Let Mickey Mouse Work For You

One way to teach kids about how money works is to explain to them that the things they love the most are companies owned by someone or often times many people. Their favorite hamburger place, toy store, yogurt shop, movies, or amusement parks are all someone's assets used to put money in the pocket of the owners. Without the owners we would not have these favorite things in our lives.

Not only are many of these companies owned by many people but often times they are public companies and can be owned by your child.

The concept of a public company can be difficult for a child to grasp. We need to break it down and make it visual. Think of company ownership as a big puzzle. They break the company into millions of puzzle pieces and then sell each piece. Selling stock/puzzle pieces raises money which is used to make more movies or toys to sell. The more toys they sell, the more money the company makes (profit). As an owner of the company you will get a piece of the profit back in what is called a dividend.

Encourage your child to buy pieces of companies of their favorite things.  To make it visual you can decorate puzzles pieces and put them in a photo album or scrapbook.  You will know your child has grasped the concept of company ownership when they insist on buying friends and family gifts made by the companies they own so they can make more money!

As Christmas rapidly approaches, I challenge you to buy your child or grandchild at least one asset to go along with all those toys (liabilities) you have planned to buy.  Buy them a scrapbook as a visual symbol of their company, stock for one of their favorite places or things,  and their first puzzle piece to put in their scrapbook.  While I am not a licensed broker and cannot recommend specific stock to buy I will share with you my son’s portfolio of companies he has purchased or been given as gifts to give you a feel for stock prices of the things that he loves.

Company (Stock Symbol)	Price/share as of Nov 9, 2012
Ford (F)	$10.93
Disney (DIS)	$47.06
John Deere (DE)	$84.29
Leap Frog (LF)	$8.29
Target (TGT)	$62.02

For a fun and simple way to teach your child what a company is and how it works check out "A Day At The Carnival".

The Bounce

From the time he could talk, I taught my son very simple definitions of assets and liabilities. This came in handy for his 5th birthday. Our hometown had recently added a business called The Bounce. They had inflatable slides, bouncy houses and mazes. We had been to several birthday parties there and my son was looking forward to celebrating his 5th birthday party there. The Bounce was strategically located next to Toys R Us. We would frequent it often during the holidays to buy cousins and friends Christmas gifts. One heartbreaking day we noticed The Bounce was closed. Upon further investigation we discovered they had gone out of business. My son took the news hard and personally. He could not understand why they would close knowing he wanted to have his birthday there in just 2 months. Equipped with very basic definitions of assets and liabilities, I was able to teach him a grown up concept that even a 4 year old could understand. The conversation went something like this.  

Mom: "do you remember what an asset is?" 

Son: "puts money in your pocket" 

Mom: "do you remember what a liability is?"  

Son: "takes money out of your pocket." 

Mom: "every company has both assets and liabilities. To go to the bounce you have to give them money. That is how they put money in their pocket. There are also liabilities that take money out of their pocket. They have to buy the bounce houses. They have to pay to turn their lights on and they have to pay the people that work there. Unfortunately more money came out of their pocket than went into their pocket, so The Bounce ran out of money and was a liability."

Son: "oh"

Now I realize this is an over simplification and with a tepid response of "oh" I was not sure if message delivered was message received until about a month later his preschool teacher sent home a note saying my son had taught the class about assets and liabilities. When I inquired the next day, his teacher said another student brought up The Bounce and Sam explained to the class AND the teacher what assets and liabilities are and why the Bounce was a liability.

Kids are sponges wanting to soak up information. I often hear from friends that because my son has a working knowledge of financial concepts that he must be really smart. As his mother, of course, I want to believe this is true and who knows he may turn out to be brilliant, but the reality is he has simply been exposed to a topic that most kids (and adults) are not exposed to. My hope is that he will be smart, but my goal is to be intentional and diliberate in teaching him financial concepts so where ever life takes him he will be smart about money.

I have looked for a developed program, ciriculum, or at least educational videos to teach kids about money, but I found very little. I have discovered there are many opportunities day-to-day life presents to teach us how money works. Because of this, we have decided to document our learning experiences through inexpensive electronic children's books that will teach financial concepts even a 5 year old can understand. Our goal is to peak the interest of children, lead them to ask questions, and bring out the entreprenueral spirit in them. Check out A Day At The Carnival and begin the journey with your child.