I sat my family down, even the five year old and announced - “it’s time we had our first family business meeting.” My wife looked at me as if I were crazy, my daughter gave me an excited expectant gaze ( we have been reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad” together for several days now ) and of course my five year old son just played with his toy cars at my feet.
Taking a page from Robert T. Kiyosaki’s book, I decided we the family should mind our own business. I have been working on improving my financial situation and to teach my children about money - So being a big believer in " a family that works together, stays together" I decided to involve the whole family. To be honest I have doubts when it comes to my wife and money [ terrible spender and money manager ] but I figured I would give her the benefit of the doubt and that this would helped to involve my children in the family financial process.
“ There is a big difference between your profession and your business. Often I ask people, “what is your business?” And they will say, “oh I’m a banker.” Then I ask them if they own the bank? And they usually respond. “No, I work there.”
In truth, my business is to teach my children about money, parents often never teach children about money - they leave it up to the school or life in general to teach children about money. I don’t want that for my kids. I want to teach my kids about money - I want them to know how to manage money, make money, make money work for them, even how to create money from nothing.Our first Family business meeting
Like I said, our first family business meeting was called to order. I turned the TV off, gathered them around and went over some of the things I have been doing.
1- life insurance, how much, who is beneficiary.
2- Bank accounts, beneficiaries.
3- opened new account for kids
[ * goal to save $10,000 for each child by the time they turn 18 yrs old. I want more but lets start with a simple goal and work from there. ]
4- Went over my Daughters goal of creating and raising $1,000 by Oct. 31, 2010.
[ * she has to start a business, make money, manage it and save it. ]
5- My wife has to make extra money……..
“ ??? What….Why ??? ….”
Yes, that is when the business meeting really got lively. Emotions took over, fear lead my wife into panic mode. She started complaining that we can’t just save money, we have to live life too. She went on to say that she already works, that she can’t spread her money out any more. Then she cracked and started talking about “when are we going on vacation? What about the things I want, how will I buy my things?…”
Once the meltdown subsided I explained to my wife that the money she currently earns at her job will not be touched - But like my daughter and myself - if she wants extra things…. She’s going to have to come up with the extra money to get it. Plus - the goal is to make money, save and manage our money to buy assets that in turn make us more money.
Golden Years - Work all my life to have nothing ?
Earlier that morning we were watching the news before taking the kids to school and going off to work. There was a report on a special event in Tampa Florida that many banks were holding in order to help families who were losing their homes to Bank foreclosure. They talked with one particular sweet looking elderly woman and her husband… the elderly woman said “I worked all my life to get my dream home and retire… it looks like I worked all my life for nothing….” Between health problems and the bank foreclosure - this sweet elderly woman was losing everything she worked hard all her life for.I reminded my wife of the news report, of that sweet old woman and asked her… “Do you want to end up like that one day?” Her response was no. I know that life is full of unexpected disasters and misfortune… I can’t control that. But I can control how I work, manage my money and how I create my wealth. Do I buy a business and take a chance at the business failing or succeeding…. Or do we sit back and pray that Social Security will be enough to keep us happy in our golden age of life. Can you say - “Welcome to Wal-mart”… Because that’s where many are today who believed the government would take care of them when they retired.
Fighting against fear that stops Improvement
When the meeting was over and my wife and the five year old dispersed - I turned to my daughter and asked her “did you see what happened?”. I explained to her that Moms reaction was exactly what Robert speaks about in his book. That no matter how logical or smart a person may be - fear can trap them from doing what they know is right and best for them. That instead of being concerned about “How can we better prepare for our future?” Mom was more concerned about the fear of not buying extra shoes or not going on vacation. That fear caused her to have a defeatist attitude and she could not see a way out. That the minute she said “I can’t” her brain closed off to finding a solution to her problem.
When it comes to money or life in general - do not allow fear to consume you. To stop you from acting, changing, taking a chance [ logical thought out opportunity ]. I tried to convey to my twelve year old child - that life is full of adversity and challenges. Fear will cause you to freeze, cause you to avoid the hardship of overcoming a challenge to the soft comfort of the norm [ what you always do ].
I tried to to help her understand, like all parents should - that you should never say you can’t. Leave your mind open to opportunity - don’t say you can’t, ask yourself: How can I do this….
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