Raising Financial Freedom

Damaging Mistakes Parents Make With Money And Teens

• Eric Yard • Episode 31

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#031 The pandemic has brought the lack of financial education into focus for many people, institutions, and businesses. Marilyn shares that she has started to see more people take steps towards gaining financial freedom through education. 

 

Most cultures tend to either not talk about money with kids, or they treat it as a taboo, giving almost no introduction of money to the kids in a way that they can leverage it as a tool. The problem is that while a lot of parents expect that kids will learn about money in school, the curriculum can barely offer the kind of practical knowledge on the use of money which the home is well suited to give. Hence the kid gains little or no financial education either from the home or the school. 

For full show notes please go to Raising Financial Freedom

In This Episode:

·         [03:05] Meet today's guest, Marilyn Lydia Pinto.

·         [03:31] With the pandemic winding down, what is your opinion on the financial fallout?

·         [04:20] What is money to a child?

·         [05:41] What is the difference in the perception of money between Dubai and other countries?

·         [08:38] What are some of the common myths and stigmas you come across concerning money?

·         [11:41] Excuses parents give why they don't teach their kids about money. 

·         [13:46] About the Kids Finance Initiative.

·         [16:30] When did you realize you had a passion for teaching financial literacy?

·         [18:36] What are some of the consequences of not educating children financially?

·         [20:48] At what age would you recommend a child starts gaining financial literacy?

·         [23:52] What do you love about teaching financial literacy?

·         [21:57] What action steps can a parent take to imbibe financial literacy in their kids?

·         [24:29] What is the one thing that people don't realize about money?

·         [25:23] Marilyn's advice to parents.

·         [25:53] How to contact Marilyn

 

Links Mentioned: 

 

[00:00:00] Eric: [00:00:00] Well, hello. And we are back as usual and today on reason financial freedom, episode 31, we have a little bit of financial literacy news. And on top of that, I have a guest for you. Her name is Marilyn Pinto. She is from the kids finance initiative, and she's here today to talk about damaging mistakes parents make with money and teens.

[00:00:26] So let's get this started.

[00:00:30] Host Daughter: [00:00:30] Come on dad, stop playing around and play the music 

[00:00:33] Eric: [00:00:33] shit.

[00:00:40] Introducer: [00:00:40] Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have it all financially do well off parents simply hand their children money or is there more to this welfare? Welcome to raising financial freedom, the pocket. We are here to talk about everything you never knew to teach your children when it comes to starting their financial future, the principles behind [00:01:00] wealth and methods that are out there to teach your child about personal financial freedom.

[00:01:04] There was no real tricks to earning other than money. We are here to discuss, teach and grow with you. Raising financial freedom, the podcast with your host and concern parents, Eric yard. Let us get right into today's show.

[00:01:21] Eric: [00:01:21] Now for a little bit of moves, prominent leaders who heal from business sports and entertainment industries recently committed to advance in the financial literacy for all movement through the organization. So now the financial literacy for all seek to improve financial literacy for all Americans. Now, this just recently started, and I'm kind of excited for this because they are a lot of heavy.

[00:01:47] In business and entertainment or getting involved. Now, these leaders are making a 10 year commitment to reach millions of views and working adults provide us a survey tools to make the right [00:02:00] financial decisions in their lives. This article is kind of small for such a big topic. To me is big news. Just to name a couple of.

[00:02:09] Big organizations that's getting involved is Walmart bank of America, Disney, the NBA, Delta, the NFL and Walgreens. So that's pretty big right there. Hopefully I could get to talk to someone from this project and I could take a more deeper dive. Into it, but for now, the links will be in the show notes to this article and the links to their website also will be in the show notes.

[00:02:36] Now, my guest today is Marilyn Pinto and she is from the kids finance initiative. And KFI helps kids prepare for the real world when it comes to finance. So let's get into our discussion with Maryland. Welcome everybody to another episode of raising financial freedom today, I would like to work on Maryland.

[00:03:00] [00:03:00] So

[00:03:07] Marilyn. 

