Overcoming Roadblocks to Teaching Kids Financial Lessons

Overcoming Roadblocks to Teaching Kids Financial Lessons

Intro:

So, you got some cash, maybe from an allowance? Or, that money your grandma gave you for your seventh birthday.

 

Here ya go, sweetie! Woo hoo! Thanks, Grandma! Whatever it is, what are you gonna do with it? Spend it? Hide it away? Or maybe invest it? Let's start learning how to make that money grow. Time to learn how to be a Cash Kid. 

 

What's up Cash Kids and here's a fun fact for y'all. Did you know that 57% of parents have some reluctance to discuss money matters with their kids? And 50% of America's youth will learn less than their parents?  That doesn't sound right. So, joining us today is the financial "dadvisor", Anthony Delauney.

 

Mr. Delauney is a certified family financial planner, and a behavioral financial advisor,  and the author of the award-winning "Owning the Dash" children's book series.  He's joining us today to talk about some of these roadblocks to teaching kids financial lessons today and how a more cashless society can be a challenging way to make money tangible for kids.

 

Plus, we'll discuss his book series and stay tuned to the end for a free giveaway.

 

Welcome to the show, Mr. Delauney, and first off, tell us a little bit about yourself. 

 

Anthony Delauney: Thank you so much for having me. Um, so I have been a financial planner for the past 21 years. I started it right out of college, and I discovered pretty early on that I loved helping families.

 

Since I started, I got married, had children, bought my first home, bought another home, went through all those fun stages, and realized that, um, it's hard enough to figure out stuff on your own, but when you've got to figure it out as a family, it gets really crazy. And when it comes to talking to your kids about it, it gets even crazier. 

 

Cash Kid: Mr. Delauney, we started to talk about how 57% of parents are reluctant to discuss money matters with their kids. Why do you think this is the case?

 

Anthony Delauney: The simplest answer I can give you is, I have spoken in front of adults, uh, for some time, for 20 plus years, and I am more nervous about this interview speaking to a child than I am speaking to adults. And I think that part of the reason that it's so hard for a lot of  kids to learn about these things is because parents don't know what to say or afraid of what to say. And sometimes we're intimidated around even having the conversation. They don't want to mess up for their kids. 

 

Cash Kid: That's a great point. Why is it crucial that financial planning be a family affair?  

 

Anthony Delauney: It's important because the sooner we start talking about these lessons and kind of getting the real basics of how life works, investing and all that stuff is really important, but really understanding how a budget works, understanding how money works, understanding  how to live life on your own, the sooner we can start instilling those lessons and teaching them, just like brushing your teeth. 

 

As soon as you start to learn that, it becomes a habit, it becomes a ritual, and you become, it's part of your life. If we don't teach those lessons early enough, it becomes much harder to learn them later in life. And, once kids are on their own, it's, it's, we don't have as much involvement in the lessons that they learn. 

 

Cash Kid:: Totally agree with that. And so, what tips do you give parents to start the conversation with their children around money?  

 

Anthony Delauney: Sure. So, I think the most important part is, just like this conversation today, You are, you're the cash kid, but you have an intrigue. You have a desire to learn. And most children do have that desire.

 

Even as very young children, kids want to play grownup and want to do the different activities that they mimic their parents, the good and the bad parts of what their parents do. So, um, if we can, when it comes to talking to our children, treat them like many adults, treat, treat them, like respect them.

 

Okay. not judge them. I think that's the biggest part is when it comes to having these discussions, we want to be there for them. Let them know that they can they're in a safe environment where they can talk about things where they can ask questions where they can fail. But if they do fail, parents have to be really mindful of how they react because the kids are not only focusing on  the lesson being learned, but how are my friends, my family and others treating me?

 

Based on my response and my questions and my, you know, my mistakes.  

 

Cash Kid: I totally agree with that statement. So do you have any financial lessons to teach elementary or teenage children? 

 

Anthony Delauney: So I've had for, as I mentioned, being an advisor for 20 years, for families, I get the question a lot. How and when do I start talking to my kids about these various topics?

 

And one thing I've noticed as a parent and as a, an advisor is that sometimes when we try to tell our kids what to do, they might do it, and they might do the exact opposite. Uh, and a lot of times, children tend to learn through experiences, and through storytelling, and through, uh,  seeing something being done that's not just mom and dad telling me what to do.

 

Uh, so, I came up with the idea of writing children's picture books that each were stories, uh, that children could relate to, that children could see a scenario that they could be in,  And have those stories actually teach a basic lesson. Um, so I think we learned a lot better from trying to experience life through a scenario versus having somebody tell you what the scenario might be. 

