How Great Leaders Raise Money-Smart Kids | Financial Lessons Every Parent Needs

How do you raise children who understand the value of money in a world where almost every payment is digital?

In this episode of Leadership Tea, Shelby Smith-Wilson and Belinda Jackson welcome back financial experts Sam Salmon and Josh Barrett from the State Department Federal Credit Union to discuss practical strategies for raising financially confident kids.

Together, they explore allowances, saving, budgeting, first jobs, spending habits, and how parents can build healthy financial mindsets through consistent conversations, not fear or shame.

Whether you're raising young children or preparing teenagers for adulthood, this conversation offers practical ideas that leaders can apply both at home and at work.

In this episode:

• The biggest mistake parents make when teaching kids about money

• Why communication matters more than the size of an allowance

• Helping children understand needs versus wants

• Teaching financial responsibility in a cashless world

• Preparing teens for their first paycheck

• Why it's never too late to build better money habits

Part 1 of a two-part series with the State Department Federal Credit Union.

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Transcript

Series Kickoff And Big Questions

SPEAKER_01 0:00

If you're learning about it from this podcast, that is not a problem. That it is never too late to learn how to manage money and start basic.

SPEAKER_03 0:10

Welcome to the Leadership Tea Podcast, where leadership, culture, and clarity meet conversation. I'm Shelby and I'm joined by my co-host Belinda. And if you're new here, we would welcome you subscribing to our YouTube channel. Today, we are so happy to be welcoming back to the show Sam Salmon, who is the Vice President of Retail Business Development for the State Department Federal Credit Union, and Josh Barrett, who is the SDFCU Overseas Operations Manager. If you are not new here, you may recall that we had Sam and Josh on the show last year to discuss wise financial decisions and how to get ready for 2026 when it comes to your money. Today we are kicking off a two-part series, and we're going to start by talking to Sam and Josh about tips for our kids. How do we raise money smart children? How do we help them think about saving and investing and communicating about their finances? That's the crux of today's episode. In part two of this series, we're going to focus a little bit on the adults and talk about the financial realities of living abroad. We know a lot of Americans are thinking about relocating, and it's useful to have in your back pocket some really solid financial advice on how to prepare for that major pivot. So grab a notepad. You're going to get a lot out of this episode. We're going to start with the kids in this first part, but we hope you'll stay tuned for part two, which will air in just another week. So without further ado, let's get into it.

The Biggest Money Teaching Mistake

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Sam, thank you so much for joining us today. A pleasure to have you back. We really enjoy having you here on the Leadership Tea Podcast. And today's topic is something that I know is important in my household that we talk about a lot. And that is thinking about how to raise money smart kids and really giving our kids the right roadmap to handle money. So I kind of wanted to kick things off by asking you what's the biggest mistake that well-meaning parents make when they're trying to teach their kids about money?

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Yeah, that's a really good question, Belinda. I think that based on what I've seen from my family and my friends, at least one of the things that I see is how we view money when we're growing up regarding our own situation or our parents' situation financially, and then how that translates into the when you have your own new generation of kids or family. So I think one of the biggest things is not trying to overcompensate, which is really hard. At least I see it a lot in my circle of friends, where when we were growing up, and this is different for every generation, but it follows a cycle where if you say you didn't have something or you couldn't have something, then you want your kids to have everything, right? And how do you balance that, whether you can or cannot, doesn't really become a factor. It's more of what the sentiment behind of what I didn't have, how can I give my kids whether I can or not? So how we teach our kids about the value of things and money is very important. But without taking away from what you want to give them, it's a very difficult balance to achieve. And no one should feel bad about what they're doing, is just how do we incorporate more consciousness to it, is what I would say. But I'm gonna let Josh put his two cents on this one too.

