Raising Cash Smart Kids

Young people who aspire to one day start their own business, or see an existing enterprise grow, are being encouraged to take part in the Young Entrepreneurs Program being offered this summer at the Small Business Development Center (SBDC) hosted by College of the Canyons.

The Young Entrepreneur Program (YEP) is a free, four-week-long course designed for young people from age 14 to 27.

“There are many young people in our community with dreams of pursuing their passions through business endeavors,” said Paul De La Cerda, Director of the COC Small Business Development Center. “But all too often these budding entrepreneurs have no guidance or knowledge about how to get started. So we launched a special program specifically for them.”

Through a variety of creative partnerships with local business owners the YEP will offer students free business counseling, while implementing business training programs in the areas of management, finance, marketing, sales and eCommerce by using a variety of outreach and delivery methods — including websites, blogs, social networking sites, virtual reality games, youth-oriented trainers and business simulation products.

In addition YEP participants will be partnered with a local business to brainstorm and create a new commercial product and accompanying business model — which will then be entered into a region wide business plan competition.

“This new program will aid participants in the development and operation of part time businesses – which could eventually lead to full time operational status – all while they complete their junior high, high school or college education,” said Bruce Getzan, COC Dean of Economic Development.

Source: KHTS Radio News

I read a great blog post yesterday from Dave Ramsay, which started:

Some people say, “Timmy’s so young. I want him to enjoy being happy and innocent.  Money is a worry for grown-ups, not kids.”

I say, “We’re raising a whole generation with ’sucker’ stamped on their foreheads because we’re not teaching them.”

Your job as a parent is not just to keep your child happy. You’re raising a future grown-up who needs to be able to deal with grown-up matters. If you teach little Timmy how to handle money responsibly, then grown-up Timmy will be better equipped for a richer life.

Read the rest of Dave’s post at daveramsay.com.

I think Dave makes a very good point here – we are all questing for happiness, and we all operate on the assumption that is life is easy, we will be happy. Therefore, we try to make life easier for our kids, in the expectation that they will then be happier.

The truth about happiness, however, is that the ease or difficulty of life is not the issue. The issue is how we deal with life. Competence breeds happiness. The ability to handle one’s responsibilities breeds happiness. A sense of self-reliance and self-direction breeds happiness.

“Cotton wool kids”, who are sheltered from “harsh reality”, never have the opportunity to learn how to deal with life and manage responsibilities in a gradual manner, with parental support. They remain infantilised until the day that parental safety blanket is ripped away – by death, divorce, or the need to move away from home – and then they are suddenly, shockingly, exposed to situations for which they are woefully unprepared.

Needless to say, there are not happy at that point.

However, even during the “cocoon” phase, studies show that kids who have everything done for them suffer from anxiety and depression at a greater rate – and as the post-war generations have progressively shielded their kids from more and more of life’s harsh realities, the rates of depression in the population have soared.

Human beings instinctively know that life takes effort. We enjoy the moments of rest and freedom, but we enjoy them because of the contrast with “real life”. In the absence of major challenges from the outside, we hunt for “problems” amongst the minor ups and downs of daily life.

Kids as young as eight are worrying that they will have to support their parents financially when they grow up. These are comfortably middle-class American kids I am talking about. Suze Orman wrote an article for the Readers Digest in which she recounted the story of visiting a third grade class and asking them what their financial worries were. One child piped up with “I am worried that Mum and Dad will run out of money when they are too old to work and I will have to take care of them.”

Expecting this to be a rare thought, perhaps due to a particular family situation, Suze said “Does anyone else have that worry?” – and about half the class raised their hands.

Data shows that the greatest risk factor for bankruptcy is being middle-class and having children. These are some of the most pampered and protected children on the planet. These are the kids whose parents want them to “just be kids”.

These are the kids carrying huge financial worries – and unable ever to talk to anyone about it.

“Run along and play, don’t you worry about that” won’t cut it.

We need to prepare kids to deal with money from the day they first want to spend it. We need to talk openly with kids about financial issues – at an age-appropriate level. Most importantly, we need to recognise that they can and do think very responsible thoughts about money issues – but without the perspective or knowledge required to feel confident about that responsibility.

We don’t shield kids from problems when we tell ourselves “money is a worry for grown-ups, not kids” – we just isolate them from the solutions.

PR: wait… I: wait… L: wait… LD: wait… I: wait… wait… C: wait… SD: wait…

From last week’s MyCentralJersey.com comes news of another great initiative.

Middle school and high school students will create their own businesses – working alongside successful New Jersey business owners — at the Young Entrepreneur’s Academy, an eight-week, Summer Saturday series, July 11-August 23 at the Academic Resource Center, which serves middle and high school students in Essex and Union Counties.

Open to boys and girls ages 11-17, YEA! uses the fundamentals of entrepreneurship to promote creativity, basic understanding and skills in money management, business concepts and financial literacy. It encourages students to frame their dreams, and current interests into future money making and career satisfying professional options. Using tactical problem-solving approaches, the program enhances confidence, creativity, self esteem and self reliance.

It’s so great to see these small programs popping up – of course, you can’t hope to get all the concepts across in just a handful of Saturdays, but exposure to the concepts is a great first step, and the kids will retain some of the material, each in their own way.

At least there are summer activity options beyond making candles and going to camp these days!

Image: riot jane

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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Molin Upper Elementary School Principal Dave Archambault asked faculty and the business community a simple question: “What happens when you inspire more than 75 fifth-grade students to create an invention or new business idea?”

On Friday, Archambault was pleased with the answer.

“This is great — we have a lot of great ideas,” Archambault said.

From eyeglasses fitted with windshield wipers to clear one’s view in a rainstorm to a “sweet flavored gum” that was claimed to have the ability to bring about world peace, the second annual Young Entrepreneurs Contest showcased students’ creativity.