[00:03:08] Marilyn: [00:03:08] Thank you so much for having me. 

[00:03:10] Eric: [00:03:10] Nice to see you. So Berlin, how are you doing today? 

[00:03:16] Marilyn: [00:03:16] I'm doing great. I'm actually so excited to be on your podcast. So yeah, today's especially nice day. 

[00:03:21] Eric: [00:03:21] That's good Merlin. Let's get right into it with what's going on. The pandemic winding down. What is your opinion of how the financial, 

[00:03:33] Marilyn: [00:03:33] the last year and a half has really put to the lack of financial education and focus?

[00:03:37] I think more than it ever was in, in recent times. And thankfully at the end of the pandemic or the light at the end of the tunnel, I'm hoping to see more people who are actually. Taking more of an interest in this and being, and being a lot more focused on their financial freedom. And so I've already seen that in the last year and a half.

[00:03:57] It really has been a priority for whether it [00:04:00] was financial institutions or schools. It really has brought this topic into the forefront. So I'm really positive that this is going to happen. So 

[00:04:07] Eric: [00:04:07] you've been seeing some slight changes. Yes, I have. Okay. That's good. That's good. For my child's perspective.

[00:04:14] What is money to them? And what are some of the negative ways they've been introduced 

[00:04:18] Marilyn: [00:04:18] for one most parents, really, this depends on different cultures, but most cultures tend to not talk about money or the treated. They treat the topic as taboo kids. When they, the only introduction to money is when they needed to buy things.

[00:04:30] They aren't introduced to it in a way that they can leverage the tool. It's usually we are slaves to money. We needed to buy stuff, and I think that needs to change. And that is something. A lot of parents think that kids are going to learn about this in school, but that is one of the biggest mistakes that parents dilute themselves with thinking that the kids are going to learn this in school.

[00:04:48] And I don't just mean whether it's us curriculums or UK curriculum, that isn't a single school anywhere in the world that does enough to teach kids about money. And they are usually fallback [00:05:00] excuses that, oh, the kids are gonna learn this in economics or in business studies. But yeah. We know it's not the same thing.

[00:05:05] Economics and business studies do not teach kids how to deal with their own money. It doesn't teach them how to build a proper money mindset. It doesn't impact their behavior or their attitude towards your own money. And that is one of the big problems that we're seeing that schools think that they're doing this, but they are not doing it.

[00:05:21] Parents think the schools are doing it. And the final, the outcome is that the kids grew up not knowing, not having had being introduced to money in any, in any substantial way at all. 

[00:05:31] Eric: [00:05:31] You're also in Dubai right now. That's right. What are some of the differences that people look at money in Dubai, as opposed to another.

[00:05:42] Marilyn: [00:05:42] I wouldn't say it's that different. I've spoken to parents from so many countries and they all think that their kids have, are really spoiled with regard to money and people. I know people in Dubai thing that, oh my goodness, because of the, just because of the culture over here, because it's such a consumerist society, we tend to think that our kids are really spoiled as compared [00:06:00] to everybody else's, but I've seen kids from around the world and it's a problem we all share.

[00:06:05] No one has specific rights to it. Kids everywhere. Face the same problems. And it's really nothing that you can blame. I don't blame the kids at all. This isn't something that for kids, this is an unconscious and competence. They don't know that they don't know. And it's our duty as parents and as educators to make sure we take them on this journey from unconscious competence to unconscious competence.

[00:06:26] That's when they internalize and they know it so well that it actually becomes second nature for them. They don't even think about, uh, what they need to do. It just comes automatically. So 

[00:06:37] Eric: [00:06:37] now you work with a lot of kids and what S what are some of the craziest thing? What is the craziest thing? I would say that you've heard.

[00:06:48] Marilyn: [00:06:48] Okay. I've heard that had a 14 and a 15 year old, the assistants who were in my class and they had credit cards with no limit on them. So they had platinum cards with absolute, they could buy anything they wanted. And there wasn't [00:07:00] a, there wasn't a limit on those cards. And these girls had no idea about how credit cards work.

