So my kid told me that she wanted to make money and is there anything I could
do to make a dollar. It's interesting how to teach children about money because
money has changed and so today Kalenn and I are here to talk about how to
teach children about money and we're going to be sharing four specific principles
and a couple bonuses at the end on what we do with our children in hopes that it
will help you with yours.
When I was young, I had to work for money. At a certain age, ninth grade, my parents
said, if you want clothes then use your paperboy money and and go ahead and use
that so that you can get some of the things that you want. I remember saving
up money for a killer bike because obviously, I was into that with my paper
out. I was also really into, you know, taking hikes and doing backpacking and
overnighters, so I bought myself a really nice inline, you know, backpack and making
money was a really important part of my particular childhood, my parents didn't
want me to learn responsibility but it also awoke something inside of me that
has become a big part of my adult life. So what we're doing with our kids now is,
we are instilling into them that entrepreneurial spirit early and our
oldest daughter, she's 11 almost 12, she's had the opportunity this year to really
really take that entrepreneurial spirit and make it blossom. Yeah, because the
question is, how do we really teach our kids how to earn money and make enough
to make it worth it? And so Kalenn, why don't you just share some of the things,
there's four specific principles that we want to share today that have made money
and kids, I think, fun and exciting, I want you to share some of those principles.
Well, first principle is, it's okay to try and fail and you remember a
couple years ago what happened? Okay, so we went to this really big 4th
of July parade and our daughter wanted to make some money and so Chris was like,
"Okay, well how about we, you know, get a flat of water and we'll bring it to the
parade and we'll hand out water and we'll make a little bit of money?" And what
happened? We trekked up and down early morning and maybe the sun wasn't out yet,
maybe people weren't hot enough yet but not a single person bought any water and
I remember feeling really pathetic inside, like, oh my gosh, I'm this
successful entrepreneur and I suck at selling water at the at the parade and
my poor daughter, I had built up this expectation with her and the
reality is that we came home with a lot of water and, you know, and I remember
right after thinking, okay, we need to do something to create a good positive
experience with Liesl until I really internalized that one of the first
things, she's our oldest so she's our guinea pig, one of the first thing
really want to teach is that, that's actually the way business works. In fact,
more things that I tried don't work than things that do and so I think it's
important to set expectations with your kids in the first one. It's okay to fail,
it's okay to try things and some things will work and some things won't and that's
the excitement, that's the game of it but never allow the result to beat you up
and and how you implement that as a parent, it's by talking about it,
it's meta communication, it's sitting down. I remember sitting down with Liesl
being like, "Well, so how do you feel?" "Oh, I don't know dad, we didn't sell any."
And I asked her, I said, "Do you think that's okay?" She's like, "Is it?" She was
looking to me and I got to have this conversation so, you know, I've done a
lot of things that doesn't work that don't work and this is an exciting part
about learning how to make money and valuing it because if it was easy and
you made it every time, then you wouldn't probably value what it is and therein
lies a really important lesson. Alright, number two. The next lesson is have fun.
Have fun with your kids. Pick something that they like to do and they want to do.
So for example, this year a new year Kris and I decided to take Liesl
on a trip to Peru, we took a group of people to Peru, we felt prompted that she
should go with us and and learn from that culture and learn from the things
we were gonna do but we said, "Okay, but you have to learn or you have to earn a
certain amount of money to get there and you get to earn it yourself." So she's
very artsy fartsy, like artistic and she likes to make things and so we
decided to make some jewelry and do like a little jewelry business over the
summer. So one of the things we did was, we went to a farmers market and we sold
jewelry there and she learned to make earrings, she made bracelets, she made
necklaces and she actually was really good at it and it was fun, it was fun for
her and I had to bond and figure out how to make things and just really create
something of beauty and so we would sell things there, we would sell things on
Facebook and actually it was her Facebook videos that really generated
some income for her and I remember that some of the things didn't work very well
and some of the things were extraordinarily well but it was when you
had committed to doing something that wasn't working that you gave birth to
something really brilliant because I remember that she had been going out on
Saturday's to one of the markets and would be there all day and would sell
one or two pieces of jewelry, you know, make $5, $10, $15, $20 and she would
come home disappointed wanting something different until there was a breakthrough.
