How to talk to your kids about money

The Street

Bobbi Rebell, founder of Financial Wellness Strategies, joins TheStreet to share some tips on how to talk to your children about money.

Transcript

00:00How do we talk to our kids better about money?

00:06The first thing you need to do when you want to talk to your kids more about money is listen to them

00:12Right look for opening to start a conversation based on what's happening in their life

00:18That's relevant to them. So listen to them and ask them. What's your goal?

00:23So one of the things that my book focused on launching financial grown-ups was a goal that my oldest had

00:29She wanted to buy an apartment for her. It was the right decision for her to own property at a young age

00:35That was her goal many people that's not their goal. That's fine

00:38It might be something else and so we did a lot of talks about how to get there and we figured out not only

00:43How to figure out okay if she had a two-year timeline

00:46This is how much she had to save over that two-year period each week and she had an Excel spreadsheet

00:51She changed her major in college to a higher earning major so that she could do that

00:55She made specific decisions about how much she was going to spend going out with friends and it made me really sad that she did

01:01Miss some things but it was important and this is an interesting twist with her. She also

01:07Made sure that she was building up her credit score so that when she did go to get a mortgage

01:12She was able to qualify and that's something that we don't always talk to kids about we tell them not into credit not to get

01:17Into credit card debt

01:18But we don't often talk to them not only about

01:20The things you can get when you pay your bill every month on time like the points and cash and free stuff and privileges and

01:27All that but we don't talk to them about the importance of having a good credit score so that you can get better

01:32Terms on so many things in life, whether it's their first car their first apartment

01:37Just being able to get the better credit cards. That's what's really important

01:40the other thing I would say is bring things up as they happen in real life even if you get the eye roll and

01:46An example of that is with my youngest

01:48I remember he like hit his toe or something and we had to go to the doctor and it was December and I said to

01:55Him well while we're waiting for the doctor

01:57I said well at least financially this is good news because and I got such an eye roll

02:01But I said we've used up our deductible. So this won't cost us very much. He was like mom

02:07I know I know I know and I started he was like 11 and this poor kid

02:10I started explaining to him and he was like I understand and he then told me how the health insurance worked

02:16Which was amazing and the lesson from that is your kids pick up a lot along the way and don't undermine don't

02:22Underestimate I should say how much your kids actually know and how much they're picking up from overhearing you

02:28Good and bad conversations in the family and just from life

02:32They're smarter than we think and what advice do you have for parents who want to?

02:37begin to have the conversation with their

02:41sons and daughters about

02:43Setting themselves up for retirement

02:46I

02:47Share information. I mean, I think it's really important depending on the

02:51Maturity level of your kid and your relationship with them talk to them about your own life

02:55You know when I did the press tour for launching financial grown-ups

02:58So many parents came up to me and said I can't talk to my kids about money because I've been so bad with my money

03:04First of all, that's often not the case when you actually ask them what's been going on with their money

03:09They've probably done just fine. But if you tell your kids

03:13This is what I wished I did at my age and be a little bit vulnerable

03:17Not only is that going to teach them about money?

03:20But it's also going to create a very special bond and it's gonna open the door to having very candid conversations

03:26The only thing worse than your kid getting into for example credit card debt or having more student debt

03:31And you know is them hiding it from you, right?

03:34You want to have those open channels of communication and going back to what I said originally listening to them

03:40But you have to create a relationship where they feel comfortable

03:44Sharing their worries and their financial concerns with you because then you can work through them together

03:49And if you don't have the answers, that's fine be there to help them find the solutions together

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