Raising Cash Smart Kids

Every now and again, I meet someone who is new to the area of financial education, and when that happens I find that I need to go back to basics and explain why it is that we believe business experience is a vital part of a well-rounded financial education.

I find that many people get focused on the earning of money when they think about business for kids. Many people see business as difficult, and stressful, and as a complicated way to make money. It seems to them that understanding business is optional, as most kids will never need that understanding.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Kids gain so many benefits from running a business, above and beyond the money they may earn.

Business Understanding Benefits Consumers and Employees, As Well As Entrepreneurs

Even as a consumer, if you understand how business works, you are much less likely to be conned, overcharged, or exploited. As an employee, your understanding of the business model your employer uses will make you more valuable, help you to make the right choices when using your discretion, and enable you to choose the right time and the right supporting arguments to ask for that raise.

Business Experience Develops Character

Quite apart from any financial benefit, running a business develops your child across a range of personal qualities. A business has been described as “one of the best personal development programs available”.

Whether it is dealing with unhappy customers, trying to make sales, managing contractors, or managing their own emotions of excitement, apprehension or disappointment, doing business will put your child in learning situations which develop his or her character and attitude. Business provides the best possible feedback – immediate and accurate. If you get your marketing message right, customers show up. If you treat your customers badly, they go elsewhere.

We have devoted ourselves to shielding kids from the “harsh realities” of the world, but a little controlled exposure to reality is very important preparation for real life!

Business Experience Builds Confidence

Doing business enables a child to negotiate with adults on an equal footing, as a professional supplier of good or services. The experience of being taken seriously is incredibly important, particularly in the tween and early teen years, when our culture really doesn’t offer kids much opportunity to interact with adults as peers.

I cannot stress enough how important it is for kids to have the sense that they can provide something of value, which adults will take seriously. Kids are not stupid – they know when adults are cooing “oh, that’s lovely” about a painting or poem, but don’t really mean it. They won’t treject condescending praise – any praise is better than no praise – but they hunger for real, valid affirmation. They yearn to be able to do something worthwhile, and be appreciated for their contribution with no allowances required for their age or cuteness.

Once a child knows their accomplishments are genuinely impressive at an adult level, it relieves a primal anxiety about how they will make their own way in the world as adults.

Too many of our kids never get this sense of their own capability, and become children in adult bodies, still uncertain and anxious about their ability to function in the adult world. Early business experience can provide that vital sense of competence and self-sufficiency, even when the actual business earnings are no more than a few dollars.

Business Experience Teaches The Real Value Of Money

When a child is too young to have a regular job, the only way they will learn the connection between providing something of value and receiving money in return is to have a business.

As we all know, the “something for nothing” mentality is at plague proportions in our culture, and it causes a lot of misery. Early business experience, coupled with parents who are responsible about allowances, will give kids a good, solid foundation of visceral knowledge that money comes as a result of providing value – and that they have something of value to offer.

What better attitude to instil in your kids?

Of course, it is also important to teach them how to manage their money responsibly – to save, invest, give, and to make wise spending decisions. Business experience is not the be-all and end-all of financial education.

Business education, however, makes an important contribution to financial understanding, which cannot be replicated using allowances alone.

This is why we created the Cash-Smart Kids program, to provide an integrated approach to financial education – one that covers all the bases.

Jenny Ford is a financial educator, holder of a B.A.(Hons) in Psychology, a Diploma in Training And Assessment Systems, and an Advanced Diploma in Business Management, and mother of three girls, all of whom started businesses aged between nine and twelve. Jenny’s blog can be seen at Raising Entrepreneurs.

Enter the Cash-Smart Kids YouTube Video Competition – do you know a child with a business? Make a video and they could be featured in a new book to be published in 2009.

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very now and again, we get some feedback from our subscribers, and having been raised on the old adage “Don’t Get A Big Head”, I am usually reluctant to share it.

However, this man has such passion for his mission, I just had to publish his comments. If you’re in the UK, you might have his program at a school near you one day.

Hi Chris and Jenny,

Love what you’re doing and how on the ball you are… got to be, there is a mission, A GOAL to be achieved, to make this a better world for our kids !!!

As you know this is a global problem, kids and many adults are not financially educated and scared to do anything, it is the regular challenge that I’m sure you and I, all come up against.