Start Young And Make Money Tangible

SPEAKER_01 3:53

I think it's very important to start young. I still remember when I was little. I don't know how old I was when my parents opened my first bank account for me, but I remember going to the bank and being so excited. I had my Passbook, if anybody remembers those, and I had my balance in there. And I was so excited to go get my dollar or my two dollars. And it wasn't just going to the bank. Okay, I'm not gonna lie, it was going to the bank because you got a sucker. But it was just the excitement of it. And it was it was a dollar or two, which 30, 40 years ago was it was a lot more money than it is today, where we're talking about not even making or printing the dollar anymore, because is it really worth the cost of it? So all of that to say, just over the last 30 to 40 years of my own personal experience, I've seen like, why don't people start young? A lot of it has to do with looking at, I don't know, the parents always understand finances because how were they taught about them? Was did their parents understand? So you have a generational issue where people don't understand the value of money that Sam just spoke to, or they just don't understand how to manage money or how to save money or the priorities that they should be placing on it. And then on the opposite hand, you can have, you could have been raised in a situation where money was taught, the value of money was taught, savings was taught, and you had different desires, let's say, and didn't want to save money or wanted to be have what everybody else has, the latest thing will say keeping up with the Joneses, no offense to the Joneses, but keeping up with the Joneses, my neighbor has all these new toys in their driveway. How many liens and loans do they have on all those toys that are sitting in the driveway, too, versus the person that's next door that has a modest house or something like that, and everything's paid for. So you just look at the different things. And I think taking all of that into speaking to children and teenagers as they're growing up is teaching them, okay, if you take this money, save it. Yes, savings is important. You never know when you're gonna need it. You don't want to rely on a credit card or borrowing money to survive. But as you guys both you all previously shared, money is not physical anymore. It's digital. And so taking that into 2026, how can we translate that into something as simple as doing the envelope system, if you will? You can do it still, even though it's digital, you can do something with you concrete paper if you want to in your house to show them, hey, I'm moving this money, and it can be something as simple as those plastic eggs, putting them into a jar, and there's something visual there. It can be marbles in a jar, it can be all different types of things. If you need a tangible something they can see and touch, I think that's important, especially when they're younger. Obviously, are you gonna do that as a teenager? Probably not. As a teenager, think about some other ways. If you need something tangible that they can look at and realize, oh, okay, here's the money there. You're switching it into a how can you see it in front of you? There's different platforms or just different apps out there where you can make these things interactive and make it more exciting and not just figures on a spreadsheet. I am a spreadsheet person in that regard, but you could there's different ways to make it interactive and make it fun to show them, hey, here's the seriousness of money, but here's also a fun way of doing it with colors and graphs and things like that makes it more interactive.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Yeah, I love that. I you guys are talking about not overcompensating and knowing the value and knowing your priorities and being cognizant of your own history with money. And to me, that all adds up to uh these conversations with kids have to, you have to have conversations. You have to be a little bit vulnerable and do some self-reflection and understand what baggage you're bringing to the table to break generational curses.

SPEAKER_03 7:50

Yeah, I love the point that Sam made about not overcompensating. I feel like I see that a little bit with my parents and how they love to spoil their grandchildren. I don't think they're unique in that sense. But I also know that my dad grew up poor. And so this sense of wanting his grandkids to have more than what he had and to not need anything, that definitely drives his relationship with money and how he treats them. But I like the point that Josh made about having these old school tools, if you will, the passbook and the envelope to really teach our kids the value of money and the value of having something as opposed to just wasting their money on things that they don't need, which I think is a good segue to a question we wanted to ask about allowances.

Allowance Ideas And Family Budget Practice

SPEAKER_03 8:45

I've had this debate in my house for a long time. My daughter is old enough now where she doesn't need an allowance, but my son is still here and we still expect him to take the trash out and to do the dishes, but he also has a part-time job. And so we're trying to figure out okay, how should we structure the allowance? Should we focus on the structure of the allowance, or is it more important to talk about the dollar amount? Just curious to get your thoughts

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SPEAKER_03 9:13

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SPEAKER_01 9:53

I think it's very important to make your children part of the budget spending process. And when I was growing up, my parents also

