Are your kids ready to handle their finances like pros? Join Joe Haslam and me, Adam Richardson, as we tackle the often-ignored yet crucial topic of financial literacy for the younger crowd. In a world where piggy banks have evolved into digital wallets, this episode promises a treasure trove of insights for parents and youngsters alike, all while sharing a good laugh at the quirks of growing up and learning about money.
From the sweet nostalgia of childhood allowances to the eye-opening demands of teenage financial independence, we weave personal anecdotes with practical advice. We reminisce about our own entrepreneurial escapades—like Joe's hilariously elusive lawn-mowing payments—and discuss why these early experiences matter. As we share these stories and strategies, we explore how they lay the groundwork for a future of savvy spending, saving, and earning.
But it's not just about the money; it's about the values behind it. We confront darker issues, such as unethical practices and their consequences, through a shocking incident at a funeral home. These moments underscore our belief in the power of integrity and honest work, whether that's a neighborhood job or simply understanding the worth of a dollar. Tune in for a heartening mix of wisdom, warnings, and wit that will leave you with a fresh perspective on how to guide the next generation towards responsible and ethical financial behavior.
Are your kids ready to handle their finances like pros? Join Joe Haslam and me, Adam Richardson, as we tackle the often-ignored yet crucial topic of financial literacy for the younger crowd. In a world where piggy banks have evolved into digital wallets, this episode promises a treasure trove of insights for parents and youngsters alike, all while sharing a good laugh at the quirks of growing up and learning about money.
From the sweet nostalgia of childhood allowances to the eye-opening demands of teenage financial independence, we weave personal anecdotes with practical advice. We reminisce about our own entrepreneurial escapades—like Joe's hilariously elusive lawn-mowing payments—and discuss why these early experiences matter. As we share these stories and strategies, we explore how they lay the groundwork for a future of savvy spending, saving, and earning.
But it's not just about the money; it's about the values behind it. We confront darker issues, such as unethical practices and their consequences, through a shocking incident at a funeral home. These moments underscore our belief in the power of integrity and honest work, whether that's a neighborhood job or simply understanding the worth of a dollar. Tune in for a heartening mix of wisdom, warnings, and wit that will leave you with a fresh perspective on how to guide the next generation towards responsible and ethical financial behavior.
Today on the Idiot's Guide we're talking about. Are you a sucker for those adorable puppy dog eyes? I mean like a superpower, especially when it comes to draining our wallets of anything resembling money. Maybe it's time for an allowance. And do your neighbors smell? I'm sure they do, but not nearly as bad as the funeral home that the neighbors reported smelling funny. You know the kind of funny smell that 190 decomposing bodies makes Nasty. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide.
Speaker 1:So I think I want to start this episode off like this I got the luxury of getting an allowance when I was a kid, and I use the word luxury because the idea of allowance did you get allowance when you were English was not really an important thing. No, it varies between parents and parenting styles and how you were raised and what you're going to do for your kids and that kind of stuff. But this episode I think one of our goals isn't to teach kids how to perfect those puppy dog eyes or how to exact all of the money from your parents' bank account. But it's also kind of on two sides of this Speaking to the parents about. If the question is should I give an allowance, what is a good allowance amount and those sorts of things, how do I administer that? And then, for the kids side, coming from parents, what are we looking for? What are things that we want to be able to make it so that we consider an allowance something worth talking about?
Speaker 1:And I think that there's a lot of kind of nuances to this. Like I said, I got an allowance when I was a kid, but it didn't come easy and it honestly was not In the sense of I was supposed to say, comparable, like no, not even close. So I guess, joe, what about you? What's your experience growing up as far?
Speaker 2:as allowance. So growing up we didn't get an allowance but we did get paid for certain chores. So household chores like inside the house you didn't get paid for it's like cleaning dishes, things like that but we did get paid. I think it was $5 to mow the lawn. So we had a front lawn and a back lawn, so I think it was $5 per lawn and so it was a total of $10 potential. So that's what we were told. We were being paid. And then my dad, inevitably every time, would say if I owe you money, you'll never be broke. And so we never saw a dime of that $5 for mowing the lawn. But my dad owes me plenty of money, so I'll never be broke.
Speaker 1:I would grow up making sure everyone signs a contract.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just one of those things where you just it's funny to think about it now, but I didn't grow up with a lot of means and so my parents probably just didn't have the money to be able to actually give it to us. But it was a way to motivate us to actually do something, and pretty clever of my dad to come up with that phrase. But having it doesn't take a lot, and I know inflation 20, 30 years ago is very different from today's $5 or $10. But learning how to manage money young is really important. Now I am an odd duck. I have been managing money since I could basically read, and so one of my earliest memories is being at the grocery store with my dad and he was getting corn or green beans or something. I just remember it was on the canned produce aisle and he went to grab one and I told him he was getting the wrong one because the price per ounce was more expensive on that one than it was on the other one.
Speaker 1:I point that out with my kids when I go shopping to them. That's something that I pay attention to is I'm like okay price, even when it's on sale. I'm like okay, like, does this sale make this one cheaper than that one?
Speaker 2:Right, and so that is from the time I was a little little kid I've been managing money which I mean it makes sense. You know that became an accountant and business owner.
Speaker 1:But the fairy comes and you're like is there a mutual fund that I can put this into so that it will grow and expand into my future?
Speaker 2:When I was, I think I was. It was first or second grade. I think it was second grade. A friend of mine was an artist, you know, actually I mean he was a very good artist for second grade, for even an adult, and so he was doodling or drying up some bookmarks one day and was just giving him out to friends. And so he and I sat down and we actually came up with a business model to sell his bookmarks to the other kids at school. And so at in second grade I was already creating my empire.
