Stir-fry with a Side of Money
School days when everyone arrives home at the end of the day, lunch boxes are cleaned out, shoes and jackets go flying, and backpacks are splayed open with papers to be signed by a parent trailed by a symphony of hunger announcements all intensify the wild hurry to get dinner on the table in under 20 minutes. We are a one-parent home, so my kids experience the “big-family” culture where one-on-one time is tricky to come by. I see them crave my focused involvement and know full well that it nurtures our relationship and their feelings of safety. One-on-one sometimes means 30 seconds of locking eyes while listening to a story after school and tuning out all the chaotic sounds around us, but we do our best. On one of those fast-paced evenings, I was sautéing the vegetables and an idea came to me. As each of my kids came over to get a big whiff of the stir-fry and sneak a piece of broccoli or bamboo shoot out of the pan, I opened the banking app. “Hey check this out,” I said to my chewing child. My finger pointed to their recently posted interest, then in one sliding motion (thanks Apple) switched apps to their 529 account. I was curious if they would notice the difference in growth. They easily saw that their savings account was doing diddly squat. I asked what they thought. Listened. Were they annoyed? Listened. What do they wish? Listened. Then one of them asked, “Is there anything I can do to make my [savings] account grow faster?” Mic drop. As a parent, this is gold because when a person (kid or adult) seeks answers they are more receptive because they want the information.[1]
After giving a brief answer that there are two ways to make money: Working (hands-on, lemonade stand) and investing (mostly hands-free, rental property, stocks, mutual funds, venture) I added that kids can invest with ANY amount if they have a custodial account. Unexpectedly, right there in the kitchen, all four of my kids opened their own UGMA account (a custodial account for minors); two before dinner and two while we ate ice cream. While I had sought the opportunity to expose them, I didn’t realize that taste-testing dinner could turn my kids into investors. Here’s to giving our kids more opportunities to surprise us (in good ways).
Note to parents: If investing seems intimidating or you don’t have a lot of spare dollars, remember: The real gift is not the money, but the positive reinforcement to be clever with it.
Stay tuned for more ideas on sprinkling money skills in everyday life.
Originally published on Fortunaire.
Chouinard, Michael. “Children’s questions: a mechanism for cognitive development” National Library of Medicine of National Center for Biotechnology Information. “asking a question allows them to get targeted information exactly when they need it. This information is available to them when they are particularly receptive to it, and because it comes as the result of their own disequilibrium, it may have depth of processing benefits.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17394580/
