BOOKS

• “Teen Business Blasts Off!” by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Amy Rosen – After researching, I found the book can be purchased for $5 here.

• “The Student Success Manifesto“* by Michael Simmons – For older kids (ages 15 – 21).

• “Kidpreneurs: Young Entrepreneurs With Big Ideas!“* by Adam Toren – For the 5 to 13-year old crowd.

• “Growing Money: A Complete Investing Guide for Kids“ by Gail Karlitz and Debbie Honig – For 8 to 15-year olds.

• “Upstarts!: How GenY Entrepreneurs are Rocking the World of Business and 8 Ways You Can Profit from Their Success“* by Donna Fenn – “…8 ways you can profit from their success,” has a negative sound to it (but it gets pretty high ratings on Amazon).

• “Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers“* by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur

WEBSITES

The article closes out by mentioning several websites.

• lemonadeday.org

• allterrainbrain.org

• uspto.gov/kids

• studentcenter.ja.org/business

I have not read any of these books, nor have I spent a lot of time on any of the websites.

Do you know of any books or websites that you would recommend?

*Affiliate Link

I didn’t find the kids’ responses scary. I thought the results were age-based. The younger kids were farther off than the older kids.

Did you find the responses scary?

It’s amazing how much the kid’s age affects their answers. My boys are both in high school and I thought their responses were all reasonable.

NOTE: If you would still like your child’s responses to be included in this post, please send me an email and I’ll add it to the list as I have time.

JLP’s oldest son – age 16 (my comments are in parenthesis)

• What is money? Gives us an economy.
• Where does money come from? Trees
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Headphones
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $400,000 – $500,000 income per year.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No, but well off.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Chemical Engineer
• How much do you think that job will pay? Starts at $80,000
• How much do you think a new house costs? $100,000 – $150,000 (in our area that’s possible but still pretty low) A car? $25,000 – $35,000
• At what age do you think people retire? 65
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? Several million…$5,000,000 – $6,000,000.

JLP’s youngest son – age 15

• What is money? Buys stuff, helps the economy.
• Where does money come from? Trees. You earn it.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Basketball shoes.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $300,000 – $500,000 yearly at least.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? NBA or Chemical Engineer
• How much do you think that job will pay? NBA: contracts yearly are millions + salary. Chemical Engineer: $100,000
• How much do you think a new house costs? $80,000 – $200,000 A car? $20,000 – $50,000
• At what age do you think people retire? 75
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? A million or more.

JLP’s daughter – age 7 (nearly

• What is money? Change. And you could use it to buy stuff.
• Where does money come from? Copper and Washington D.C.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. A kitten.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? Two thousand ten hundred. (Okay, we still have some work to do on numbers.)
• Would you consider our family “rich”? Sorta, yeah.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Farmer although that’s not really a job.
• How much do you think that job will pay? $5 every day or every month.
• How much do you think a new house costs? Ten thousand fifty hundred. A car? $548,060.
• At what age do you think people retire? Probably 26
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? $500.

Okay, now here are the submissions from AFM readers:

John’s daughter – age 13

• What is money? I think money is a type of currency.
• Where does money come from? Somewhere in Washington, D.C.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. Candy
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? I don’t know… over 1 million?
• Would you consider our family “rich”? I would consider our family between “rich” and poor.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? Detective or teacher.
• How much do you think that job will pay? Ummm…. $12,000 a year?
• How much do you think a new house costs? about $250,000 A car? about $100,000 (depends on car)
• At what age do you think people retire? Probably around 67 or something.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? I don’t know…. maybe $500,000?

Don’s son – age 12

• What is money? Money is what everyone uses to pay for items they want or need.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from factories that mass-produce it.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. If I had $100 I would buy a lot of steak
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? He couldn’t name a number that it takes to be rich. He said that it depends on where you started. If you were really poor, it wouldn’t take as much, but compared to Justin Bieber it takes a lot.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? I think our family is rich. We can buy what we need.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be an Air Force pilot
• How much do you think that job will pay? It pays about $15,000 per year
• At what age do you think people retire? A new house costs $250,000 A car? a car costs $15,000-40,000
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire at about age 63
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? You need to have $400,000 saved to retire

Don’s son – age 10

• What is money? Money is what you use to get something.
• Where does money come from? Money is made in a money factory. Made out of paper.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. If I had $100 I would buy a computer.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? It takes $1 million to be rich.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No, we are not rich. We are in the middle.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be in the Air Force.
• How much do you think that job will pay? The job will pay $500/day.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A house costs $1000 or more. A car? A car costs $500.
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire whenever they really want to.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? It takes a lot of money to retire. About $5000.

