Well, let's talk about financial literacy.
Starting with what? What is it?
Financial literacy? Well,
we're in Financial literacy Month, right?
So financial literary literacy is just
a time where we focus on our finances.
It's really important to
know financial matters.
Do you remember when we were in,
like high school and it was liku
were learning pie and it was li,
when am I ever going to use PIE well?
I still don't know when you're going to
use pie, but there is math and everyday
money choices that we're making,
whether it be that Starbucks
swipe or coffee at home.
And then of course, financial matters.
People are always having to
finance their big dreams,
like for homes or autos.
They're also learning to use things like
debit card or Venmo in our electronic world.
So financial matters are really
important and we use it day-to-y
more than you would think.
Absolutely. How do you start teaching
kids about financial literacy,
about those money issues
for our community? It's tough, right?
Because we all have,
we're raised in different ways
and we all have different means.
But when I think kind of back te
root of it, I think that as par,
we all want our kids to be able to, you know,
have things a little better tha,
to struggle a little less than .
So the sooner you start teaching
your kid to save, the better.
When I heard the pay yourself ft
mentality, I was already in col.
I had credit card debt, so.
Yeah, it was a great concept,
but I couldn't pay myself first.
I felt like I had to pay my bills first.
So it wasn't until,
like I got my first raise and back in 2000
it was like a whopping $0.50 a an hour,
right?
But that meant I could save $20.
A week and not mess with the budget that
I had already made for myself pg
my credit cards and things like that.
And wouldn't you know,
like by the end of six months,
even though it didn't sound like much,
I had $500.00 saved and instead of me
putting a set of tires on a credit card,
I was able to use my savings
account to make that happen.
So it's really important that we that
we look at those financial matts
and kind of start making those
approve improvements when we ca.
Let's talk about pay yourself f,
because that's definitely a philosophy
that I hadn't heard until later in life.
Also, what What does that mean?
How do you pay yourself first?
Okay. So let's take that instane
when I was talking about,
let's say I made $12.00 an hour
and I got a raise to 12:50.
What I did was. There was going to be
a difference in my paycheck, ri?
So instead of letting that all
hit my checking account,
that $0.50, I got paid biweekly.
So I put $40 away in a savings account
That way I never saw it because
it was the $20 a week times 2.
And then I lived off of what this was,
so I paid myself first
into a separate account.
Sometimes it's good to put it in
a different location than where
your primary checking account i,
because it's really easy to
make that transfer online.
So I did it into a separate cret
union where my daily finances w,
but I paid myself 1st,
and that way that money was
growing and already set aside
for whatever budget I had left.
Gotcha. Let's go back to to how How do
kids learn? About financial literacy,
how How can you start them down this path?
So starting is pretty easy in my opinion.
When your kids are small and the
excited to go to the grocery store and
they walk around and can pick an item,
it's probably time to start
having little conversations abot
making financial choices, right?
So of course, we're not talking about
retirement with our kids, but we are.
We do have a family budget and everybody
in the family can support that budget when
we're making those financial choices.
So, you know, maybe you have a kid that
goes to the grocery store and wants a toy,
but it's important for them to understand
like this isn't a week for toys.
This is a week for us to get, you know,
the snacks or the fruit that we
need for the next couple of wee.
And so that way they understand that.
Everything costs and sometimes
it's better to get our prioritis
than what we may want another w.
You know, when they get a little bit older.
We actually have an event here
in Houston called Lemonade Day.
This is a great time to help your kids
understand income and expenses, right?
So they.
The old classic lemonade stand s
kind of modernized into the ability to
teach our kids lessons about finances.
So they'll go through this cool little
workbook where they get to desin
A marketing plan and the kind of
lemonade they wanna serve and wt
it looks like and even the cost.
And you walk with them through e
planning stages as well as the t
of operating the Lemonade Day s.
So that in the end they know wht
they've made.
They know if they had to pay baa
loan maybe that you let them bow
and then they understand profit.
So that's a really cool event and goes
on every year here here in Hous.
If you'd like to learn more about that,
you can visit a members Choice
credit union branch here in Katr
you can go to
lemonadeday.org/katy.
So I have teenagers and
teenagers is a good time to.
Really start teaching those less
that are going to follow them through
their first job as they move to college.
And my three kids are all diffe.
Like I think they purposely
once saw this one was like,
I want to be the opposite of th.
And then the next one came and I was like,
I'm going to be the opposite of that.
So like the three Bears, too bi,
too little kind of in the middl.
I have a big spender one that wt
let go of you know, $0.50 to.
Borrowed her sister and then one
kind of that teetertotters in te
middle depending on what they w.
When when elementary kids they learn,
save, spend, share and lemonade.
And when I get when I got older.
When my kids got older,
I taught them every day in
between and big dream.
So in my family we won't purchae
them their first car they can b.
One, when they get around to it or have
a down payment when they can afford one.
Until then they can borrow our ,
right?
So for our kids,
they have these three buckets
and they have the autonomy to pt
things in those three buckets.
And so I have one kid who's almost there,
and then I have another kid that
buckets kind of a little bit em,
but that's because in between
they want a PS5.
So just making sure that, you k,
you think about your kids,
you think about,
you know what's right for your family.
In my house, we don't.
I didn't grow up with much,
so we didn't get paid for chored
we didn't get a weekly allowanc.
So there's still ways to teach
your kids about money,
even if you don't have that
weekly allowance coming in.
It's just making sure you're
very intentional about.
About speaking about finances ad
making those choices as a famil.
Everybody wants Wi-Fi,
but Wi-Fi is a monthly bill so
we have to talk about that.
That totally makes sense.
My my teenagers are are learnin.
I've, I got them credit cards
because they're 16 and 17 and
they're on my account and.
The other day I checked the bale
and it was way higher than it
should have been because the 17
year old decided to go to the m.
And so then we had to have
a talk about budgeting,
like you wouldn't spend $112.00 maybe
maybe we look at like 50 a month, but it.
Just what you were just saying
reminded me of those conversatis
because I was like, yeah,
again, they they're totally different, right?
Kids just decide to be who they want to be.
Oh yeah. And she's normally the saver,
but it she, it was my money.
So all of a sudden she was the spender. Yeah,
I do want to say that is a
great financial choice though.
You are really setting them
up for success in the future.
And we talked about parents reay
wanting that for their kids, ri?
Let me let me let you struggle a little less.
So I'm sure maybe you built your credit
by yourself from the ground up and now
you're in a position where you're able
to and and and anybody can do t.
You know, maybe get a loan for
them or cosign a loan for them.
I did it for my daughter.
Like I said, we had a family car that
she could borrow her senior yea,
but when it needed repairs, she needed $1500.
So we went ahead and we opened a credit card,
but I added her as an authorized user.
So we put that on a credit card
that I got the statement.
I could tell if she made the payment,
I would actually collect
the payment from her.
But that credit card started building
her credit before she turned 18.
So I'm sure that's what you're doing,
right?
That it was to kill two birds with one stone.
One is that I'm, I wasn't always
there when they needed somethin.
Nobody has cash anymore.
So it was an easy way for them
to take care of their needs if
there was something immediate.
And then yeah,
just the idea that it it would p
get them set once they're 18 and
out there and hopefully teach tm
some responsible spending habit.
We're working on that one.
We are working on that.