Well the breakthrough was have a why, which is our number three and when she would
get on Facebook and she would do a minute or minute or two video and she
would tell people why she was earning money, that she wanted to go to Peru,
that she wanted to go to the Amazon and she wanted to learn about the people and she
wanted to hike a mountain, that is what got people to go, "You know what, I would
love to support you. Can I please have two pairs of those earrings?" And so she
would get, you know, three or four or five orders for a one-minute video and it
would be, "Okay, let's go make them" And then the next day we'd ship them out and then
a couple days later, we would do another video, so it was the leverage through
online plus the why which is what got the money to come in for her. And I just want
to insert this, something else that ended up being fun is, I remember when one of
the markets that you're doing on the weekends wasn't very successful, there
was this idea, "Hey how about in between selling jewelry I do some face painting?"
Because she's very good, she's very good at face painting for an eleven-year-old
and so we set up this little stand right next to the booth and it said "free face
painting" and you know, mom's and dad's here gonna come on with their kids,
they're not gonna turn down free face painting even though it's an 11 year old
but when they were surprised that she was actually good, they were all just, you
know, tipping her, you know, there's a little tip jar for and by the end of the
day, she had 93 dollars from just face painting in the shade of a beautiful
tree and just playing around having fun. Well and what was interesting is that,
for Liesl, it wasn't fun to sit in the booth all day and watch people almost
buy jewelry, it was fun for her to sit and do something that was a creative
outlet. So cultivate within your children what comes natural to them.
Liesl has been face painting for a couple of years, just here and there, off
and on and would practice. You know, as an eleven-year-old
you're only really so good but she got better at it because she was encouraged.
Your kids have things that they're natural at so play to their strengths.
I wouldn't focus on trying to make weaknesses strong,
I would rather invite you to focus on, where they have natural aptitude
and then how can you monetize that? How can you give them a productive outlet
for what their skill is and this requires some creativity and maybe some
googling and really get into their skill sets and well, what comes natural
to them, what's fun for them, what do they love and enjoy doing, those are all
really good questions to ask, so make sure also as the parent that you don't
want it more for them than they want it for themselves, which really kind of
leads to the fourth and final one. We've been talking about the fact that we want
it fun, it's okay to fail, you got to have a why
and then the last one is celebrate and celebrating is, it's very easy to be in
the mode of self constructive criticism of "What could I have done better?
How could I have made more money?" or "How could I have done this different?" And just
take a moment to acknowledge, even when Liesl would be there all day and
made $10, it was, "Hey, you had an experience, you made $10. What did you
learn? Congratulations. High five! Good job."
Celebrating is something that we do not do very well in our society, we're always
waiting for some fictitious destination to be arrived at, when we can finally
receive a an accolade and say, I've made it and I've done a good job. Find joy in
the journey along the way and celebrate the failures, the successes, the
mediocrity and focus on what's being learned and finding value in that.
One of the ways that Liesl celebrated is, after she made enough money for Peru,
She was in Peru, so she was in charge of all her spending money and it had to
be at least a hundred dollars, so she helped pay for her snacks, she'll pay for
her souvenirs and what was fun, do you remember watching her in Peru?
She was going through the markets and looking at things
she might want to bring home and she would barter and she would compare and
she would walk, she would pass on things where she's like,
"I really like that but I only have this much money and I think I'll probably like
something better later." So she passed on it and I remember, she just wanted that
stuffed alpaca made out of alpaca wool and we were in this
giant market and there were like three different vendors at the same one and
she came down one from like the equivalent of $30, she found
one for ten and she actually tried walking where it was, "This is what
I have for this, oh you won't take it, okay, I'm leaving." And then she would walk
away and the guy was like, "No, here, you could have it" And she came up
to me and go, "Mom, I did it! I found it for the price I wanted."
