Raising Entrepreneurs

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I have been thinking this week about all those parents who write to me (and I am sure for every one who sends an email there are hundreds who don’t) to say “I know I should be teaching my kids more about money, but I just don’t have time.” How does this “don’t have time” belief system get such a grip on people?

When you think about it, it’s not an unusual feeling to have.

Who here knows they need to shed a few pounds? Or could do with being a little fitter? That’s most of us, isn’t it? So how many of us are actually doing something about it? I know I am guilty of saying “one day, when I have time,” when it comes to exercising daily.

Dieting and exercise are two of the most procrastinated activities. In fact, there are very few things that are more put off, avoided, ignored, and denied, than the need to eat right and exercise.

But one of those few things that are just as much put off is managing money effectively. Why is that?

Those who borrow to buy things they can’t afford, or just make the minimum payment on their credit cards, or let late fees be applied to bills, library books, and DVDs, are all living dangerously, whether they know it or not.

Everyone knows we shouldn’t do these things, and everyone means to do a better budget sometime soon, and make some positive changes to the way they manage money, probably in the next year …

Now, I take the attitude that adults are entitled to procrastinate on anything they choose to. After all, when you’re 65, you have a heart condition and diabetes, and all you can afford is a tin of baked beans for supper, you will only have yourself to blame, right?

We all shrug off the long-term consequences of putting off dieting, exercising, or sharpening our money habits.

You can do it to yourself, sure enough.

But would you do it to your kids?

Would you feed your kids junk food and soda pop for supper every night? Would you let them watch TV all day and never send them out to run around? Would you put off buying any bats, balls, bikes, scooters, basketball hoops … and leave them sitting in a room too small to run across?

Of course you wouldn’t.

And yet, when it comes to money skills, many parents are doing the equivalent of exactly that to their kids. Cutting them off from any way to exercise those skills, to learn and grow in that area.

Many parents don’t talk to their kids about money at all, other than to say “no, I’m not buying that for you, now shut up about it”. Maybe because they don’t feel they have the time, or because they think they aren’t doing so well financially themselves, or because they don’t know how to explain things in a child’s terms. Some parents even think that kids have no business thinking about money”.

Do you think your kids are going to wake up the morning they turn 18, and somebody downloaded the Wikipedia entry for “money management” into them while they slept?

Of course not!

Good money habits, just like healthy eating and healthy exercise habits, are the product of years of practice and reinforcement.

If your kids don’t have money of their own to manage, they are like the kid in the tiny room - unable to exercise those muscles and practice their skills.

Regardless of the state of your own money situation, don’t deprive your kids of the chance to learn what they need to know. If you don’t know how to teach them, get help. You are the only thing that stands between your kids and a lifetime of financial struggle. If your parents let you down, that is even more reason to make sure that your kids get started in life the right way.