That is why I have set up GET BUZZY Education, I have been involved in using and teaching personal development for the last 16 years and it has changed my life in so many ways, especially being introduced to goal setting, this is why in a moment of challenge and inspiration I wrote “Millionaire mind at 9″, because at 36 years of age I was introduced to goals, which I should have been taught in school, at least at 9 y.o.

From 35 years in the workforce, 25 yrs of that running and building businesses and 16 years of that motivating and teaching adults and kids in many environments. I came to realise and investigated that there is a lack of materials for kids in 2 areas. That is goals and financial education.

I did workshops for 15 to 20 year olds at a college where there were 4000+ students and the Head principal told me they run no classes on financial education, my workshops were about the amazing opportunities that are around in the way of multiple income streams and yet we are still teaching “go out and get a job” ????

My experience is that all kids have goals and if they are unleashed, they will do amazing things now and in the future and many will make the world better. I did another class on monday with 80 kids from 6 to 11 years with my ” Magical Achievement Tree” an introduction to goals and this also involves feedback, interaction and involvement from parents, one of aims.

They all got it and even the principal was surprised and she commented how the kids all got involved and knew what they wanted, it was a real joy !

Goals to me are where it all starts and many goals require funding and that is why I also promote getting financially educated to all ages.

Regards, Thanks and Best wishes,

Live, Love & Laugh

Joe C Estrada (Mr GOALS)

EDUCATE (kids) to SUCCEED – GET BUZZY Education – www.getbuzzy.org – Kids make the future

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Today we welcome back Amanda Van Der Gulik, writing from the scenic Prince Edward Island, home of Anne of Green Gables.

Dear Parents,

I am presently in Prince Edward Island on a wonderful two week vacation with my 6 and 4 year old and my ever supportive husband. We are having an amazing time!

My husband and I went last night to see the newest island musical, “The Nine Lives of L.M. Montgomery”. It was a musical biography of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life. Maud (as she
preferred to be called) was our famous Canadian author of the beloved, “Anne of Green Gables“ book.

The musical was absolutely incredible. As we were watching this incredibly accurate account of her life I was

inspired to focus on the life lessons that we can learn from Lucy Maud Montgomery’s life story that we can share with our children to help them to grow up to become strong, independent,  entrepreneurial souls.

Here are some of the lessons that I learned last night:

1. Although Maud grew up in a world that was quite negative and dreary she was determined to write stories, novels, and poems that would inspire readers. She chose optimism over pessimism in her writing. It was a place where she could live the life that she really wanted to live, with no limits.

Here are the lessons of perseverance, determination, and the desire to leave behind her a better legacy than was her actual life experience.

I was just reading an article today, and I thought I’d share it with you all, because it really makes an excellent point.

The writer moved into a new house, and found a “buried treasure”. I’ll let you read the details for yourself, but the point of the article is wondering what sort of mindset you would need to have to stash what was, for the time, a small fortune, in a corner of your house and keep no record of doing so.

Why do people have such fearful attitude towards money?

What’s worse, if such attitudes existed in our family in the past, how do we free ourselves of them in the here-and-now?

Because if we don’t, those inherited attitudes will poison any efforts we make to get ahead financially, or to teach our kids better habits with money. As Catherine writes,

While it is obvious that you have inherited some wonderful family traits like beautiful blue eyes, musical talent, sense of humor, passion for the arts or a grand work ethic, there is also a very good chance that you have also inherited a strong fear or even aversion to wealth and abundance.

It seems ludicrous to think that we might have fear of or aversion to wealth and abundance, when we think that we desire those things so passionately.

The messages, though, are quite subtle, yet pervasive.

For example, are you offended and annoyed by the blatant prejudice against wealthy people displayed by mainstream TV dramas?

Or hadn’t you noticed?

Choosing an example at random from my recent experience, my family watched an episode of Law And Order SVU yesterday. In this program, a young woman fell from a penthouse balcony. During the course of the program, the wealthy family who owned the penthouse were gradually exposed to have little or no family affection, an amoral willingness to manipulate the system to prevent their kids from suffering the consequences of breaking the rules, a sense of entitlement, and incestuous emotional dynamics. Oh, and the habit of procuring prostitutes for the boys in the family from age 13 or so.

This is not uncommon. In fact, if you run through in your mind the various protraits of wealthy families, both documentary and dramatised, can you find even ONE example of a hard-working, self-sacrificing, loving parent who does all the right things for their kids in terms of encouragement and emotional support – and is wealthy?