(Cont.) Allowance Ideas And Family Budget Practice

SPEAKER_01 10:00

gave me an allowance, but it was not an allowance in that it was structured into okay, yes, we need to purchase shoes or clothes for you. That was separate. I think what they could have done are another way to do it, not saying this is the end-all be-all, because really it's gonna be dependent on every individual family and how they structure things. And every child is different. One way that worked for me won't necessarily work for Sam or won't necessarily work for the two of you. But you can take it and say, all right, I know I'm gonna have to buy Josh new shoes. And those shoes, I have $50 to spend on shoes. Now we can go to the store and tell him that he has $50 to go around and do it, and he goes and picks out the shoes and I pay the bill and we're good, and he got his shoes and everything's good. Or you could give him the $50 and say, all right, we're still gonna go to the store together to do this, but this is all the money that you have. And at the end of the day, if he finds shoes that are $40, then he gets to keep the $10 and use it. All right, we can apply the half to savings, half to spending, something like that. I think it makes it a little bit more interactive with them too, because or buying clothes, or you could really drill it down to some other, we need to go buy food for the week. Have your that was something else my parents did was make us part of the food, food process, if you will. So I remember being like, I think I was 12 or 13. I had to plan out meals. I had to figure out how much, all right, what are we gonna need for the week? I think it was part of Home Eck at the time or something like that. But it was a really good experience. I lived in a family of six people. And so we're going off to Sam's Costco, buying in bulk. And we know it's gonna cost a couple hundred dollars. So it was making the list, it was figuring it out how much it's gonna cost and all that stuff. And it was quite an eye-opening experience for me to be like, oh, we just went to the store and got what we needed. And no, it's it doesn't work that way. I think that's another important lesson that you can structure into making the kids part of, making your kids part of the budget spending process and just determining it's not just, oh, here's your $5 for the week, or I guess now 2026 is probably $20, but here's your spending money, if you will, for the week. Make it more into more interactive and more involved as far as, all right, you know what? I'm going to spend this money. How can you budget responsibly to make sure that you're getting something and not just the cheapest thing out there? I have a nephew that would probably go for the $5 shoes and need new shoes next week, but make it more interactive so that they are learning about it and they're learning the value of money and they're learning how can I be responsible and make good decisions when I'm doing this.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Yeah, I I agree with Josh. And I think three themes that are what we're gonna continue to talk about through is one, communication, two, no situation is the same because of perspective, because of different financial situations, because of the child itself, right? You you sent sometimes have people. I grew up with three sisters. We were all different in how we handle money, even candy. Think about just candy, right? We got a box of candy, then I would save mine. My sister would eat all of hers and then come for mine, right? So it's just, and there's so those are natural tendencies that we need to recognize in our kids. So I would even go into say you have to treat your kids individually. So, Shelby, what you described is my daughter is good, she's all taken care of, but how do I handle my son now? And you shouldn't beat yourself up for handling him maybe differently because of where his needs are, or because how he reacts. Now, in terms of allowances, I think it again, it goes back to value, right? What does your kid value? What are their spending habits and how you can you can talk to them, communicate how you're doing it? But ultimately, I think in terms of allowances, once you've analyzed all of these things that we just talked about, I think the biggest thing is consistency. So if you're gonna change something, it has to be for an extended period of time. The last thing you want to do is say, hey, this week I'm gonna give you 10 bucks because that's all I have, and then next week I'm gonna give you 20 bucks because that's all I have, because then you're creating a different type of behavior and anxiety within the kid that you don't want, then they're gonna either use it all or save it all, right? You don't want to create that behavior. I would say a yearly conversation or when situations change, say there's a loss of a job on a parent or something like that, we sit down again and when we review the process, like Josh was saying, all together, what can we do? Because things are tight now. And so I think that creating that consistency of okay, and then also as a parent, looking at what am I buying you, like Josh was saying, what am I buying you that it's not intended to be your allowance spending versus what are you spending your allowance on, and then go from there, right? Needs versus wants kind of conversation. But to me, the biggest thing is consistency. If you are agreed on something, then that has to be consistent until something changes, and then we have the conversation again, and then we change that again.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Yeah, no, all of that really resonates in my household. Uh my daughter's really integrated into the conversations, particularly about the meals issue, Josh. That really resonated with me and being a part of that grocery shopping conversation. And Sam, this idea of really understanding who your kid is. My daughter likes to save and such to the point that we have to be cognizant, even about just talking about the tactile experience of what is the safest way to save, right? You don't necessarily want to have a box of cash under your bed, right? Let's talk about the banking system. Let's talk about investing, let's talk about all the different ways in which you can exercise this interest in saving and what it means. So I think meeting people where they are is something I often say in the workplace as well. I like to meet people where they are. And I think that really makes a difference. So maybe that idea of communicating and meeting folks where they are leads to our next question,

Talking About Tight Money Without Fear

SPEAKER_00 16:14

which is uh how do you talk to kids about money in a household where money might be tight? How do you have that conversation without uh creating anxiety?

