“Working to help parents raise money-smart kids.”
Welcome to 2022, friends, and welcome back to Money-Smart Monday!
With a new year comes a new look for our header! It was time to jazz things up a bit, and I think our Art Director and Giraffe-ic Designer, Todd Slater, hit all the right notes. 🎷🎺🥁
I’m still the Chief Mammal, but I felt our “Memo from the Chief Mammal” banner wasn’t fully communicating the value of this newsletter.
So let me know what you think of the refresh!
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Why Money Smarts Matter: The New Year is a good time to take stock of what we’re doing and why, especially since we’re living in The Age of Self-Sufficiency. Not the kind of self-sufficiency through which we’re expected to grow our own food, but the kind of self-sufficiency through which our kids are expected to secure their own financial futures.
Gone are gold watches and pension plans, and who knows what Social Security will provide. These are big reasons why we should take time to teach our children money smarts.
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Money-Wise: The full title of my book is The Art of Allowance: A Short, Practical Guide to Raising Money-Smart, Money-Empowered Kids. And sometimes reaching money empowerment requires a little money wisdom.
Enter David Owen. My discussion with David is one my favorite Art of Allowance Podcast conversations. He took a thoughtful approach to raising his children money-smart, so much so that it sparked the wonderful First National Bank of Dad. This book was a big influence on my own.
If you haven’t listened to David’s episode yet, then I encourage you to do so. It’s a great way to kick off the New Year, as you’ll be introduced to ideas you might want to incorporate into your own allowance system. The following are just a few of the topics we discuss:
- How giving your child monetary control changes arguments to conversations 🗣
- A description of David’s enhanced interest program (I created something similar based on his recommendation.) 📈
- Why David never worried about his kids’ making money mistakes 😨
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It’s A Forest Out There: Our 2022 journey has just begun, and our children are sure to encounter ups and downs as they navigate paths through the metaphorical monetary trees. 🌲🧭🌳
As we act as their sherpas, it’s important that we don’t miss the forest for these trees, a concept I wrote about in this essay. Here’s an example path your kids might encounter, filled with both financial mistakes and successes:
The goal, of course, is to gain money smarts as they head towards money empowerment.
Until next time, I wish you a happy and healthy 2022.
Enjoy the journey!
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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