We are told, by our family programming and by our culture, that if we become wealthy we will be unloving parents.

I personally know several families who have millions in assets and/or seven figure incomes. For the most part, they are more caring, emotionally mature, and pleasant to associate with than your average office worker, school teacher, or nurse.

It bugs me when I see these lousy portrayals of wealthy families in the media. If they were consistently stereotyping black people or Mexicans in the same way, there would be uproar and protests in the street! I know the image doesn’t match the reality.

Sure, some wealthy people have bad attitudes, especially those who were born into wealth.

But on average, you will find more love, compassion, emotional maturity and spiritual development in a bunch of self-made millionaires than you will in just about any group of employees.

So, there you are – that’s one place to look for those hidden fears and aversions to being wealthy. Let’s see how many others you can come up with for yourselves …

Image: freeparking

Today we welcome back Amanda Van Der Gulik, Mompreneur and enthusiastic advocate of teaching kids good money habits from an early age.

“Money Doesn’t Grow on Trees!”

Does this saying sound familiar to you?

I bet you are probably one of many who heard this often growing up, right?

If not, you were lucky.

Let’s turn a new leaf and start raising our own children a little differently.

How about we change the way we answer our kids when they want something that requires money that we do not have or refuse to give.

For example:

Jonny wants a new pair of brand-name, high-endurance, running shoes.

“Dad, I really need a new pair of ‘brand-name’, running shoes. They are the coolest and all the kids have them. I want a pair too! If I don’t get a pair of them, then Shawn’s going to beat me at basket ball and you know, I’m 10 times better than him at basket ball!”

Here are two different replies:

Dad replies with,

“What do you think I’m made of?  Money doesn’t grow on trees you know!“

or

Dad replies with,

“Well son, if those shoes mean that much to you and you truly feel that Shawn will have an unfair advantage over you in basket ball, then what is your plan? How do you plan to buy those shoes?

Can you think of something that you can do, or make, or service, that can raise you the money so you can buy your own pair?

If you really want those shoes, son, then you’re going to have to come up with a good way to buy them. I believe you can do it.

Come back to me when you have a plan and we’ll see if we can work it out together.

Good luck kiddo.”

In Dad’s first reply, Dad shuts Jonny’s hopes down but ALSO teaches him, although unintentionally, that life is all about ’scarcity’. Jonny learns from these negative replies that money is hard to come by. That it is difficult to get what you want in life. That other people will always have more than you.

And the list goes on and on…

On the other hand in Dad’s second reply, you can see that Dad is turning on the creative juices in his son’s mind, “okay, so I want these new shoes,  how can I go about making the money to get them myself?”.

And as well as getting Jonny’s creative juices flowing on some easy ways for kids to make money, Dad is also teaching some other incredibly valuable life lessons.

Like: Abundance, Optimism, Faith in his son to find a way to fulfil his desire.

He is teaching him to be responsible for himself as well as encouraging him to come up with a plan and then to work together on making that plan come to action.

This alone will diminish any thoughts of theft as an option.

So how are you talking to your own kids when it comes to money?

See if you can pay attention to the next time your child asks you about money.

Listen to your own reply and then meditate on it for a minute or two.

How did that answer come across to your child?

Was your child turned off of money, or encouraged to take responsibility to come up with a creative way to attract their desired goods?

I hope you have enjoyed this thoughtful session, and I look forward to writing the next. If you have any specific topics that you would like me to talk about please just leave a message and I will do my best to answer your topics of interest where concerned with kids and money.

Cheers…Amanda van der Gulik…Excited Life Enthusiast!

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For 50 Free Money Making Ideas for Kids click here!
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Shonika Proctor offers her unique perspective on one way to escape a life that’s, like, whatever …

Get a Teen Life Coach or Just Get a Life?

There they go again – your parents, hounding you to go see a teen life coach.

Maybe a teen life coach can help you find happiness, they say.

Maybe a teen life coach can help you find direction.

Help you get out of this rut, this funk you seem to be wasting your whole life away in these days.

Don’t They Get It?

When your parents were your age, they were being primed to go out and get a job when they graduated. But you don’t live in your parents’ generation – and you know it.

You’re not blind. You watch television. You hear the stories:

• Skyrocketing Unemployment!
• Economy Takes a Nosedive!
• Layoffs Layoffs Layoffs!
• Worst Job Market Ever!
• Job Turnovers Faster

There is no such thing as job security anymore, and you’ve already given up hope that there will be any social security money left for you when you retire. If you retire.

