My daughter has just received her first debit card. She is only 8. Additionally, she has her own brokerage, and savings account to complement her debit card which is attached directly to her checking account. She is the first of my four children to begin her financial journey in life, learning how to earn an income, budget, save, invest, and spend her income.
Why?
The financial world can be daunting, I remember being as old as 22 still not fully understanding and grasping how to buy a home, car, buy a stock, get a respectable credit score, or even save for that matter. For me, as a child I associated the ability to purchase with the amount of wealth a person had, not fully understanding that debt oftentimes fueled those purchases often to a persons detriment. I had no idea how unfamiliar the adults around me were when it came to accumulating wealth as opposed to accumulating debt. Many did not have a concept of how the decisions that they were making for present day needs were impacting the future generations of their families.
The cycle of passing down debt and bills stops with my generation. We work to instill values into our children that will allow them to have the tools, and skills necessary to succeed earlier in life. There has been some research that has shown that financial values are ingrained as early as 7 years old. As I have referenced in previous posts, many schools within the U.S. public schooling system give you the tools to become a good worker and to succeed at a good job, but do not teach you how to invest, save, and manage money. The idiom is often Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of a job as the means to “success” and nothing else is really achievable for many. What happened to the pursuit of happiness? Was it just a philosophical dream? Or is it a reality? I think it depends on what your version of happiness is.
We all need money to an extent so we all know conceptually that we wlll need to perform a job for some period of time to accumulate wealth. The key is that the period can be finite, but only if you can resist the temptation to find happiness in the consumption of goods (stuff). Resist the temptation to overconsume and gorge on debt. The servicing of significant debts gives money far too much control over your life and the decisions that you make in life.
Counter the idea of the simple pursuit of a Job, a car, a house with 2.5 kids, then 9 til 5 till you die as the only version of success.
Teaching my children that there is more than one version of success is one of my core goals as a father. We want them to understand that there is more to life than being a consumer living to pay bills, producing other consumers, and then death. We want them to be citizens versus consumers, and humans versus robots. We strive to teach our offspring to first strive to obtain financial independence at an early age. Then to leverage their earned financial independence to self sustain themselves based on investment income so they can pursue their true dreams without the expectation of receiving money.
Chase your dream, and live the life you want!
Resources to help a child begin their financial journey:
Child/Teen Checking: Child and Teen Checking Account
Child/Teen Brokerage: Information on Opening a Kids Brokerage
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