I ran across a very interesting article the other day talking about how to make your children money savvy, with lots of great tips on how to go about doing that. But to tell you the truth, I think the first place to start in terms of making your child “financially literate” is to set him or her down at a relatively early age and break the bad news – that in order for them to have money to properly manage someday, they will actually have to do some real work. Now, they will probably be shocked to hear this, but it still has to be said.
First, a little family history. When I was a young boy of about nine or so, my father decided it was time that I begin getting a little taste of what the real world was like, especially in terms of work. And when he announced that he would even give me fifty cents when I was finished with the specific chore he had in mind, I was definitely ready to join the adult work force, because that kind of money could just about empty an ice cream truck back in those days. Plus, the task seemed simple enough. There was all of these ugly weeds and grass which grew all along the base of our backyard fence almost all year-around and my father absolutely hated it. He was always pouring used car engine oil and other nasty smelling concoctions on it, but that only turned it yellow and seemed to make it grow back with renewed vigor. So, my job was simply to take a hand shearer (this was way back before the day of the weed-whacker) and then slowly, methodically, cut all of that unsightly grass back to the base of the fence. I was to do it every Saturday during the spring and summer, and as needed in the fall and winter, which to me meant that the big bucks were definitely going to be rolling in for quite some time!
Upon eagerly clocking-in for my first Saturday of real work, I suddenly noticed just how big our backyard was. I had never really given much thought to it before since no one ever went out there except the dog, but upon doing a quick count of the number fence sections I would have to work on, I came up with the incredible number of 32. Then I soon discovered that to properly finish off just one full section took me almost 15 minutes, and that was only if I wasn’t screwing around. So, after doing some serious calculating, much to my horror I learned that it was going to take me about eight hours to earn fifty cents and that every Saturday for the foreseeable future was shot!
As the years went by, oh, how I hated that job! I tried all kinds of potential time-saving tricks, but nothing ever seemed to make it go any faster than 15 minutes a section. And when I was finally done with all 32 sections, I would have blisters on at least two fingers and knees so sore I could hardly stand up. I also tried every excuse known to man to get out of doing it, but my father would have none of it. He would simply say it was my job now and I was responsible for doing it.
So, since I can remember, real work to me has always meant a job that makes you sweat, smell and cuss. Now that doesn’t mean that all those other jobs out there are exactly play, but if you come home from work and you don’t smell, then you are mostly likely doing something between work and play. When I try to explain this to my kids, they think I’m crazy, because sweating and smelling is something they have only done while exercising or playing sports, not working.
What today’s generation seems to be missing out on is the perspective one gets from having done real work, and therefore they often don’t understand something as simple as the need to stay out of debt, never dreaming that someday they might actually have to do real work to pay off their credit cards. Now that’s not to say that the goal should be to sweat, smell and cuss your life away – the goal of course is always to move on to bigger, better, and more enjoyable jobs – but I will always be grateful to my dad for insisting that at an early age I experience up-close-and-personal why they call it “hard-earned money”.
I was talking about all this to a friend the other day and explained how I’ve never been very successful at getting my kids to listen to me when it comes to lessons I learned way back in the good old days.
“Getting kids to listen to you and do what you want them to do is actually pretty easy nowadays,” she explained. “If they don’t, you just take away their cell phone.”
“But I don’t think that’s going to get my kids to want to spend some time working at a real job where they’ll sweat, smell and cuss.”.
“Well,” she replied, “if you take away their cell phone, I can at least guarantee you that they’ll cuss.”