 

Cash Kid: Yep, definitely. So, uh, in one of the books behind me, it kind of goes through as like a. Storytelling motion or way to help me like and other just readers really relate to the story And so I definitely see how that's a good teaching skill or factor that you can use in your books So what activities do you instill with your two kids to teach important financial lessons?

 

Anthony Delauney: So my kids are now 12 and 14 years old. So they're, they're at a different stage where high school is starting to come in. And one thing I've learned as a parent is that if you don't have the financial conversations with your children on how to use money and how to even use credit cards and things like that.

 

They'll be put in situations through school or through other activities where they're going to be forced to make those kinds of decisions. Uh, my daughter recently had to go on a trip where she was by herself. Her parents weren't there. And she, while she was on that trip, um, out of state, she needed to buy food and do things of that nature at the location where they were.

 

And  if we had not discussed how these money tools work, it would have been a much harder scenario for her. And so she went into it with more confidence versus.  So, uh, I think that kind of from a very, very early age when we're talking about lessons and activities,  bring your kids into your life, even, even if it might be a little troublesome.

 

Um, if you do things with them that you have to do as part of normal life, go into the grocery store. Uh, and kind of going through all the things that you buy. And even though there might be some negotiating that takes place at the grocery store, you can talk about why, uh, and you know, why are we purchasing this?

 

How much do we have to spend on this? I think a lot of things that goes on with parents too, is that they're, they don't know if it's okay to talk to their kids about.  Because they feel that when they grew up, their parents didn't talk to them about it. But now we're in a society where it's a little more okay to talk about things, we just don't want to mess it up. 

 

So, going through those basic things like, um, uh, going out to the grocery store or even sitting at the dinner table and having a fun game where we talk about, What are the things that might be on the family budget? I know the word budget sounds kind of boring, and even adults don't like the word. But if you talk about, if you reword it and say, what are the fun things, or what kind of things do you think we spend money on as a household?

 

And let's make it a game, where one person at the table names something, and someone else, and someone else. Kids and adults both love to play games. And the more we can kind of get involved and make something fun out of it, the easier it is to have those conversations.  

 

Cash Kid: Yep, I was probably playing a game during school today.

 

Uh, so I mean, it's just so much fun. Um, so let's talk about our move to a more and more cashless society. How can this a movement affect kids my age and making money tangible when we never even see it? What problems can this create? 

 

Anthony Delauney: So one of the things I've learned one of the biggest things I've learned as a planner for adults is that um we tend to do not recognize the, we focus on kind of the things we can see and we don't focus on the things that we can't see and going back to your point that we've become a cashless society.

 

We can't see money anymore. We don't see ourselves handing dollar bills, uh, at the gas station when we're buying candy or something like that. So it does become an environment where, because we can't see it, we're not aware of the emotion that's tied to it. And even when it comes to all those things that you hear about when, with investing and things like that, the key lesson that I think really parents really need to focus on is  Money and emotion are tied together, but they're opposites of each other.

 

Usually when you're making a decision based on emotion, it's not going to work out the way you want it to. And that applies to everything in life. If you look at fitness as an example. If you're emotional, you're probably not going to eat the thing that you know you're supposed to eat. Or you're probably not going to get the proper sleep or whatever it might be.

 

If you're stressed, if you're anxious. So, those kind of basic foundational lessons of trying to teach children how to be aware of their emotions in scenarios is really critical. It doesn't always have to be involving money, but if they're, if you're trying to help children be mindful of their mindset and how they're thinking, and if emotion is driving their decision making.

 

Then once they do have to start making decisions with money, they'll be aware of it. And that's one of the key focuses of the kids books, that I really try to give scenarios where emotion kicks in and children have to make decisions based on those emotional scenarios.  Emotion does play a big factor in everything in life.

 

Cash Kid: So tell us about your book series, Owning the Dash. What does Owning the Dash mean?  

 

Anthony Delauney: So owning the dash was originally, um, it's a little bit of a sad story. Um, many years ago, well, back in 2015, I had a cousin who was very famous in the fitness world. Um, his name was Greg Plitt. Uh, and Greg was on the cover of over 250 fitness magazines.

 

He was really strong. He, he looked at his body and he looked at mine. You would think we're not cousins because we don't look anything. You know, we didn't look anything like, uh, but he, even before podcasts and blogging were really a thing would.  He had fans that would email him questions on life and fitness, and he would answer those questions.

