I’m trying to raise my kids to be Money Kids. 

So what exactly do I mean by Money Kids?  

These are kids that have knowledge of the dangers of credit cards, the monetary value of things, what an interest rate is and how it’s used, and how to saving money to become financially independent some day.  I’ve already identified my plan to give my kids a head start, but this is just “priming the pump” for their future finances!

The Monetary value of things is tricky to determine because people value things differently.  For example, a hammer is a hammer and you buy the cheapest one that will do the job, unless you are a carpenter…. if you are one, then you buy an Estwing.  I don’t need a Estwing though, why should I spend more for something that I would rarely use?

I get resistance from people who say I shouldn’t do that, and it will hurt them because they’ll never learn to work hard for money.  They go on to say that back when they were kids, they never got that advantage and neither should today’s kids.

But I say, my kid won’t have a Pension…  And I sincerely doubt that “company loyalty” will even be in the next generation’s vernacular!  And Outsourcing is no long a far distant theory, it’s now a reality.  How can we compete with a foreign workers that get paid a similar amount that we have to pay for an hour at a minimum wage rate?  I think it’s kind of silly to wonder why Americans are unemployed…  to me it’s pretty obvious that all the jobs are more or less being shipped overseas.

So what can I do as a parent that will give my kids an advantage in life, so they can at least live at least a minimal middle class existence?

• Give them an allowance, with a portion dedicated to savings as a learning tool.
• Create a saving account for them.
• Invest money for them into a brokerage account (UTMA).
• Teach them to be frugal.
• Convince them to save their earnings into mutual funds, ETFs, Bonds, Stocks and Cash.
• Teach them about Portfolio Diversification and the principle of rebalancing that portfolio

So I’m going to teach these money principles to my kids, creating my own Money Kids that will be prepared for the financial future someday!!!

I think kids today (and tomorrow) are at a huge disadvantage, especially with the trillions of debt that they will have to handle someday in the future.

Do you think kids today have a deal with a stacked deck of card that are against them?  What is your plans (if any) to help your kids in the future?

-MR