SPEAKER_02 16:24

It's tough. It's probably one of the toughest things. But like I said, to me, communication, having open and honest communication because of two different things. Things can change, like I was mentioning with maybe a loss of employment or situations just in general. Hey, we had just these, we had a flood in the basement and now we are gonna have to pay for it, right? It doesn't necessarily need to be a change in income, but how the money is spent and educating your your kids to have that perspective. And also something Josh mentioned earlier, it's super important. Having the perspective of who you are and what your family is all about, and being secure in that, right? So if that is the situation in my family, then that's who I am. And I can't judge other families for that. I can continuously compare myself to other families or other kids and what they have. And that's very difficult these days, more than ever, because everybody has everything or access to everything, but you really don't know what their situation is. So all you can do for your family is have that conversation with your child and explain where your situation is and how you're gonna tackle it, and perhaps offer perspective over how others may tackle it, but that's not the way that we're gonna do things in this house, kind of conversation, is what I would say. And then the other thing I wanted to mention here, sorry, Josh is looking at me. Yes, I I think one of the things that and he touched base on it, I love how I learned this from a friend who has is very well off, but he's very but he grew up with very little. And something that he does with his kids that is to me is amazing, is that he takes care of the basic needs. And a little bit different than what Josh said, getting the five dollar shoes, they would go to the store and say, these are a decent pair of shoes. This is they cost $20, right? This is what you need. And so this is what I'm gonna give you. I'm gonna give you $20. And then if you want a different kind of shoe, you can either work for it or you can either work it inside if the parents are able to support that. But if it's a family that has a little bit more constraint, then you can go ahead and do chores for others, right? Somebody needs their lawn mode. It's there's other possibilities on how to get that other. But my responsibility as a parent is to take care of your basic needs. And here's the $20 for those shoes. Now, to me, if they were going to buy a five-pair of shoes and learn the hard way, that's still on them. But that's my two cents.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I love that. Thanks, Josh.

SPEAKER_01 18:59

I think even as a parent, if you can spare $2, then have them save, and I just do small amounts, it's arbitrary depending on the individual situations. You can have them save a dollar and spend a dollar. Really, it's about building the concept. And so that's where I say starting off young. And one thing that I meant to mention earlier as well is it's never too late to learn how to manage money. I've in the years past, I've spoken to kids in middle school and high school, and they're like, oh my goodness, I've never done anything with money. But I think that of course, if you're able to, or maybe it's that the parents don't feel confident about. And that's perfectly fine too. Once again, it goes back to when did they learn? Did they ever learn how what's going on? If you're learning about it from this podcast, that is not a problem. That it is never too late to learn how to manage money, how to do it and start basic. In 2026, I almost said my spreadsheet reference again, but in 2026, there's lots of apps out there that can tell you, like, hey, let's let's go over this. And it's very important to sit down and figure out a budget. I know that's a four-letter word. We don't like to talk about a budget, but sit down. How much do you make? That's a fact. You can't argue with it. How much money does gets deposited to your bank account every two weeks, every month, whatever the case might be? It's this amount. How much does your rent cost? How much does this cost? Just start by listing your bills. There's a lot of people out there that they know the money comes into their account. They know that their bills get paid and there's money left over. Or maybe they're doing the opposite and they're that in and out is still occurring and they're living on a credit card. If it's happening, you know what? There's no problem in saying this is how I'm doing it now. How can I figure it out to move forward and come up with a plan that's going to work best for me? So it is never too late, is my bottom line with that. And you can, if you're helping your kids, help them, as we said, with the grocery shopping, making the list, coming up with a budget. But if you're also 40 years old and being like, you know what, I need to, I this is not working, that's okay. You're realizing what's going on. Let's come up with a plan. And there's plenty of help available to help teach you how to do this and come up with a good plan so that you have a solid footing to move forward.

SPEAKER_03 21:35

What I'm hearing you say a lot, Josh, is that it's never too late to learn. And in fact, Melinda and I are learning from the two of you right now, things that we can utilize as tips to guide our kids. And the common thread that you said, Sam, a lot is that communication is key, having these conversations, even if finances are tight or not, that it's just really important to have honest conversations about money in your home. And so I'm wondering, Belinda has a middle school graduate. Her daughter's getting ready to go

Middle School Money Skills That Stick

SPEAKER_03 22:13

to high school. And we were thinking at that particular stage where it's hard for kids to find a job at that age because they're a little too young, but it's also a critical point to really begin having these conversations about money management. And so we were wondering is there a financial concept looking back on your younger self? And imagining when you were in middle school, is there something that we should be focusing on during that transition from middle school to high school? Just one financial concept that you think parents should really hone in on with their kids?

SPEAKER_02 22:55

It's a great question. It's a tough time in one's life. Because a lot of things are happening, especially with things that you want and you think just the psychological aspect of things and when it's happening, right? That that you want to, as yourself, you or at least a lot of people, right? I don't want to generalize, but that you start compensating for the changes in feelings and things that are happening within your bodies and things like that. Financially, I would say to me, is like, what do I need versus what do I want? And have that very clear. It would be mine. I don't know, Josh, do you have any ideas specifically for that age?

SPEAKER_01 23:34

I think in addition, like Sam mentioned, there's so many changes biologically. You're moving. I learned I've learned a lot. My spouse is a middle school teacher, and he actually loves that age group because to him, it's yes, they're scared. They're going through these unknown changes. And so with that, he's a lot of it's easy to get frustrated with them because you're like, but you were totally different, like even just a couple weeks ago. Instead, really embrace those changes and be like, you know what, let's figure it out together. Let's go along with it. I know going back to when I was a teenage boy, it was very like, it was scary. And especially as a man, we don't want to admit that we're scared. And the bottom line is we're all just like everybody else, we're all scared. We're all trying to figure this out, what's going on. And so helping them through this time of everything else, and then still the same thing. You can help them with, all right, let's still get you some new clothes. You've just grown out of the old ones that I just bought you a month ago because you're growing so fast. So you can still do the same thing. You can still help them through that process of all everything that's going on in their life changes, and still help them with the money aspect of it of, all right, we're gonna get you new shoes because your feet have grown. We're gonna get you new clothes because you're now taller, and your shirt's too short, which I don't know, maybe that's the end thing these days. But we're still gonna help you with these things, and we can still go through it together with the, and I referenced going to the store earlier, hop on the app to buy from whatever store it is. You can easily do that as well. Sit down at home, make it a fun experience where they are still, here's how much money you have. Let's go through it. So there's just different ways that you can do it to help them through a very challenging time as they're learning, growing, help them have confidence in those areas, but also make it fun at the same time as you're teaching them and helping them through that, helping them through those challenging times.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I think also in this particular age is it may be an age where you give yourself a little bit more leeway as a parent and meet them where they're at without blaming yourself for it because they are going through so much, right? So it may be a little bit of time to be, if you can as a parent, be a little bit more generous with keeping, I think the biggest thing that you can keep in mind is not give in to the immediate gratification, but teach them that concept of, okay, do you want this now because you want it, or do you want maybe we save for this other big thing that you want? But if this is what you need right now, don't feel bad if you want to give it to them right away. Because also in this age, they'll forget, right? It's not something that's gonna necessarily affect them as much as other learnings through different ages, I would say.

SPEAKER_00 26:36

Yeah, no, I continue to hear the themes of listening, communicating, and even adding a little bit of empathy along the way, both for yourself and for your kids, because this is all complicated. So, speaking of complications, at least in my view, with the world becoming increasingly

Making Digital Money Feel Real

SPEAKER_00 26:56

cashless and everything's tapped to pay or moving money through apps, how can parents make money feel real to their kids if they rarely ever see an actual dollar bill?

SPEAKER_02 27:09

Oh, I love this one. I have to tell you, my my niece is very fortunate because she has we only have one niece in my family. So we are we tend to spoil her a lot. And we learned very quickly at an early age that we were showering her with gifts, right? So first it was like the material or the material version of what money means. And then one Christmas, I think it was Christmas number three, she starts opening gifts, and it's just oh, so much. And then where's my next gift? And just starts throwing them to the side, and where's my next gift? And we were all horrified because that is not at all how we grew up, nor what we want to install in her. So we all got together as a family and we said, okay, we need to make sure that we're teaching her the right way of spending, because in this year, in this progressive time of money is not even a physical thing anymore. So, what does money mean if you can't materialize it? And how do you materialize it in the world of technology and AI? And now kids nowadays, it's not like when we grew up where we don't have we we didn't even know what finances were. Now they have financial education in schools. So, what how do you translate that into all of this? And so, one thing that I love, I love telling the story because I think it's just great, but obviously to each their own, and is we had this trip planned to Disney for her. And we said, okay, we're gonna control ourselves, she's not gonna get everything she wants. How are you gonna do this? So, what we did was to your point, Belinda, we gave her a virtual limit of this is how much you can spend. You can spend into whatever you want, but this is how much you can spend. And so my sister goes around and we're walking around the store, a little bit of a privileged type story, but you can apply it to other things. But but then we go around the store and she starts picking things. And at this point, she's 10, right? It's a little bit ahead from the years, but but she starts picking in things in her cart, and then we go, and my sister starts doing the math and telling her, okay, you are what you were allowed. So what are you gonna do? And then she said, Okay, she starts having to have that critical, com like critical thought process of what do I want? Right. Because at that point, it's not what I need, it's what I want. But same concept, but same principle applies. So she starts seeking things out of the cart, putting them back in, taking others once. So she's doing math in her head, asking my sister, where am I here? Where am I there? Show me, show me the phone, show me where I'm at. And then something really beautiful that happened here is she got two of the same, and then she kept them. And we said, Well, what's why do you have two of these? And she said, Yeah, this is for my friend. I want this for my best friend. And we were like, Oh my goodness, this is fantastic. And then that was a priority for her. So now, after that process, we installed that in her. We said, Okay, well, you know what? You can always utilize part of your gift for your friends. So if you want to be generous within your budget, we're always gonna encourage that. And so we encourage her to keep that in her budget, and that way you also teach generosity within having a budget, but it's also an important concept, at least for my family, to be able to not just it's all me, me, but within my own budget, I'm thinking of others. So, and now we do that every time we travel, every trip we have. We even do it with my sister who does some shopping on the secondhand thing. They recently went to visit, and and she was telling me that it was so funny because she said, You could have the new version of this, it's just 10 times more, or you can have this one that's slightly used from this website and pay and have a little bit more for five other things. It's your choice. She wouldn't, she wouldn't. She just gave her the options and she ended up loving it. She's no, I I can have more of this and it's just slightly used. I don't care. So you also break those barriers of what it is to have the news thing or what other options exist now in the world that can accomplish the same end goal. So that's just my two cents on that. But Josh is gonna talk more about the money aspect.

SPEAKER_00 31:15

Think here. Josh.

SPEAKER_01 31:17

I think that was actually two euro cents worth a little bit more, a little bit more involved, just saying. But I get passionate about how and I think for 2026, it depends on we're just gonna say what country you're in. So, in such a digital world, how you try to have children understand the true value of money, if you're in Europe, it may be different than in your the United States, in Asia, South of South America, Africa, et cetera. I don't want to forget Australia. But just depending on where you're at, I think it's a different you can do different things with it. And I say that from what we look at in what kids in the United States look at versus what kids in Europe look at. On one hand, it's very similar. It's also different because I think it tends to be more in Western world countries. You're going to be more digital and you're going to be more on their phones and stuff like that. It may not be as involved as others do. They may not be investing in the stock market or doing things like that, but they still know I need money to go to the store to buy the food, to come home and cook it and et cetera, and buy clothes and things like that. Along with that, I have a niece who she likes to go to the thrift shop or the secondhand shop and go shopping. And to her, she actually prefers to buy dishes that have little chips out of them and stuff like that. And to her, she's that means they have character and value. So she can go and get those for a dollar and have 10 plates in her cupboard that don't match. And to her, she's, you know what? I think still showing them something tangible. No, is it cash? Not necessarily, but it's something where they can still see the tangible results of what's going on.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Yeah, a lot of common themes, common threads are emerging in terms of just how do we teach kids the value of money and the value that they place on the things that are important to them. And then communication, consistency, what do I need versus what do I want? That is something, Sam, that I'm gonna have to drill into my son because he is not a lover of thrift shops. I love going to secondhand stores, but I can tell you, I took him as a kid, even from I don't know, he was six or seven years old, and I would take him to consignment shops trying to introduce this concept of ways to make money, but also you don't have to pay a lot of money for something that is still quality. And he yeah, it's not with that program. He is very much into it, needs to be brand new, it needs to be like, I don't know, even if I can only afford to buy one thing as opposed to buying five things. Yeah, he doesn't.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