She's just learning some great
great great experiences and learning lessons. I think the last thing that I
want to share with you today when it comes to helping your children with
their why, we specifically taught our children that you need to save money, you
can do some things to have fun with money and we also have our kids donate
10% to charitable cause and this is something that Liesl, she's got these
three envelopes and so after she saved that money for Peru, she was also able to
buy a bike. In fact, I'm surprised, just last year, I think she probably made five
or six hundred dollars to you for an eleven-year-old. Do you remember what she
did for Peru? So we found that in the Amazon, we were going to go to the Amazon
and they had a charitable cause there where you could buy school supplies and
hygiene kits for these kids in the Amazon, they don't have a lot and with
her extra money, she bought like a couple hundred dollars
worth of supplies for these kids and she did it herself and we went to the store
and we shopped for it and remember she brought all those kits? Yeah, so I
would say that, teach your children to save, set some of that aside for having
some fun, that's part of the celebration of, I'm gonna actually enjoy
some of the fruits of what I saved, we as adults do the same thing and then number
three teach them that principle of paying it forward, I'm giving back, it's
an expression of gratitude that you were able to make money. I mean, in our day and
age, you know, adult or child that is able to apply themselves and make money
is something to be celebrated and that means that you also possess some gifts
or that you've cultivated some skills that maybe didn't come naturally
and I think gratitude is a really beautiful way to associate and
identify with money by way of principle and concept is, is be grateful that you
were able to do this, be grateful that you produce something that others
perceived as a need that they're willing to pay for and celebrate that. So those
are the four principles that we want to share with you today on how to teach
your children about money and start helping them have some some beginner
entrepreneurial experience, mostly so they can have fun, learn lessons, teach
them as parents. It's okay to fail, it happens, that's actually failure failure
failure is how you wake up one day and achieve a measure of success. I want to
put in a plug for using careful wording around money and your kids. If they hear
you saying, "We don't have enough, we can't afford it, no you can never have that. Oh,
we don't have money in our family, money doesn't grow on trees."
That is just poison
to their little mind for learning to be abundant and learning that they are in
charge of their destiny and they are in charge of creating the wealth that they
desire. So have a conversation with your child or children and let them know,
money has no value other than what they decide and all that money does is it
magnifies our belief system, so choose into a positive healthy belief system,
choose something abundant, let them know that there's more than enough and
and that some of the opposition and trials and difficulties that come
with money are beautiful learning experiences that help them become wiser
stewards, better stewards and more successful stewards. There's so much joy
when the kids are able to buy something themselves with money they created.
Sometimes when my kids ask me, "Can I have that?" And I'll be like,
"Well you can maybe wait till Christmas and ask Santa for Christmas." or
"Wait till your birthday" or if you want it sooner than that,
how can you create that? How can you earn the money for that? Because I'm not just
gonna go buy them whatever they want whenever they want and when Liesl had
more than enough money for Peru, for the hygiene kits and then to buy her bike,
you know and we went shopping, we went to three different places for the
bike and she found the best deal on the bike and that's what she wanted
to spend her money on. She cherishes that bike and she loves that bike so much
more than if I just bought it for her. So good luck teaching your children
about money and certainly comment below on the different things that you do that
are successfully working or a comment below on some of the challenges that
are happening and and ask for some help.
Thank you so much for joining us today on Limitless TV, I hope you've enjoyed
today's video and be sure to subscribe because everyday we're putting out new
videos for you based on comments you're having, questions you're having. Listen,
if it's related to money, wealth, real estate, mindset, the power belief, we're going to be
bringing it your way. And have fun with your kids, find something that they want
to do, help them earn money, help them to create something that is a value and
that they can find pride in and that they can just have fun learning about
wealth and abundance. So comment below, tell us what you're doing with your kids,
tell us what they're doing to make money, we would love to hear it and we'll see
you tomorrow.