[00:07:05] When I asked them, have you ever seen a credit card statement? No idea what that meant. So for me, it was really crazy. The fact that they've never been there, they weren't told us they were just given platinum credit cards. And as part of the same class, we, I was asking the kids. Have you ever been, did your parents ever say no to you for anything that you asked for?

[00:07:23] And they had to, they were really thinking long and hard and they were like, no, I can't remember. Ever seeing the one, I was like, come on, you need to think back and tell me at least one time that your mom or dad put their foot down and said no, that, that isn't something that we can give you right now.

[00:07:38] And they thought about it and thought about it. And finally, one of the girls said, oh yes, yes. Okay. I find it. I was like, oh, thank goodness. Thank goodness. That is at least one example. And she said she wanted to go for, she wanted to go for a concert and she wanted front row seats. And her dad said, no, that is too expensive.

[00:07:54] I'm not getting your front row seats, but I will get you seats in the fall. So that was [00:08:00] a bummer. 

[00:08:00] Eric: [00:08:00] Oh my goodness. Wow. Wow. Unlimited, unlimited card with no 

[00:08:09] Marilyn: [00:08:09] unlimited card. Yep. No restrictions on it. 

[00:08:13] Eric: [00:08:13] Which I was given that one out. I wish I had that now. 

[00:08:19] Marilyn: [00:08:19] That's true. And it's, it's really sad because these kids had, they didn't even have any idea why we were shocked about that study and the fact that they had it.

[00:08:26] And they were like, for them, it was just so normal. They've always had it. And why, so that I think was a big eye-opener. 

[00:08:33] Eric: [00:08:33] What are some of the common myths and stigmas about money that you come across? There's 

[00:08:38] Marilyn: [00:08:38] Tom one for one, I think a lot of people think that, uh, they shouldn't talk to their kids about money or that their kids are too young or that we don't want to ruin their childhood.

[00:08:46] Let them just enjoy their childhood. They'll be corrupted by money soon enough. And that is such a sad thing because the best thing that we can give our kids is an early start with regard to money because. But they have brains at that age till the time they're in [00:09:00] their early twenties, their neuroplasticity is so high.

[00:09:03] They can learn so much and it gets embedded so firmly in their brain. So they learn faster. It's more effective. It's actually cheaper to teach them all of these things. And by saying that, oh, my kids are too young or they don't really need it. We're just dropping them off an opportunity. It'll be also robbing them of the opportunity of being able to compound that compounding interest.

[00:09:23] One of the most powerful forces in the world. And the only way you can do that, or the kids can take advantage of that is if they know about it early enough in life. And I think. Teaching this to kids early enough. And because, uh, statistically, most people, most people invest at the age of when they are in their late thirties or early forties.

[00:09:41] That's when they've settled down in life, that they have a little extra money in the bank and they're deciding where to put that in, but it's still late by then because they missed out on almost a decade and a half or almost two decades of compounding interest, which is very difficult to make up. So I think that is really, uh, that's a shame.

[00:10:00] [00:10:00] Eric: [00:10:00] And going back to what you were saying that Paris thinks that money is a corruption. In my opinion, I feel that money is a tool. So absolutely money corrupts people. I try to debunk that. W how do you feel about. 

[00:10:17] Marilyn: [00:10:17] I think money just makes you more of who you are. If you are a good person, it just gives you an opportunity to do more good.

[00:10:22] And that's what we need to focus on that money is just a tool. It just gives you, it just gives you leverage to, to be something, to do things. And that there are a lot of kids who come to the class and I asked them like, so do you really want to be rich? You guys want to be super rich. And a lot of them are like, no, I just want just enough of money.

[00:10:39] And I keep telling them, I think that is so sad. Because if you had it, just imagine if you had a lot of money, couldn't you help your parents more couldn't you help your family more couldn't you help society more. And if you make them look at it through this lens, they actually begin to think, oh, I never thought about it that way.

