Let me share with you one way to introduce ownership to your kids (grandkids, nieces, & nephews).
As my kids were growing up, I never asked them what they wanted to be. I never allowed anyone else to ask them what they wanted to be either. Instead, I asked them what they wanted to own!
Why the different question? Because it is a shift in thinking that shapes their idea of what’s possible.
You see the 1st question only allows one to view their future as someone’s employee.
While the 2nd version frames the mind as an employer and expands my kids idea of what’s available to them.
As a man thinketh, so is he.
-Proverbs
So, when my youngest son was in his early teens he would earn money and then blow all of the money he earned buying gear and power packs in his Sony PlayStation games.
My son saw it as having fun. As a parent, I saw it as a waste of money because he had no return.
Can fun be considered a return? (my wife would say yes)
So, here’s what I proposed:
- I would open a new trading account for him and buy a share of Sony stock (ticker symbol:SONY)
2. For every dollar he spent in his Sony PlayStation, my son would have to use an equal amount to purchase more shares of Sony stock. This way, all the money he would be spending would be inside an entity that he owned.
And he agreed to it!
Now, both of us were happy. He could play his game in peace and grow his future at the same time.
This didn’t just work in my household. The nephew that I bought shares of Nike for his 1st birthday came to me and asked how to buy shares of Nintendo because he loved his new Nintendo Switch.
Talk about proof of concept!
My oldest son took those concepts and now as a Financial Advisor helps other families learn and do what allowed him to graduate from college with an active portfolio (not just debt).
I’m not saying that this is what everyone’s outcome will be, but it does illuminate how forming a different idea of what is possible can affect a child’s future.
-Monk
We spend 12 – 20 years in school learning about every subject, except for money. Then we spend the rest of our lives trying to figure out how to make money or how to grow the money we have.
My approach to financial literacy is to teach it in a way that makes the complexities of finance so simple that your investing actions become instinctive.
To the youth, young adults, and the mothers who raise them,
Financial Literacy: Monk Says… Learn the Game
www.MonkSays.com
#FinancialLiteracy
#FinancialFreedom
#MonkSays
#VideoGames
#Gamer
#Sony
#SonyPlaystation
#Nintendo
#NintendoSwitch
#Nike