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Financial Literacy

I believe we can break the cycle of financial illiteracy in a number of ways.
1. Establish a wealth account for each child when that child is born.
2. Teach children, at an early age, to put a fixed percentage of their allowance or gifts, and later earnings from
part-time jobs, into their Wealth Accounts. Even if the child only gets a small gift once in a while, have them
deposit as much as 50 percent of it into the Wealth Account.
3. Motivate them and reinforce their new habit by periodically showing them how much their Wealth Account
has grown.
4. Share positive financial information so that they can see the possibility of abundance. Never say you can’t
afford something. You can still be direct, without being negative. Make a plan to get creative about making
money.
5. Share the realities of business. If your child’s lemonade stand sold $10 of lemonade that cost $12 to make, you
need to explain that, although they had fun, they did not make a profit. Help them figure out how to do it
differently, and more profitably, the next time.
6. Establish money days, for example, the first Monday of every month, where you share what you’ve learned in
this process.
7. Show and teach leadership by asking your children open-ended questions about their schedules and plans so
they learn the value of sequencing, decisive thinking, and communication.
8. Encourage your children to always give a percentage of their earnings to charity and good causes.
This is a parental duty and inheritance. Showing your children how to form lifelong patterns will enable them to
live prosperously and enjoy a healthy relationship to money. Time and again, the people who we’ve coached tell us
that they are thrilled to learn that it is actually possible to veer off their unsatisfying track and generate wealth with
much less difficulty than they ever imagined. Mostly, though, they can’t believe that no one taught them these
simple truths about wealth a long time ago. Talking out loud with your children about wealth and money is the best
inheritance you can give them.