[00:10:56] And that's why I keep telling kids if you don't really want to be rich in [00:11:00] reality, you're being very selfish because by, by doing that, you are able to help so many more people. And I think by putting it in this sort of perspective that the kids, they didn't really understand it and it hits home for 

[00:11:10] Eric: [00:11:10] them.

[00:11:11] So here at financial reason, financial, we try to empower the parents to each the child, because you're not going to get it in schools today. And you're just not going to get it anywhere. And when the, from when the child wakes up until the child goes to bed, the first teacher they see is the parent. And the last teacher they see is the parent.

[00:11:35] What are some of the excuses? You see what parents. Don't want to teach day chunk. 

[00:11:42] Marilyn: [00:11:42] I think most parents think and rightly they are concerned that because they didn't learn about money, that they aren't really the right people to teach their kids about money or that because they have made mistakes in their life about money.

[00:11:53] Are they really the right people to be lecturing their kids? When, when they know they have messed up themselves and the way we treat this as for us. [00:12:00] For one parent engagement is very key. We insist on meeting the parents before they enroll their kids for the program with they're kept abreast of whatever we teach the kids.

[00:12:09] In fact, a lot of the kids' homework involves the parents, actively getting engaged in that mission. Um, and at the end of the program, we also have a class for the parents where we take them through what we have taught the kids and tell them, okay, now once we've done this program with your kids, but these are the next steps because it makes no sense if I teach your kids something and they go home and you're doing the complete opposite.

[00:12:28] But as far as. Yeah, they're a little hesitant to actually teach their kids. It's mainly because they haven't had this kind of program, this kind of education themselves, but, and when parents do try and teach the kids, it's not that kids listen, kids don't, especially because of the proximity bias, but as parents, we are too close to our kids for them to actually appreciate value of the advice that we give them.

[00:12:50] So this is something. Again, we need to take into consideration because parents will, it doesn't matter what I say anyway. They're not going to listen, which is true in a way, but that is mainly [00:13:00] because when parents talk to their kids about money, they switch into lecture mode. You shouldn't do this, you should be doing this.

[00:13:05] You should be saving. And when you switch into lecture mode, your kids automatically switch off. So we definitely try and talk to the parents. Talking to their kids in terms of stories and building up a story storyline to it. And then you've really got your kids hook line and sinker. Once you start telling them stories about money, which they find absolutely, absolutely interesting.

[00:13:24] And so that's a little bit of how we guide the parents in terms of, because every parent stands at a mountain of value, they have so much of experience and so much of value that they can share with their kids, but we just don't know how so we actually guide them to do that in a way that's really effective.

[00:13:40] Eric: [00:13:40] You are the founder of the kids finance initiative of what is the organization about and how were you pushing forward in financial literacy? 

[00:13:50] Marilyn: [00:13:50] So when I started this, Eric, I didn't intend to start a business. I was just looking to an actually enroll my kids for the program because as they were growing up, they were eight and 10 at the time.

[00:13:59] And I [00:14:00] wanted to enroll them for the program. I taught them about money because I could see that this was a big gap in the education. They weren't getting in school, but none of the programs out there I felt were good enough. I just felt they were try to advice and just very have three jars and things like that, which didn't really focus on the bigger aspect.

[00:14:17] I really felt that financial education is a lot more. Yeah. Than that. And so I thought, how hard could it be? I trained myself about the curriculum. I tried to teach them, but that didn't really go down so well, because like I said before, kids don't learn from your parents. It didn't go down so well, but when I start, but then I realized also that kids.

[00:14:36] They might not learn from me, but they would learn from a trained professional in the company at the appears. So we started the company, put them to the program and they absolutely loved it. And I also realized that this problem wasn't just one specific to my kids who were loads of other kids around who's parents believed, had the same problem.

[00:14:52] And that's how kids finance initiative got started. I also realized. Very early on that this is a skill that is so crucial to their [00:15:00] future wellbeing. This is something that they will need in order to step up and play full out and just live a life on their own terms, which is what I desperately want for my girls.

