Imagine this: You are 10 years old. A substitute teacher talks about investing in stocks, using Coca-Cola as an example. That was my personal experience in fourth grade, and it was the very first time I heard about stocks. I remember it vividly, as I also recall reading the U.S. Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison in that same class.
Those two instances were short moments in time. Did they influence my career decisions? Could they have led me to my career as a lawyer and a money manager?
Could you have an influence on children who are that age in your role as a parent, grandparent, relative, teacher or friend?
How do children become curious about finances? Let me share a reader's story that started at a very young age, leading to a lifelong interest in learning.
"Blee" explained:
"When I was 6, I received an allowance of 25 cents a week. My father told me that anytime I received money, I should first set aside some of it to save for the future. Next, I should give some to those less fortunate than I (at that time, this meant a nickel went in the plate at Sunday school each week). Only then could I spend part of my allowance on myself -- perhaps some toy at the five and ten. He also taught me to track my finances by keeping a record of receipts and expenditures. Nowadays, of course, that is done on the computer.
"When I was 15, my father opened a checking account for me and had me paying for certain of my expenses by check.
"When I was about 18, a cousin of my father's died and left me $2,000. That was a lot of money in the early 1950s. I turned to my father for advice, and then I bought stock. First, good solid Esso (now ExxonMobil). Then a smaller portion on a speculative stock that I now forget. What fun to be an investor! Especially when my stocks rose, but I also learned not to panic when some inevitably went down. I had my first experience with taxes at that point.
"I have passed on much of this to my four children and four grandchildren, because it was so useful to me."
I love Blee's story. Age 6 might seem very young. However, some say that financial literacy education starts when a child learns how to count. "Knowing that parents are our first teachers, families can subscribe to a school of thought that once children start counting, it is the beginning of financial literacy," explained Frances Marie Gipson, a clinical associate professor at Claremont Graduate University.
Further, "Since young children are dependent on parents and have few material goods or monetary resources that they control independently, it is the basic approaches and skills which are modelled, discussed and demonstrated by parents and other significant adults, that are likely to be influential 'levers,' instilling efficient habits and practices," according to University of Cambridge behavior experts Dr. David Whitebread and Dr. Sue Bingham.
Blee's father was an important role model and mentor. If you are thinking about how you can be helpful to the young people in your circle of friends and family, you don't have to be an expert; kids are watching you and learning from you, like it or not.
However, if you want some resources to help discussions, consider the following: MoneyGeek offers Money Foundations for Kids (tinyurl.com/bdeeeeh4), the Money Advice Service originally published "Habit Formation and Learning in Young Children" in 2013 (tinyurl.com/mr9bmkay), the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's "Money as You Grow" (tinyurl.com/4y9cbu52), the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s "Money Smart" (tinyurl.com/457zrytt) and the FINRA Foundation's "6 Tips for Parents Looking to Improve Financial Literacy in Kids" (tinyurl.com/4dtxrwur).
We'll talk more about kids and finances next week. In the meantime, if you have a story to share, I'd love to hear it. Email me at readers@juliejason.com.
DISTRIBUTED BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION