Making money is not Evil - teaching kids about money ?

Making money is not evil - but being a slave to money is evil..

I’m trying very hard to teach my kids about money - get them to see things a bit different. You know, get them ready for the real world when they have to make money in order to pay their own bills instead of the “Dad has money” mentality. Or the work, make money, spend it mentality many Americans live with. And one of the things I am trying out currently is - trying to teach my kids [ especially my eleven year old ] that one - money does not grow on trees and two - making money can be easy…. [ oxymoron - contradiction… No ]

I’ve been listening to my kids talk.. Even my five year old - they have the same mentality….

I need that new toy, gadget, or other nonsense. And they face two dilemmas:
1- the true value and understanding of assets [ things ] .
2- Dad will pay for it cause he works and has money [ understanding money] .

Now - making money is not easy, until you change the way you think about money, assets and value system. Yes I’ve been working on how to change the way I think as well - but I want to change the way my kids think about money because they can start early in life while I - I already wasted half of my life expectancy.
Cashflow Quadrant: Rich Dad Poor Dad. , by Robert T. Kiyosaki

Teaching my kids about money - Rule # 1

Well - sounds simple but not so :
RULE ONE
You must Know the difference between an assets and a liability, and buy assets.
Rule #1 is the only rule, the only rule you need ???
Again - sounds easy, but really isn't.
If you want to make money [ be Rich ] - and I’m not trying to focus on being rich just the knowledge of wealth building - this is all you need to know. It is Rule No. 1.

"The Rich acquire assets. The poor and middle class acquire liabilities, but think that they are assets."

Trying to teach kids about money and this rule 1 concept is harder than you think. But I gave it a whirl - and I’m still working on it. [ let you know when it sinks in ].

How I tried to explain this “Make Money thinking concept” Rule # 1 to my kids.

In Making money - “What is an Assets and what is a liability?”
Well - hell, how do you teach a kid the difference between an asset an a liability? I think I ate off more than I could chew here ... ???
Talk about the most important thing they believe they own - Home.....

It’s easier if you own your home [ which you don’t if you have a mortgage ] but if you rent, kids still believe they own the home.

Simple approach - is a home an asset or a liability... Kids and adults alike believe a home is an asset. My wife thought so too, until I explained it to her using the book and the example from Rich Dad Poor Dad. ( see image below )

Your home is not your biggest asset - it’s a liability to you and a asset to your Bank. Why? - simply put you derive no income [ make money ] from your home. And dispite the fact that it can grow in value - you spend more cash on your home than you ever will get out of it. So to you it’s a liability - to the bank it’s an asset. Why is it an asset to the bank? Because you pay them to live in it. They don’t have to fix it, paint it, pay utilities or live in it for that matter. But they get that check every month from you or they will take it from you !

So anything you buy that does not pay for itself or make you money [ today not twenty years from now ] is a liability. That ipod my daughter wants so bad that she is willing to do extra home duties for - liability. That bike, that movie, that book, everything my kids find oh so necessary to have - liability. What makes it worst is that they have no concept of money because I pay for it all.

Teach kids about money - the value of a dollar

Putting my kids to work!
That’s right my plan to teach my kids the value of a dollar is to put them to work… even the five year old.. [ let you know how that turns out ].

Dad is not a cash machine and they have to earn and make money like I do. They also have to track it - see where their spending it and figure out ways to make money. I know - a lot to ask of a kid. But hey, this is a life long process. Making money isn’t easy - but it isn’t that hard either. You just have to change the way you think. And teaching kids about money - well, that is a job in itself.

Get to work boy - you lazy bum... love you son....LOL

The reason I want them to make money, so they can feel the pain of losing money when they have to pay for those trivial things they think they need. It's not about not spending - but about building wealth building ideas so they can do more in life, with their lives than I did with mine.