[00:15:08] And I think what any parent would want for that. So that's how I started the kids finance initiative. You could say it was a labor of love, not just for my kids, but for any kids who'd like to do differently. 

[00:15:20] Eric: [00:15:20] What did it feel like when 

[00:15:21] Marilyn: [00:15:21] you started it? I, I think, uh, looking back, I thought it was really brave because I just realized as time goes by, you realize how little you knew.

[00:15:29] I knew when I started, but it was also, I was not, uh, I disrupted the system because I was not from the academic circles, but it, that worked in my favor because I didn't know what rules. Oh, not to break. So I just went in, broke them all. And I think that that really helped because as I liked the way Naveen, Jane says it, if you want to really change an industry, you need somebody outside the industry to do that.

[00:15:50] Because if you're within the industry, you can blind blinders on you. Can't see you. You can see the faults of that. So being from outside the industry, it was very clear to me that this is something that is so [00:16:00] easily that we can teach them. And I could see the gaps. Very easily. Most people within the industry, within the academic circles, couldn't see it.

[00:16:07] They just saw it as, oh, we teaching the kids, economics, we're teaching them business studies. They're learning this, they're learning it through. No, it's not, it's completely different, but I really believe that me being outside the industry really gave me that, that, that sense of, okay. I can break all the rules because I'm not sure which ones I should be 

[00:16:23] Eric: [00:16:23] sticking to.

[00:16:24] When did you realize you had a passion for teaching funner? 

[00:16:28] Marilyn: [00:16:28] I think it came with competence. One, the more I studied, the more I read, the more I learned you get more confident in what you're doing. And the more classes that we ran, every batch we on is a little better than the one before, because we actually do like a black box thing.

[00:16:41] Okay. What could have gone wrong, but what could we do better? So I think it's that constant learning, the constant improvement as well. And a lot of reading, a lot of research and just generally for us, I believe at KFI it's not just what. It's also how we do it. So we are not just experts in teaching kids, [00:17:00] financial literacy.

[00:17:00] It's not just, we are not just experts in financial education. We're also experts in teaching it in ways that kids love to learn, which is really important. I think for any of us who have teenagers who are, or who has ever been at Dean, we understand how important that is. And that's something we take. We take very seriously because I really believe that kids don't know.

[00:17:19] Uh, favorite subject. What they do have is a favorite teacher. If they like the teacher, they liked the subject. And so that is something that we like to leverage off against. 

[00:17:29] Eric: [00:17:29] I see. What is the one resource you use the most? When trying to, 

[00:17:34] Marilyn: [00:17:34] we, I tend to not stick to any one particular resource, just because with kids, you need to switch it up a lot.

[00:17:40] And especially now that we are going, all of our classes have moved online. I really like to look at, so I don't. Yeah. Many presentation slides or something. It's just something that I like to have a discussion with them because I realized early on that teens don't learn by listening. They learn by debating, by discussing, by asking questions.

[00:17:57] So we put in really, we give them case [00:18:00] studies and they really love that. For example, there was this, we give them case studies of people who have learning really tantamount salaries are, and yet have racked up a credit card bills of over a million dirhams. And these stories really. Piqued your curiosity.

[00:18:15] It's something that they cannot understand. It's something that they want to know, how can they let this happen? What were they thinking? Were they even thinking and stories like this really seem to get their curiosity going? So I would say case studies is a really nice way to do that case 

[00:18:28] Eric: [00:18:28] studies. Okay.

[00:18:29] So now let's just say. Apparent does nothing. What would be some of the negatives that would happen if the parent just didn't do anything? 

[00:18:39] Marilyn: [00:18:39] Actually scary to think about that, but you will have kids who would get, take on a student loans or student debt without even understanding the actual price of that or the ramifications of that.

[00:18:49] You'd have student getting into credit card debt, just because. They don't know any better because they weren't taught how to forget about choose a credit card, but forget how to actually use one prudently. You would get [00:19:00] kids not knowing how to budget. You would, you would get kids taking up jobs just because they seem to offer a higher pay, not understanding the, the different aspects of the paycheck and what they could actually get in hand.