Screw that!

No wonder you’ve gotten so apathetic about your future. Don’t they see it? What the heck do you have to look forward to? And how is a teen life coach supposed to help?

Well I’ll tell you:

Doing Your Own Thing

You’re no dummy. You know the only real way to make it in your generation, in this world, not the world of 50 years ago (or even 15!) is to work for yourself. Numero uno.

Like you keep saying – you’re the only one you know you can count on 100% of the time. So, for a life that’s more than scrimping and saving and breaking your back to make ends meet and still not getting by, you need to forge your own way. Blaze your own trail. Not live out the fantasy of a life laid out for you by parents, teachers, counselors, civic and religious leaders, people who may or may not love you, may or may not have your best interests at heart, who may or may not realize the life they’re talking about is a fantasy!

It used to exist. But it doesn’t anymore.

The old way is dead. The new way is you. Or, put another way, whatever you want enough to make it be.

Now a teen life coach might possibly be able to help. But there’s someone else who is likely to be able to help you even more than a teen life coach – and that’s:

A Teen Business Coach

Plainly put: self-employment, freelancing, going into business for yourself is your best shot of living the kind of life you want to live. The kind you may or may not have already given up on.

There is a future for you. And a business coach can help you find it.

If visions like these fill you with dread

• a long daily commute stuck in traffic with thousands of other poor slobs like you, on your way to or from a job you hate working for someone you despise for a pittance of a paycheck that (for an extra kick in the face) the government takes half of anyway -

then it’s no wonder your parents want you to seek help. You’re probably already miserable about it all, and it hasn’t even started yet. And you’re certainly not trying to hide it. What would be the point?

But a therapist or a shrink isn’t what you need. You’re not crazy. And you’re not sick. You’re just disturbed – and as well you should be.

To whom much is given, much is expected. That hasn’t changed. But what are you supposed to do about it?

A teen business coach can help you take that festering knotted mass of frustration and confusion, and turn it into something that could give you a life that you deem is worth living. A life lived on your own terms. In charge of your own destiny.

The Clear-Cut Difference

There’s no shame in seeking help, guidance, and support. There’s only shame in letting your vast potential go to waste.

School can be a fantastic resource if learning is happening there. But sometimes the learning you need simply isn’t being offered there. And that’s when you need to look elsewhere to get your needs met.

One way to look at it is like the difference between the two types of coaches being described in this article is like this:

A Life Coach helps you get

your you-know-what together.

A Business Coach helps you figure

out what your you-know-what is!

Whether you opt for a teen life coach or a teen business coach, the mere fact that you’ve decided to seek help and support in taking charge of your life is an enormous step in making that change happen.

Shonika Proctor, aka the Nika’Nator, is a youth and teen entrepreneur coach. She helps aspiring and emerging young entrepreneurs to demolish drama and build dreams. www.renegadeceos.com.

Today’s post is a guest post from Amanda van der Gulik, from TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com. Amanda emailed my daughter Rachael recently, asking if Rachael would do an interview for Amanda’s blog, and I liked Amanda’s site so much I asked her if she would share some of her material with my readers, too.

Stay tuned for news of when Rachael’s interview will appear on Amanda’s blog. In the meanwhile, enjoy Amanda’s great motivational tips for kids and adults alike.

Hello Fellow Parents of Kid Entrepreneurs,

I was honoured to be asked to write a post for Jenny.

I really like what she teaches. And her kids are amazing!

A little about me: who is Amanda van der Gulik?

I am a homeschooling mompreneur who is dedicated to helping parents raise their kids financial IQ’s.

Jenny and I seem to have a lot in common and plan to work together to help give our kids the best start to their financial lives that we can.

Did you know that the main reason young couples today divorce is because of financial stress?

Did you also know that the majority of bankruptcies today is with young adults under the age of 30!

We can give our kids a better chance in life with both their finances as well as their relationships with their future spouses by simply giving them a good financial foundation to grow from.

I will be writing a series of posts for Jenny and she will be doing the same for me on my own blog. Today I will begin by talking to you about the Law of Attraction. We achieve what we conceive and believe.

In other words you first need to dream, then you need to believe that you will achieve your dream from the depths of your soul and then you will achieve your dreams.

I highly recommend you get your child started on creating their own ‘vision board’. This is a board that they can hang on their wall in their bedroom somewhere where they will see it on a regular basis.

