Financial Awareness in Chilren

The following set of questions and answers is an interview I recently gave to a children’s magazine. Although my financial commentary is normally aimed in a different direction, the questions were challenging and my answers seem appropriate for any adult audience. As you read my responses, you’re invited to think of the youngsters in your life, as you consider how you might interact so to be of help.

Q. Why is it important to instill sound money management principles in children?

A. The question answers itself. As we strive to establish other good habits in our youth, we must not ignore a vital ingredient: financial awareness. Many youth grow to adulthood, devoid of an ability to handle money. The miseries that follow such a failing are indescribable.

Q. What can parents do to teach their children about money?

A. There are four things.

Begin your indoctrination early: Recall the ancient adage: “As the twig is bent, so grows the tree.” As soon as your offspring develop awareness, they’re entitled to instruction and guidance on the realities of the financial world.

Mean what you say: You must display financial soundness. Whether or not you believe it, your children really pay attention to what you say and do. As the first authority that normally appears, a parent becomes a model on which the child fixates.

Avoid spontaneous gift-giving: Though generosity may seem a fine quality, it can become inhibiting. One characteristic that builds financial self-confidence is an ability to establish and function on a budget. Don’t throw a monkey wrench into the works by impulsively dumping extra money into their hands.

Don’t direct your children’s discretionary spending: If they’re to learn about money, they must sense some meaningful connection to it. Though the parents should advise their offspring on sensible spending and saving, they must not dictate how the youths handle their earnings. The decision on how money received is to be spent – or hoarded, if that’s the choice – is that of the recipient.

Q. Are there any outside programs that can help ensure youth establish a sound financial footing?

A. Except within the family, there are only two sources of indoctrination for the young: the schoolroom and the television screen. Consider the classroom. Whatever praise or criticism you may direct at the American public school system, one thing must be acknowledged: The handling of personal financial affairs is not a subject to which much attention is devoted. Whatever the average American knows about handling money did not originate there. This is understandable, of course, if only because the typical classroom teacher is equally mystified by the world of money. The second possibility, television, offers a variety of children’s programs billed as educational. I’m convinced there’s no information to be gleaned from the media. Those formative years, in which the average child spends 28 hours per week in front of a television screen, does little more than inculcate a taste for Pop-Tarts, Cocoa Puffs, Hip-Hop music, designer jeans, and the emulation of celebrities.

Q. Do you believe schools do a good job of getting children ready for the real-world in the sense of fundamental responsibility?

A. I briefly touched on this, but will expand on it a bit. Here in the latter half of the second decade in the 21st Century, a lot of things are taught in the classroom, but proper use of money is not among them. The subjects on which my attention was focused many decades ago – reading, writing, and arithmetic – were but a small portion of what’s now stressed as vital. Monitoring relations between individuals and groups is of paramount concern. The fairness of governmental actions is debated at all levels. Improper speech is an obsession. To stifle the natural energy of children, which can be distracting to professional educators, many schools resort to designating students, particularly boys, as suffering from Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), for which drugs such as Ritalin are administered. It’s little wonder money handling receives short shrift in the classroom.

Q. Do you believe there’s a connection between future financial success and early money management?

A. Without a doubt. The 15-year-old, with no borrowing ability, who figures a way to stretch $500 to acquire $1,000 in desired audio equipment, will become the young adult who scrutinizes the investment market carefully to invest his or her spare savings. In addition, learning not to be taken advantage of early on will carry over, to help avoid the deceptively-designed and grotesquely-hyped scams to which the majority of Americans regularly succumb. And perhaps a most meaningful way financial awareness can be instilled in young persons is to encourage them to wrestle with adult financial situations early on.

With this in mind, I’ll share a testimonial with you. By the time I turned 16, I worked four or five nights each week as a bowling alley pin setter for a dime a line. Over an eight-hour shift, from six in the evening to two in the morning, I normally earned $12 or more, which in those days pretty well constituted an adult wage. This enabled me to fully support myself as well as assist my widowed mother with household expenses. It also allowed me to buy an auto for $165 – a 1929 De Soto coupe with rumble seat – making me the only sophomore in my high school who actually purchased his own vehicle. In this way I slipped into adulthood without even noticing it.

Q. How is it many parents raise children that aren’t financially responsible?

A. This question deserves an entire book. Don’t ignore the fact many parents are themselves incapable of conducting their own financial lives. Why, then, should we expect them to raise children in a responsible manner? It’s reported 95 percent of persons reach retirement age unable to provide for themselves without outside financial assistance. Perhaps their parents a half-century ago neglected to properly rear them, and it repeats with each successive generation. If there’s one common mistake, it’s an inability of many parents to properly regulate their own financial lives by which, through precept and example, they might convey these principles to their progeny.

Q. How might children with a curiosity about finances pursue knowledge on the subject without parents?

A. Unfortunately, with difficulty. Prior to the age of about twelve the average child lacks exposure to finances, except for whatever involvement the parent or guardian generates. Most have no money-making opportunities. Circumstances today are different than long ago. During the Depression years in Minnesota, no enforceable child labor laws existed. Before my tenth birthday I mowed lawns in the summer and shoveled snow from the sidewalks in the winter. I recall my parents exhibited thrift – by necessity – and I developed a similar bent.

A final thought: About all that’s available today to indoctrinate children into the world of money are programs designed and sponsored by investment firms. Two examples are the Jump$tart Coalition, originated in 1995 by the Merrill Lynch Foundation, and Investing Lessons for Kids, operated by the Youth Investing Committee, National Association of Investors Corporation (NAJC). However, as with most such programs, the stress is institutional advertising for customers, not meaningful financial instruction. So without knowledgeable parents’ input, I don’t see a happy ending.

Al Jacobs, a professional investor for nearly a half-century, issues a monthly newsletter in which he shares his financial knowledge and experience. You may view it on http://www.roadwaytoprosperity.com

al@beachcomber.news