[00:19:11] You have kids. Not being able to step up and live a life on their own terms, just because they're dependent on their parents or their spouse or the government for help and or kids not being able to, to start a businesses when they have an idea because they are tied to their job and they can't afford to actually quit their jobs or kids who are, when there's a recession happening.

[00:19:31] They had no emergency funds or who are going to work for decades and decades without any savings or when they grow up. If you want to extrapolate that even more, who, who are scared about retirement, They know that they can't afford it, or who would love to give their family a sense of financial security and a better lifestyle and afforded, and that is just too painful to comprehend.

[00:19:50] And all of that is so simply so simply fixed by just teaching them about this. I keep saying it, teaching kids about money. It's not about money. It's about financial [00:20:00] freedom. It's about security. It's about self love and self care because there is such such a thing. Proven link between financial debt or financial stress, which then leads to gastric problems and heart problems and migraines and headaches and things like that.

[00:20:14] And then you extrapolate that further and that goes into mental health problems. I mean, over 50% of mental health issues are caused by people who have, who actually all money or are in debt. So it is really, it is something that affects every aspect of your life, life, your relationships, your job, your careers, your retirement.

[00:20:33] Everything would depend on your relationship with money. So why would we not fix that? Why would we not give our kids the best sort of stock that we can have? 

[00:20:41] Eric: [00:20:41] Good points, good points. What age would you would start? As 

[00:20:44] Marilyn: [00:20:44] soon as they say I want, it would be a good age to start.

[00:20:51] Eric: [00:20:51] Cause you got to change that

[00:20:56] this 

[00:20:56] Marilyn: [00:20:56] is what it thinks it's good. Yes, exactly. And [00:21:00] also kids, they form their concepts about money by the age of six and seven, by the age of nine, they have habits. Values are formed. So the earlier that you start, you actually imprint this on them early enough, which means they're going to remember it for longer, which means it's going to be more effective.

[00:21:13] So that's why I say, as parents, we often discount the value of an early start, but it is something that is so precious. It's the most precious thing that we can give our kids just because the earlier they learn it, the better they learn. I just because of the neuro the neuroplasticity of their brains, they just learn it so much better.

[00:21:28] They remember it for longer. It's hardwired in them because I've seen kids. I've taught kids right from seven, nine up to 22, 23 years old. And the later they come to us, the more, the little more, slightly more difficult it gets for them because they have a lot of unlearning to do. Whereas you start cheating kids before the age of 10 or 12.

[00:21:45] It is super easy. It's a piece of cake, the acuteness they want to learn. They don't have any. Bad habits to stop doing so for them, it's just learning for the older kids. It's a little bit of unlearning before they learn. And then you take that further and you'll see why in adults, it's [00:22:00] so difficult to change your behavior and the kids 

[00:22:02] Eric: [00:22:02] finance initiative.

[00:22:04] What ages. 

[00:22:06] Marilyn: [00:22:06] Take kids, right. From eight years up to 24, I know 24 doesn't sound like a kid, but as long as the prefrontal cortex, isn't properly wired in my book, they are kids and that takes up to the mid twenties to get done, so. Okay. Okay. 

[00:22:22] Eric: [00:22:22] Who's your biggest frustration when you're teaching it? 

[00:22:24] Marilyn: [00:22:24] No, there's nothing.

[00:22:25] It's honestly, the frustration is getting them to sign on or getting the parents to realize how big, a difference that this will make once the kids sign on, they might have some initial resistance because, oh my goodness, there's another program I'm signed up for. But in the first 15 minutes of telling them what this is about and what it can do for them, I like, honestly, I have.

[00:22:44] A single teen who has walked out of class or has said, oh my goodness, this is so boring. Or this is completely irrelevant because they can't, they know that this is one subject. This is one topic that is going to have a direct relation to their life. They can see the benefit. We take the trouble to show [00:23:00] them the why and the house.

