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I want to thank a friend and business associate, David Reas, for the title. This blog refers to educating your children about finance (Saving, investing, credit management and potentially about business), and that we should educate our children now or we will pay dearly for it later.

David establishes reverse mortgages for customers. He recently completed a transaction for a customer who failed to educate his children. The proceeds either directly or indirectly were going to assist his adult children.

We live in a fast paced world and it is so easy to blow off teaching our children anything, more especially about the exciting subject of finance. Whoo Whoo!

Yet, we should spend the time to teach them about the important day to day street smarts needed to survive financially. We are pounded by media of all sorts to spend money. Vendors have made it ever so easy and convenient to spend our money.

We used to carry cash. I know you may be thinking I hale from the stone age, yet, when I was younger cash and checking accounts were all that I used. As time moved on, credit cards slowly came to popularity. The advent of debit cards filled yet another consumer need. Today, who needs a physical credit or debit card. Now you can purchase goods with your phone.

Money has become an electronic blur. What I mean by blur is the money hits your hand and leaves your hand with a blur. Today our vendors have turned money into something that does not look like money nor feel like money. Therefore money does not have a perceived value to us.

Let us get back to education. Where do you begin? I usually begin such important discussions at the dinner table. For my family it is the best time to speak to the whole family at once. I am not saying start teaching the children while you are eating, but bring up the subject and decide upon a time and day to start. Make it a consistent date so that you can break the subject up into small pieces so the children can digest it and come back to you with questions.

You may find the thought of teaching your children about this terrifying. You may not know where to begin or what to teach them. Maybe the real problem is you were never taught and are embarrassed to teach what you do not know or have failed at.

As I jokingly say to my daughter, “suck it up cupcake”. A little pain today will be well worth the expense of your financial wipeout in the future.

I do want to pass on a resource that is free, or should I say you have already paid for it. The Federal Reserve Bank has created a booklet called Building Wealth “A Beginner’s Guide to Securing Your Financial Future”.

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https://www.dallasfed.org/-/media/microsites/cd/wealth/index.html

The booklet is a great resource. It is easy to read and covers all aspects of personal finance.

Building Wealth covers the lingo of finance, how to set a budget, learning to save, saving to invest, how to build good credit and manage your debt. Lastly, the booklet teaches you how to protect your wealth.

This booklet is useful for children as well as adults. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas prints them at their own printing facility in Dallas. If you have a group of people that you know would benefit from the booklet, you can order up to 50 at a time for free, and there is no delivery fee.

If you would like a copy, I can get you the information as to where to order one. I also have a pdf that I can email to you.

Did I say it was free?

So, now you have no excuses. Whether you are a seasoned financial professional or a floundering novice, you have the tool to teach your children. Start now, do not delay, we are talking about your financial future. Years from now you can be fiscally healthy, wealthy and wise instead of becoming financially wiped out.

Please do not become the latter. I have seen this happen to too many good people.

You will also have the added bonus of teaching your children about finance which will provide them the tools for success.

Corey N. Callaway
Investment Advisor Representative

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