I'll tell you what, work with my niece was very much the technology aspect of it because she had sent my sister a list of things that she wanted to buy, and so my sister just looked online and said, Where can I buy something second hand? And she said, It is the exact same one. I know it may not work with your son, but in the in it's like apples to apples, right? So then for her, of course, okay, yeah, right? Yeah, but but as you said, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

But you made a really important point before that how you treat one child is gonna be different than how you you treat someone else because that's human nature and we're all different. We want to ask one more question before we wrap up this segment. It's summertime, as at the time of this recording, it's summer, and ideally our

Before The First Paycheck Hits

SPEAKER_03 34:57

kids are working. If they're old enough to have a summer job, they're working. And so we're wondering what is the first conversation the parents should have before that first paycheck hits your kid's account.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

I have a few different answers for this. My first slide should be this should not be the first financial conversation that you're having with them. And contrary to popular belief, though you can do it today with check 21, which has been around for many years. I've seen on the movies where, you know, oh, you got your first paycheck. Let me put it on the board and shellac it. Just make sure you deposit it first, be a remote deposit, and then you can shellac it and make it all pretty and all that kind of stuff. But basically, the I would say that savings has to be the focus from the beginning. Teach them the that concept. Now, whether it's 50%, 20%, whatever the amount is, and that that's open to negotiation. I don't truly believe that there's this one hard rule of you must save this much or financial ruin will ensue. No, absolutely not. I think it's important to set a realistic goal. And so if you know that, especially when you're starting, figure out how much you think that they're going to receive. What truly do they have expenses? Have they just gotten their first cell phone? Are you they gonna pay for it? I'm trying to bring myself in the 2026 kids' minds of gaming. So am I spending money on games? Am I getting am I into shoes? I do love shoes, but am I into shoes? And so I need to go and buy the latest kicks or whatever the case might be. What am I going to spend my money on? What is my goal? Or am I saving for a specific goal? Am I going on vacation? Are we going to saving it for first car purchase? All those types of things. There's what is the goal here? You're going to, you're, you know, you're going to have to work. So, okay, they're learning how to work and learning how to hold a job and all those types of things. But what are they saving for? And so I think are they into, are they wanting to invest? There's plenty of apps out there. My 16-year-old nephew just asked me yesterday about or a few days ago about he wants to invest in the stock market. I was like, Oh, okay. But yes, the bottom line is figure out what the goal is. Then I think you can determine what your percentages are, et cetera, your guidelines for it. And the pathway to employment and working and adulthood is here.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

When yeah, what one thing that I would mention is think about it not just in the summer job. It's like just teaching them how to be to go into the professional world after, because that's just the beginning of them. One of the things that's happening, that's been happening for years now, is we see you go from what I would have called myself a poor college student to then having a job. And some of these professions will pay immediately out of college an immense amount of money compared to what they were making, right? Percentage-wise, it's general, not generally, not in all cases, unfortunately, in some ways, but some professions, I see it a lot in the medical field where they come with years of years of and then they get their first paycheck as a doctor, as a death, whatever the case may be, and then they don't know what to do with it. So then they end up overcompensating, talking about overcompensating in the amount early in my career, the amount of high-income earners with high professional jobs that got themselves into so much debt because they didn't know how to manage the money when it came, is incredible, still to this day. I see professionals in the marketing field, consulting fields specifically. Also, you go from having all this debt, all these years of barely scraping by, and then you get your paycheck and you don't know what to do. So what do you do? You get everything that you want, regardless of what that means. Normally it means getting in a lot of debt. I want this big house. I want this thing. Okay, well, why? And so if we don't do it when they get their first summer job, then we're really do setting them up for failure, especially in the world we live in today.

SPEAKER_00 39:14

Yeah, both of you really raise some important ideas around using this as a learning opportunity to set yourself up for success in the future. And I know I'm gonna go back and reflect on setting myself up for success by looking for my passbook and going to the credit union and getting my sucker for whatever candy they have. That's what I mean. I was like, yeah, I do remember doing that. I remember that too. Getting my lobby pop going. So as we come to a close here on today's topic, so we're gonna shift gears now to

Wrap-Up And Next Week Teaser

SPEAKER_00 39:52

a decision that takes exactly the kind of courage we've been talking about throughout this conversation, and that's moving abroad and the financial realities that go along with that.