[00:23:01] So I really don't see a frustration teaching the kids. It's an absolute pleasure. I really love that. I know people say teens are the most difficult demographic to teach and that's true, but I just think we just need to rethink the way we teach them. Most deans are disengaged and disinterested in school, but that's because they don't see the value of what you're learning.

[00:23:18] Then they're told it's if they ask why they. Because it, it could come up on the exam and you need to get a good grade and that's not motivation enough for them. So for us, whenever we teaching the kids, we make sure before we teach them any topic, we first start with why assignments and exits start with why and tell them this is why you need to learn it.

[00:23:37] This is how you're going to benefit you do that. And self-interest kicks in being not leaving the class at all. 

[00:23:44] Eric: [00:23:44] So then I'll hop on the opposite end of the spectrum. What do you love most about teaching them? 

[00:23:49] Marilyn: [00:23:49] I love watching the skills for a fall of their eyes. I just love that. Like, they, I can actually see that when we explain how credit cards work or we explain just something as [00:24:00] basic as needs and wants and impulse buying and how much it can cost them over the course of their lifetime or how then they can start investing.

[00:24:06] What a difference it will make to them in, in there by the time they're 35 or 40. But by seeing that, and by company. To the people around them, because at every part of the class, we ask them to go back to your parents and ask them what they have done about this, or ask them their experience in investing, ask them about their biggest financial mistakes.

[00:24:24] So the kids get a real life view about what things are without this. So actually seeing that and seeing their confidence grow, I think for me is one of them. It is one of the big things for me, because as they get more competent in the concepts of money and, and understanding how it works, it really builds up their self confidence as well.

[00:24:41] And when you see these two things come together in a team in a teenager, competence and confidence, it's just beautiful to see. 

[00:24:49] Eric: [00:24:49] That definitely sounds good. What action steps can a parent 

[00:24:53] Marilyn: [00:24:53] take? I would say start early or there is no such thing as, too early to start teaching your kids really start talking to them about [00:25:00] money, normalize, talking about money.

[00:25:01] That itself will make a huge difference. And don't lecture your kids. When you talk to money, talk about money, actually wrap it up in a story. I think as humans, we are hardwired to listen to stories. Teenagers and as kids even more. So if you wrap up your message in a story, you've got them, they're listening to you.

[00:25:20] You've got them eating out of your hand. So I think that's something that's really, that's really invaluable. The other thing I would say, which I think is quite important is as parents, we tend to focus on tactics and not on strategy. So we are very concerned about, should I give my kid a debit card or a credit card?

[00:25:35] How much allowance should I give them? What budgeting app should I use? None of that's important. There isn't any research either way to show that kids who have an allowance are smarter about money than kids who don't have an allowance and all of these things have their place. But I would say all of these things are tactics, what we need to focus on and what parents tend to forget is the strategy behind it.

[00:25:55] You need to think. Long-term you need to figure out what is your kids' [00:26:00] mindset? What is, how can you affect that? How can you change and modify their mindset and behavior? Because once your kids know that, then actually giving them a credit card or a debit card, once they know how to use it makes a huge mix makes a huge difference, because like I gave you that example.

[00:26:15] Could have kids who have platinum credit guts and who have no idea how to use them at all. So I would say focus more on the strategy and less on the tactics. That's that's another very key. Another way. Key point thing. If you get third point is a lot of parents are really interested in teaching their kids about investing.

[00:26:31] Like they want to enroll their kids for an investing glass and I advise them. Investing is good. And we should teach kids about investing. It's really key. It's a crucial part of the financial education portfolio, but investing is like the roof of the house. You can only put the roof of the house. If you have strong walls and a strong foundation.

[00:26:49] And for that, your kids need to learn the basics and most financial education programs. When they're teaching about investing, they jumped directly into investing. I've seen them all the time, let alone teaching your kids how [00:27:00] to play the stock market or about Bitcoin or, or how to trade. How can you teach this to kids when they don't understand the difference between debits and credits or the cost of debt or how to budget or even the importance of saving?

[00:27:13] So I'm very clear about the fact that investing is really important, but a financial education is a necessary precursor to investing. 

