National Bank of MomThe holidays are a great opportunity to teach your kids about giving back. Whether items, money or time, giving to those less fortunate not only helps them but it feels good.
Think about what’s important to your family and how you can make an impact this holiday season.
Today I’m starting a new series called Letters from Mom. At 10, there are only so many money lessons I can teach and that J can practice. However, there are things he’ll need to know later, and that’s what I want to focus on today.
Dear J,
I’m hoping that by the time you’re older, you’ll be very financially healthy.
The markers of financial health and success (in my opinion) are:
But financial health alone won’t give you the happy, fulfilling life I wish for you. There are several other areas that are important.
Does your family take a vacation every year (or every few years)? It doesn’t have to be a big trip or far away, but something special and out of the ordinary.
Last year I participated in a round table discussion on the Stacking Benjamins podcast about family vacations. I had more to say on the topic and it’s a great time to start planning your next vacation, so let’s talk about how you can get your kids involved and work in some money lessons, too.
10 years old is a great age to teach kids how to earn extra money — they’re still young enough to listen to you, but old enough to do some actual work. Here’s the story of J’s first side hustle — selling Christmas cookies to family and friends.
In the early 2000’s, a friend of a friend started an investment club. If you’re not familiar with the term, the SEC says:
An investment club is generally a group of people who pool their money to invest together.
To participate in the club, you would send him money each month. The group would choose and buy stocks. And ideally you’d make a profit.
Nothing could go wrong there, right?
At the time, I was in my early 20s. I knew I should be doing something with investing or stocks or the stock market, but I didn’t know what. Here was someone who supposedly knew; he was someone I liked and trusted, so I started sending him money every month. (I didn’t participate in the group otherwise and didn’t help choose the stocks.)
At some point I stopped sending him money and lost track of how much I had sent.
A few years later I got an email inquiring how much I had invested. The leader of the club was in trouble for embezzlement.