The contest, sponsored by the Newburyport Education and Business Coalition as well as teachers Ellie Bailey, Mary Ann Daley and Carol Snow, included special exercises for students to go along with teaching students about business and sociology.

David Strand, president and owner of Strand Marketing, was brought into the Molin School to assist in creating and presenting the ideas that inspired entrepreneurship and encourage fifth-graders to come up with their own ideas about business.

Read the rest of the story in The Newburyport News.

I love hearing about initiatives such as these.

Gradually, ever so gradually, the traditional education system is being infiltrated by little bursts of entrepreneurial spirit.

These kids participated in simulations, where some of them played the role of bankers, some the rols of suppliers, and others represented retailers. Once a supplier had “won” the business of a retailer, the young retail entrepreneurs then had to persuade the bankers to finance their purchase of the stock.

These simulations are a fantastic way to provide kids with a solid learning experience when it comes to business concepts. We encourage the families in our Cash-Smart Kids program to engage their kids with “mini” business situations and simulations whenever possible.

Kids are remarkably creative – I loved the description of one young inventor’s product, the “my-Cod”. This fish-shaped contraption would allow swimmers to listen to their iPods through a swimming “fish” broadcasting when placed in a swimming pool.

I really think that one would be a goer!

I found some nifty tools on a financial education website made by the Australian Government today. You can take a Financial Health Quiz (I scored 86 out of 100 on my first try, but the cute part is you get to do it over until you get all the answers right if you want to – great for kids!) or use a range of calculators for Savings with compound interest and Loans with reducible interest. There is also a nice little Financial Basics handbook you can download in .pdf form.

These are all neat tools that you can use with your kids to start them thinking and talking about money ideas.

Remember, though, that thinking and talking are only a small part of the puzzle – you need to make sure they follow through by taking ACTION.

Are your kids earning their own money?

Are they saving at least half of it – divided equally between short-term savings (for the iPod or Playstation game) and long-term savings (to invest)?

Do they understand compound interest? A couple of weeks ago I shared an easy exercise you can do with you kids over the period of one week to completely cement for them the notion of compound interest. Check out my post titled How To Teach Your Kids About Compound Interest. (I know this is a big topic of interest for parents, because that post has had a stream of search engine traffic ever since I wrote it!)

Of course, if you are one of our Cash-Smart Kids members, you already know all this, don’t you?

“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”Groucho Marx was right on the money – it’s amazing what a child of five can understand. The importance of the early years in terms of learning and development is widely recognised through a number of studies. Also well recognised is children’s propensity to adopt that sincerest form of flattery: imitation.

As parents, we recognise the importance of setting a good example for our kids (even if we do let the occasional swear word slip out in the midst of the peak-hour traffic). One area of influence, though, that is easy to overlook in the hectic bustle of day-to-day life, is financial management. Yet children overwhelmingly refer to their parents to learn about finance. A report recently released by the Australian Government’s Financial Literacy Foundation highlighted this, indicating that a large proportion of young people nominate their family as their major source of financial information and advice.

Read the rest of Justine Davies’ article in Melbourne’s Child Magazine.

While the family remains the single most important point of reference for kids to learn about managing money, how many families are actually taking that responsibility seriously enough to devote even 15 minutes per week to the subject?

It doesn’t take a lot of time to teach your kids the basics – but you do have to know what the basics are, and how to explain them. And that’s what makes it all so hard for a large proportion of parents.

I know what it’s like – in the past 12 months we have had three major illnesses in the extended family, and two of our kids have had life-threatening conditions which have had them in and out of hospital for extended periods of time.

Life can get pretty demanding sometimes.

But you keep giving them food, and hugs, and getting them off to school, and reminding them to do their chores, music practice, or whatever else they are required to do. You keep the wheels turning on the essential activities.

So I’ll ask you to consider this.

Is learning how to manage money an essential activity?

Rich Schefren took a step into my world last week, when he went to talk to a group of five-year-olds about business – and according to Rich, he was “Shaking In My Boots”!

It can be daunting, trying to break down complicated business ideas into terms kids can understand. Especially if you have learned business through years of experience, or at university-level academic institutions, or both. The gap between your understanding and the world of a child seems almost infinite.

The truth of the matter is that it can be done. Parents are doing it every week, using the Cash-Smart Kids program.

I left a comment on Rich’s blog post, letting him know about the program – I wonder if he will come and check it out?

At his blog post, “Shaking In My Boots” you can download the gorgeous ads he had these 5-year-olds make to convince their parents to buy them things. Imagine how much more powerful it would be if they also included a business plan as to how they would earn the money to pay their parents back for the purchase?

We had another one of those “feel good” moments this week – you know, the ones where you sit back and marvel to yourself “they actually WERE listening, after all …”

In this part of the world, interest rates have been going up steadily. The twins came home from school the other day a bit confused because one of their friends had “gone off” at another of their friends for buying something from the canteen.

“You’re not supposed to buy anything,” this 13-year-old yelled at her friend, “Don’t you know interest rates are going up?”

“What’s that got to do with anything?” asked the confused ‘villain’.

“You can’t spend money at the canteen or our mortgage will cost more,” railed her accuser, “and then I won’t get new jeans for my birthday!”

This girl has been getting some messages about money from her parents, clearly, but she seems to have things a little muddled.

“Do you think her parents told her she couldn’t spend money at the canteen because their mortgage payments were going up?” one of my twins asked me.

“Probably,” I grinned.

At this point the older one, aged fourteen, who had been playing The Sims and apparently ignoring the whole interchange, suddenly piped up with “That’s silly. They should just get a fixed interest rate and then it wouldn’t matter.”

The twins nodded in agreement, and that’s when I realised that the whole thing has 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.