Anonymous’ daughter – age 12 (nearly)

• What is money? Money is paper, green paper.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from the bank and the economy.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. I would buy make up if I had a $100.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? $1000 would make us rich
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No I don’t think our family is rich.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? I want to be a nurse.
• How much do you think that job will pay? A nurse gets paid $25 per hour.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A new house costs $1000 or more. A car? A new car costs $5000 or more.
• At what age do you think people retire? People retire at 60.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? I don’t know how much money I need to retire but a lot.

Anonymous’ son – age 9

• What is money? Money is paper.
• Where does money come from? Money comes from trees or a company.
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100. I would give my $100 to a childrens’ hopsital for kids who need help or an I Pod.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”? About $2,000.
• Would you consider our family “rich”? No our family is not rich.
• What job do you want to do when you grow up? A brain surgeon.
• How much do you think that job will pay? $10,000 dollars every two months.
• How much do you think a new house costs? A new house costs $800,000 for a mansion; $20,000 for a smaller house. A car? A car costs $1,020 for a Mustang.
• At what age do you think people retire? 62 to retire.
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement? $900,000 saved for retirement.

If you still want to participate, please send me an email (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com) with “Kids’ Project” in the subject line of your email along with your child’s age and answers to the following questions:

• What is money?
• Where does money come from?
• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100.
• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”?
• Would you consider our family “rich”?
• What job do you want to do when you grow up?
• How much do you think that job will pay?
• How much do you think a new house costs? A car?
• At what age do you think people retire?
• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement?

I’ll include the responses as I get them.

Also, if you’re a blogger and you would like to participate, post your questions and answers on your blog and send me the link to your post and I’ll be sure to link to them. I hope to do more projects like this in the future.

In light of the post I put up yesterday, this is a timely article. I love this point (bold mine):

Anthony Carnevale, the center’s director, explains why students need to pay attention to their earnings potential when picking a major.

Think about it…

If you become a petroleum engineer, you’ll earn $90,000 out of college. If you become social worker, you will make $35,000. The differences are huge.

This was the point I was trying to make yesterday. You have to look at your life as a business and perform some sort of due diligence and cost/benefit analysis when picking a major and a school. It makes no sense to go to a private school, accumulate $100,000 in student loan debt in order to become a teacher making $35,000 a year, and then complain to the rest of us about how hard it is to pay off your loans.

Granted, not everyone is engineering material. Not everyone is teacher material either. Go to school to become whatever it is you want to become. Just be sure and understand the costs/benefits of your desired degree.

So here are ten questions I came up with that I think would be fun to ask a kid:

• What is money?

• Where does money come from?

• Name one thing you would buy if you had $100.

• How much money do you think it takes to be considered “rich”?

• Would you consider our family “rich”?

• What job do you want to do when you grow up?

• How much do you think that job will pay?

• How much do you think a new house costs? A car?

• At what age do you think people retire?

• How much do you think people need to have saved up for retirement?

The last two may require some explanation and it could be that yr child is too young to understand. Regardless, I would still like to see what answers your kids come up with.

Please email your child’s response (along with their age and sex) to me (JLP – at – AllFinancialMatters.com). NOTE: please dont coach your kids. I want To see what the kids think no matter how silly their reponses may be. I’ll compile them into a blog post.

Thanks!

A pool so I could swim. A pair of new shoes so I could have a matching outfit. A table cloth so our table can look pretty. New higheel because they are pretty. A new 3 story house for my parents so we can have 3 TVs. A dresser with hangers so we don’t have to buy some.

She’s not ready to leave the house yet. Crazy (and cute) kid. I love the way kids look at things.

So, what books am I talking about? Well, off the top of my head, I assembled the following list in no particular order along with the amount I would be willing to pay my kids to read them in parenthesis.