[00:27:22] Eric: [00:27:22] That is so true. What is the one? But people don't realize about money, that it 

[00:27:27] Marilyn: [00:27:27] gives him an opportunity to do so much more, that it gives them a feeling of it. Tony Robinson writes in his book, unshakeable that you can actually feel that you can actually be in a position where you are unshakable and that is something you can't put a price on.

[00:27:41] And if there is a way to do that, why would we not do that? Why would we not give this to our kids? But as parents, we are thinking so short term, they need to get good grades to get into a good college so that they can get a job, which pays them well. But nobody teaches them what to do with that paycheck once they get the job and then you start the whole cycle again, because they are then [00:28:00] spending more than they're earning, they get into credit card debt as a result, they get into the whole financial scam cycle.

[00:28:06] So it's something so small, like this can actually help them. Why would we not do 

[00:28:10] Eric: [00:28:10] that? Definitely it's and open and the same cycle that, you know, you just can't break. What is the best piece of advice for your, the 

[00:28:19] Marilyn: [00:28:19] parents out that financial education? Isn't rocket science. It's really simple to teach kids.

[00:28:24] It is a trainable skill and it's something that you can, you can see the returns are stratospheric. It's. As simple as that, it's, it's very simple to do. It's a trainable skill. Your kids will actually enjoy doing that. And the returns are stratospheric. 

[00:28:38] Eric: [00:28:38] All right, Marilyn, I want to thank you for sharing with us.

[00:28:42] For us getting to know kids finance initiative, let us know he could get in contact with you, how to get involved with the organization and what you may have coming up in the future. 

[00:28:54] Marilyn: [00:28:54] You can contact us on our website, which is kids finance initiative.com. We're also. [00:29:00] Um, Instagram on Facebook. So we're pretty active on social media.

[00:29:03] You can connect with me on LinkedIn and there, my name, Marilyn Pinto, I'm pretty active on the LinkedIn platform. I post a lot of articles about financial education as well. I know whether some of you are running. We are running summer programs as well. Our programs are all run online, but we're having quite a lot of interest from the U S as well in the last couple of months.

[00:29:21] So we just might be doing something to cater to that different time. Yeah. Okay, 

[00:29:25] Eric: [00:29:25] Berlin, once again. Thank you for coming on the show. 

[00:29:28] Marilyn: [00:29:28] Yeah, Eric, thank you so much. It was such a pleasure speaking with you. Thank you so much for having me 

[00:29:34] Eric: [00:29:34] now. There's one thing I know. Is one of the main reasons why reason financial freedom was started.

[00:29:41] You can't afford to do nothing. You can't sit there and say, Hey, you know what? I didn't get any of this. So, you know, my kids still be okay. I turned out, okay. No, no, no. This is a new era that we're in. And the financial wellbeing of your child is [00:30:00] crucial to your family, to your child, to you, your whole family line.

[00:30:06] This knowledge is crucial to the next generation within your family. And hopefully it will be passed on and on and on within your family. But please don't think the school system is looking out for your best interests or your child's best interest when it comes to financial literacy in all things money, and one or two classes are not going to do it.

[00:30:30] I'm just, sorry. It's not, it's something that has to be ongoing throughout the child's life. So as you wrap things up here, one of the things we would like you to do, if you can, on your podcast player or your favorite app, go there and rate the show, let us know how we're doing. Let us know. How you feel, and we could get a better assessment of how the show is doing and as always share with other parents and let them know about the [00:31:00] show.

[00:31:00] And until next time stay safe. 

[00:31:04] Introducer: [00:31:04] We really hope you enjoy this episode of financial freedom. The podcast stay connected with us directly through raising financial freedom.com. You can also join the discussion on social media, which you can also find links on our website. If you would like to speak to you.

[00:31:20] Please send us an email to info@raisingfinancialfreedom.com and as always thank you for pushing your mindset towards a better reality. This concludes the most thought-provoking portion of your day. Don't forget to please like, and subscribe to stay fully up to date until next time. Be kind to yourself and each other. .

 

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Eric Yard

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