I suggest hanging it in front of their desk or even attach it to their ceiling above their beds. If they have their own bathrooms then I suggest hanging their vision board opposite their toilet so that while they visit this important room on a continuous basis they can digest their vision.

So what is a ‘vision board’?

Okay, a vision board is a board that you create a collage on with picutres drawings of the different goals that your child would like to achieve or have.

Here are some steps on how to help your child create his or her own vision board:

1. Plan a special time to sit down as a family.

2. Have each family member make a list of all the goals they would like to achieve or have or be. Here are some questions that may help your child to come up with some of his or her visions:

• What kind of house would you like to live in?
• What kind of car would you like to drive?
• What kind of clothes would you like to wear?
• What places would you like to visit?
• Would you like to have a private jet or space ship?
• What kind of boat would you like to have?
• Who would you like to meet?
• Who are the people you would like to hang out with?
• What about your body, how healthy would you like to be?
• Are there any sports you would like to be good at?
• Are you interested in the arts, is there anything that you
  would like to achieve there?
• What kind of person would you like to be? Would you like to
  be more confident?
• Would you like to be more kind?
• How much money would you like to be earning every month,
  automatically?
• Which charities would you like to make a huge impact on?
• How many children would you like to have?
• How many and what kind of pets would you like to own?
• What does your future spouse look like and what kind of
  character is he/she?

3. Now get some old magazines or look online for photos (just make sure to set the search engine to ’safe search’ mode first before asking for any photos or else you may have your child seeing photos that you would otherwise not like them to see.) I recommend using www.Google.com photo search or www.flickr.com.

4. Let your child have some fun being creative and encourage them to dream BIG!

5. Now choose a spot to hang the board where your child is most likely to see it many, many times a day.

6. Every morning have a look at your child’s vision board and go over their goals by having them say out loud,

“I am so happy and grateful now that I have ….built my dream house….. and/or…..filled my
closet with the most beautiful clothes…..and/or…… I am the best player on
my school’s baseball team….helped 50 people on my favourite charity by giving them the opportunity to eat healthy food….etc.”

The key is to have them say it as if they have already accomplished their goals and dreams.

They need to make their subconscious minds believe that their goals have already been achieved to make it become a reality. No one is ever successful until they absolutely believe from the depths of their souls that they are a success already!

It’s amazing how this simple vision board can make your child’s dreams a reality.

It serves as a constant reminder of why they are doing what they are doing to achieve their dreams. It will help them keep their focus when the rough days approach.

I highly recommend that you also create your own vision board.

Being a role model really makes a huge impact on your child. They will take their vision boards much more seriously if you also have one. And it’s fun to see your dreams as if they have already happened!

I recently found a website www.ActLikeARichKid.com that havecreated a system for you to make your
vision boards turn into a movie that really makes your dreams come to life! I have used them to create my own mind movie which I watch every morning when I wake up and every evening before I go to bed. The movies use moving photos and emotional music that really bring your dreams to your heart centre.

Here, watch mine to get an idea:

As you can see in my mind movie above, I created that one for my whole family, my kids love seeing their new bedrooms and are constantly asking me to watch our mind movie. My 6 year old daughter has even come up with a business plan because she wants to have a water bed, so she’s decided to start up her own face painting business to pay for it!

The power of the law of attraction and the usage of vision boards and mind movies is absolutely incredible.

Have fun, and let Jenny and I know how successful your own vision board and mind movie become!

Cheers…..Amanda van der Gulik….Excited Life Enthusiast!

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FREE E-BOOK: “50 Easy Ways for Kids to Make Money”

To claim your free copy, visit: www.TeachingChildrenAboutMoney.com

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My daughters will probably hate me for this in the end, but I have to keep talking about the things they say!

As they get older, they are encountering money situations more often, so I get more opportunities to hear how they think about money. I have to admit, sometimes I am just blown away by what comes out of their mouths.

Our oldest quit her job at McDonald a few months ago, in favor of a career in internet marketing. Her current ambition is to be a copywriter. But she has had a few health challenges, which have slowed her down from acting on most of her grand plans, and as a result, her cash flow has been dramatically reduced.

A friend of mine was asking her how she’s coping with her financial situation, and she came out with the following profound observation.

“I’m poor,” she said. “But I’m not really poor. I’m only poor in the sense that I don’t have any money. I’m not poor in the sense that I have no way to get money.”

How good is that?

