Episode 025 - Thinking OTB for the Next Generation (Part III)

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">We’re continuing our series on teaching kids financial literacy this week on Thinking OTB, and for this segment we’re tackling something that may seem easy but can be very difficult. We’re talking about listening to your kids. Sounds easy, right?</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The truth is that the relationship between parent and child is mostly a one-way street. For the first part of their life, we make all the decisions for them because they just aren’t capable of doing so for themselves. This is the “Because I said so” stage of their development. That’s not to say that we, as parents, aren’t trying to teach them good decision making. It’s just that most of those decisions are based on basic survival in the world we live in. Teaching good financial literacy, or how to properly use cost/benefit decision making is something that we would like to focus on with our kids, but usually gets cast to the side in the grand scheme of things.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">The earlier you start and the more consistent you are with teaching your kids about money and good investments, the more they will internalize these lessons and use them to make decisions without thinking about it. That’s the goal we’re working for, right? If you are teaching your kids these lessons, you need to let them apply it when they’re ready, and that means listening.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;"> </span></p> <p><strong>Not only Listen, but also Follow Up and Follow Through</strong></p> <p><strong> </strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Give your kids space to make their own decisions and the freedom that they need to come to you with those decisions. Your job is not to rubber stamp every decision that they might make, but to ask those questions to see how well they’ve thought it through. At a point in our kids life, we stop being the ultimate judge of their acti