Success God’s Way by Charles Stanley ($50). This has become one of my favorite books on success because it’s written for Christians.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill ($50). A classic. The language and some of the ideas are dated but the message is still very good.

Basic Economics (4th Edition) by Thomas Sowell ($200). Thomas Sowell is one of my favorites. This is a pretty large book. I would pay $200 for this one.

Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt ($50). This one’s an oldie but a goodie. Written in a very easy-to-understand way. One of my favorites.

Common Sense Economics (Revised Edition) by James D. Gwartney, Richard L. Stroup, Dwight R. Lee, and Tawni Hunt Ferrarini ($50). I thought about not including this one in the group because it might be overkill. However, it’s a great book and could serve as compliment to Hazlitt’s book. Therefore, I want my kids to read both.

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie ($50). A classic if there ever was one. This is an excellent book on how to relate to other people. This book was first published in 1936 and the information it contains has never gone out of style.

Goals! by Brian Tracy ($50). This is the best book I have ever read on goal setting—one of the best things your kids can ever do for themselves.

How an Economy Grows and Why it Crashes by Peter and Andrew Schiff ($50). This is a fictional story about an economy that starts out with three fishermen alone on an island. Start it and you won’t be able to put it down. Excellent illustration of an economy.

Wooden on Leadership by John Wooden and Steve Jamison ($50). Just an all-around good book by an all-around good man.

Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty by Harvey Mackay ($50). A book on networking. Remember: it’s not what you know as much as it is who you know. Sure you, have to have both. You know what I mean.

For younger kids, short-term results are very important. They need to understand the correlation between saving and spending. Hopefully as they get older, they are able to wait longer and longer to receive the payoff for their hard work. One major issue in the lives of teenagers and adults in America is delayed gratification. That’s why our nation’s credit card debt is out of control, why there are many people who can’t pay their light bill but still have an iPhone. Teaching kids self-control is a difficult task, but one that is essential for their success as adults.

There are two different types of saving lessons our kids need to learn: Saving for something and saving just to save. Both are valuable lessons. Younger guys have a more difficult time understanding the second one, so obviously those lessons need to be age-appropriate.

Saving for Something
This one has become automatic for our kids. On “pay day,” we break up their money into smaller bills. They are required to divide their money into give, save, and spend envelopes. They always have something they want to save for, so we’ve tried a variety of techniques to help them keep track of how much money they are saving and how close they are to achieving their goal. (Most of these are very visual – posters, thermometers, all kinds of charts.) Celebrating their achievement of that goal makes it even more meaningful when they can finally enjoy all of their hard work.

As our kids have gotten older, though, we’ve seen that they need an additional lesson. Kids need to learn to save for the future, not just just for a specific item.

Saving for the Future
So what is the best way to teach kids to save for the future? I don’t think there’s one right way that will work for everyone, but here’s what we’ve done. We opened a savings account for my son when he turned 10. We tried to make it a milestone (something the other kids could look forward to when they turned that age). He went to the bank with us to open the account, and they put his name on it. When he gets money for anything, he now has four categories to put his money into: long-term save, short-term save, give, and spend. (He still ends up having approximately the same amount of money as his siblings because we pay him a little more for the work he does around the house.) As he’s seen the balance in that account grow, he’s been more motivated to put money away. It’s also given him the chance to learn about a checkbook register, how to keep track of what you’ve put in the bank, and several other valuable financial lessons.

I’ve done a small amount of research into ING Savings Accounts for Kids and that is something we are considering as his balance grows. (In school, he’s starting to learn about percentages and higher numbers, so it might be a good time to introduce some investing concepts.)

This website lists software specifically for kids to learn how to keep track of their money and budget. I’m researching some of these products as well.

Bottom line – it’s our job as parents to teach our kids to handle money. We want them to be productive adults and to not repeat our mistakes. Hopefully being open with them about those mistakes and teaching them practical saving and spending habits will allow them to be better off as they enter adulthood.

Is it a bad (or good) idea for me to help him get a job by making a couple of phone calls?

I’m leaning towards helping him. Why? Because he’s a good kid and I know he’ll do a good job when given a chance. Also, from a store manager’s point of view, it might be nice to hire the kid of someone you know well because you know that the parent is going to hold their kid to a higher standard.

I’d like to know your thoughts.