It is such a profound statement that I am still impressed, two days later.

She is completely un-stressed, even though she can’t do the things all her employed friends are doing. She knows that money is available, if she really wants it. The sense of security in that awareness is absolutely priceless.

Whatever she does with the rest of her life, it will not be shaped by a sense of powerlessness and desperation. She has enough entrepreneurial attitude to find ways to make money, wherever she is in life. If she is not making money, she knows that is her own choice, and not the tyranny of an uncaring Universe.

This sense of self-reliance is something that most adults lack, let alone kids of fifteen.

Hearing this quiet confidence makes us realise that the effort we have put in over the years, teaching her about money, has all been worthwhile.

One of the joys of raising money-savvy kids is those times when you get a really clear demonstration of the difference between the mindset of your average kid, and the mindset of your own, money-savvy kids.

My twins reported this conversation with one of their best friends. Since Rachael went to World Internet Summit, both Erin and Rachael have been clear in their minds that they are going to be millionaires. They have designed their dream home, and their plan is that they will share this home with a particular friend.

Rachael told me about this conversation with the friend:

Rachael: You will need to pay rent to us, if you live in our house.

Friend: Why?

Rachael: Well, we will have paid for the house, and you won’t have, so you will have to pay rent.

Friend: But I am just going to live with you.

Rachael: No, you will have a job, or a business, and you will pay rent.

Friend: Why should I have to do that? You will have plenty of money.

Rachael looked at this girl, across the gulf of years of education and practical experience about the way the world works, and simply said, “If you want to live in our house, you will have to pay rent. That’s how it works.”

Now, of course, if things go according to plan, the twins will have more than enough money to carry a free-loading friend. But why should they? It’s not good for them, and it’s not good for the friend.

What astounded me was that the friend, at age 13, still believed she was entitled to benefit from someone else’s money, money they had worked hard for, just because they had it. When she had done nothing to earn her own.

I realise that this is a common thought process in many 13-year-olds, but listening to how ours think, and the way they are educating their peers, I have to say that the fact that we have all these teenagers out there with an entitlement mentality is not because they are incapable of thinking responsibly – it is more evidence of widespread neglect and irresponsibility on the part of parents.

I can’t blame parents, because of course many of them are woefully uneducated, too.

I sympathised with Rachael, and suggested that she bring her friend over one day to learn about making money for herself.

We speak disparagingly of “dead end” jobs like flipping burgers, but an entrepreneurial teen can use a job in fast-food to lay the groundwork for massive wealth. This story just out in the Daily News Journal of Murfreesboro, Tennessee:

Twenty-five-year-old James Hatton Jr. considers flipping burgers an art, although many believe working fast food is “dead-end job.”

“I think I proved them wrong when I bought a house at 18,” said Hatton, an assistant manager of a McDonald’s in Smyrna and Backyard Burgers in Brentwood.

Hatton has bought and flipped 16 houses since his first purchase seven years ago. Flipping a house involves buying property below market price, renovating it and quickly reselling it for a profit.

Money and helping others fuel Hatton’s passion. He hopes to have a net worth of $1 million next year. He said he’s about a quarter of a million shy.

Hatton saves the money he makes working 80 hours a week at the McDonald’s at 346 Lowry St. and Backyard Burgers and buys property.

He said what he does is “common sense” and a proven method for making money.

“If you know where a pot of gold is, wouldn’t you go get it?” Hatton asked.

For him, real estate is that pot of gold.

Hatton works hard for the money, at this stage of his life, holding down a full-time job at McDonalds and another job at Backyard Burgers.

However, a net worth of $750,000 is ample return for a few years of hard work – and he is well on track to make his million long before the age of 30.

Real estate is difficult for the under-18s, because they can’t legally enter into contracts, but learning the ins and outs of property investing as a teenager can certainly give a young person a massive head start the day they turn 18.

Hatton has clearly been keeping his ear to the ground, because he is branching out into alternative sources of income beyond the traditional real estate investing path.

He is releasing his first book, “Flippin’ Burgers to Flippin’ Millions,” in local bookstores in Tennessee today.

The book currently is available online for $10 at www.jameshattonjr.com.

His book is about avoiding the pitfalls of debt and managing personal finances based on Biblical principles.

Hatton also has released a DVD demonstrating how he flipped a house.

Each week, he hosts a live call-in talk show, More Money Mondays, on WMRB 910 AM Gospel Radio in Columbia.