 

And unfortunately, Greg passed away in 2015 unexpectedly. And as a way of trying to remember him, um, I would watch his videos and I realized that his philosophies as they relate to fitness could also apply to finance. Just like I was using the diet example before, uh, or the stress in eating and things like that.

 

Uh, a lot of these things in life, whether, when it comes to decision making, they affect all types of decisions. Finance, health, uh, just social affairs, all that kind of stuff. So, long story short, is, um, is a way of remembering my cousin after I would watch his videos, and I noticed that a lot of his philosophies were the same, so I decided to write a book about it.

 

And one of his philosophies is actually on death, and the idea of owning the dash, where owning the dash stands for on your tombstone, between your birth and your death dates. The dash in between and taking ownership of your life from a kid, you know, becoming the cash kid at a very young age to helping people out for the rest of your life. 

 

Cash Kid: So, um, owning the dash is a book series. And so just talk about the books that you've created. 

 

Anthony Delauney: Sure. So I originally wrote a self help book for young families with just kind of, uh, that's kind of one of the hardest stages is when you're starting off, not knowing where to go or where to get advice from.

 

So I wanted to give my. My best practice advice, uh, using the subject matter that a lot of young individuals understand, which is fitness. So fitness and finance brought together, tried to bring those worlds so, so people can understand. While I was writing my second self help book, my daughter, who at the time was about 12 years old, uh, would, uh, come down and write next to me.

 

And we decided to write a children's picture book where they taught a basic financial lesson. And that turned into “Dash and Nikki and the Jelly Bean Game.” And that book was basically about trying to understand concepts like delayed gratification, patience, compassion, all sorts of fun things that once again, the book hadn't, that didn't mention money at all.

 

It actually used jelly beans as a form of currency. Uh, but it highlighted emotions and scenarios that once you bring money into the picture, parents, kids will be able to better understand how they were feeling in that, in that other scenario.  So yes, the “Dash and Nicky and the Jelly Bean Game” received a lot of high praise and won some awards.

 

So why not, why not try to build on this? And, uh, we're now up to five books and a book number six will be coming out later this year.

 

Cash Kid: Well, I will definitely be looking forward to buying it. Um, so what's your goal with this book series and how has the reception been to them for them so far? 

 

Anthony Delauney:  Sure. So a lot of times when we see financial books, just like the books I see behind you right now, um, they're really targeted at young adults or adults of varying ages and possibly maybe, you know, college age kids.

 

There's not a lot of  focus on very young individuals. And going back to the comment I made before, learn getting those foundational lessons in at a very early age, ages seven and under. Sure. If we can learn them that early, when we're willing to absorb the information, it's a lot easier than trying to learn or re learn things later in life. 

 

So, um,  uh, yes, the thought process is if we can start introducing these concepts in schools, And in the in homes as well, but in environments where kids feel safe and they, they trust the information, where the information is coming from. Uh, if we can do that in those elementary years, it just makes life so much easier down the road.

 

Cash Kid: Yep. And that's one of the things we're pushing for, just financial education in the school system. So that way more kids can be introduced to it. It's just definitely something that should be pushed more. And that's one of the goals here. So, I hear you may have a free giveaway for our audience.  

 

Anthony Delauney: Yes, I'm happy to, uh, my most recent book came out, which actually involved the what I would consider the most significant roadblock or thing that gets that prevents people from achieving financial success.

 

And it may sound odd, but fear of judgment is probably the number one thing that prevents people from achieving or even working toward their goals. So the book is called “Akash and Mila and the Big Jump.” And I would be more than happy to send out a copy to, to your listeners.  

 

Cash Kid: Mr. Delauney. Thank you for that special offer for our audience.

 

So if you want the chance to win one free copy of his newest book, Akash, Amila, and the big jump, be sure to comment dash and send us an DM on our Instagram @cashkidpodcast. Please visit our website www.cashkidpodcast.com to get information on how to contact and follow Mr. Delauney.  Thank you for joining us on the Cash Kid podcast and boosting the financial knowledge of fellow Cash Kids everywhere.

 

Cash Kid, out!

 

Mr. Anthony Delauney: CPA

https://www.ameripriseadvisors.com/anthony.c.delauney/

 

Owning the Dash Book Series:

https://owningthedash.com/

 

Instagram:

anthony.delauney

Disclaimer:

The information presented represents the views and opinions of the guest. This podcast does not intend to provide personal investment advice. This content has been made for informational and educational purposes only. To make a full and informed investment decision, we advise you to speak with a financial advisor and for kids, definitely your parents first before investing.