. Doing so can give them that important sense of control over the green stuff (as well as brain freeze 🍦).
Also, it’s worth remembering that one of our goals is helping our kids learn to use money as a tool. To exercise control over it so it has less control over you.
While we never want to lose sight of the importance of teaching our kids about delayed gratification, we are all hard-wired to discount the future. Letting them indulge a little might be considered just another step in this long journey we’re on together.
And as always, let’s enjoy it!
John, Chief Mammal
P.S. Please consult with a financial or investment professional before engaging in any decisions that might affect your own financial well-being.
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