Speaker 1:I. So I grew up with my parents owned their own business and so I grew up kind of in that entrepreneurial world and so when it came to wanting money, I wasn't reliant on an allowance Like I did get one but I learned early that it was more valuable for me to find means to make money. And it wasn't your lemonade stand, like those as kids I would do, but honestly, it was more, like you know, establishing a lawn care service for the neighborhood. Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, lawn mowing I remember I had. I was horrible at it.
Speaker 1:Trash pickup leaf snow all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:I had a lady down the street from us. She worked at a realty firm and so she hired me to be her IT guy. So this was back in the days when computers were new and so most people can type really well on computers, and so it was doing a lot of the computer work for her. I was horrible at it, but you know I was probably 12. And here I am working in a professional office doing typing. You find and this kind of goes along with what we talked about last week is you fill your time, you find ways to fill your time. Now you and I were particularly motivated. Not everyone has that self motivation.
Speaker 1:I would even say generationally. Most, most of our, this generation we're raising, is it's fewer and farther. Between that you're finding those motivations.
Speaker 2:I think that's a bias. Okay, going back a few, and I think that's a bias because, as our age, you know, the people that we choose to be around are the people who are like minded to us, and so we are around people who are also motivated and all that. And then when we look at this generation, we're looking at it through the eyes of our kids or through the media, which isn't necessarily our choice of who we're around, and we're seeing more examples of it. But I think there are plenty of examples from our generation of just people that were motivated like we are. If our generation was really more motivated than the younger generations, we would have a lot more entrepreneurs than we really do, but we don't. Every generation has roughly the same quantity, same percentage of kids that are motivated, people that are motivated and unmotivated or somewhere along that spectrum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean even between my two boys. You know my oldest, he wants to go get a job. He's motivated in that sense, so he wouldn't got a job Before that, though, like for him to be like in, you know, like thinking of ways of making money, like I'd give him instructions on how to do it and he wouldn't make a dime, like he would like clam up. Or, you know, if it had to mean that he had to talk to somebody about, you know, picking weeds. It was just one talking to another human, two touching dirt, like three, where do you throw it away? I'm like the trash. Like that sounds hard, I quit, you know, like just the thought was enough for him to be overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:Well, and I think part of that is, you know, when we look at little kids, it is we give them everything. They're cute and so we want to do everything for them. They give you their puppy dog eyes and you want to do everything for them. And I think I'm the worst. All of my kids know that if they look at me the right way, say the right thing, I will melt and give them whatever they want.
Speaker 1:I try not to carry cash for that reason. Oh, it's awful.
Speaker 2:It is awful Because all my kids have, you know, their own bank accounts that are tied to ours, and so it's like, ok, here's 20 bucks, yeah, it's just, it's so hard to to be disciplined to say no as a parent, and I think that's something that we need to do more of is saying no, that, no, I'm not going to get you this in order to teach kids how to value money as well as work for something. Now, I'm not saying that they have to work 80 hours a week and they're going to become the next Steve Jobs and all this. I'm just talking about. They just they learn how to work from a very young age, you know, and you start that five, six years old which seems really young, to give them an allowance, but there are things that a five or six year old wants that we just generally pay for. You go out of town on a trip and they see some shiny bobble that they want, and so you buy it for them.
Speaker 2:They're five or six. Yeah, they don't have money, but if you were to work with them and Not buy it for them, but if they have a set amount of money that they get every week, say yeah, at five years old, maybe a dollar a week or something. And then they learn okay, we are going on a trip in four weeks and so if you want to buy anything, you have to start saving your money now, mm-hmm. And so they learned that reward for future, or that future reward by disciplining themselves today. And that starts for the young, and that's something that, because kids are cute, we don't start out with. We wait until they're 15 years old, when they're rotten, nasty teenagers, to start saying no, I'm gonna start restricting and Changing the way that I'm parenting, based on everything that I've done for the last 15 years.
Speaker 1:I. I want to Add the word horrible to that.
Speaker 2:Adjectives for teenagers. I Think we can probably spend an entire podcast of just listing descriptive words of teenagers.
Speaker 1:Stay tuned.
Speaker 2:I, but it would all be true. Teenagers are the key to humanity. I know we talked about about you really get some good like radio now.
Speaker 1:It's like interviews. I could go around with a camera and I just ask general public what's a descriptive for there?
Speaker 2:You know a teenager and and we do, you know, knock down teenagers a lot. We do it jokingly. So any teenagers listening you hopefully know that you don't get along with your parents, and parents and teenagers always think the other one is horrible. But we do it jokingly, but honestly. Teenagers are the secret to humanity's success. As scary as some adults may take, that it's true and I've got the math to prove it. Well, but going back to this is you know, we've got 15 years of. This kid is used to getting everything and all of a sudden, because they've turned 15 or 14 or 16, whatever it is, we're suddenly restricting everything, yeah, and saying, no, you now have to get a job for that. It's just such a sudden change, just Slamming into a brick wall for a lot of these kids.
Speaker 1:For my kids a lot of it. You know, even from pretty early on it was always. I Never gave them anything for chores like household chores. Regularly they all, they all have their responsibilities and I have some tips and stuff like that. They'll kind of dive into that a little bit deeper. But but for for extra things, like hey, I need you to get all of the leaves raked in the in the backyard, like I'll pay this much an hour for you to do that. So you know, my suggestion is take as long as you can.
Speaker 2:But you've got to balance it, because if you go too slow you're gonna piss him off and he's not gonna pay you anymore. If you go too fast, you make too little money, and this is the exact thing. Is just finding that balance right in a work environment what is the right way, and learning that at seven years old is so much better than learning it at 17.
Speaker 1:One of the things, like the first tip that this, this thing that I have here is it talks about Don't just give kids money and expect them to grow up to be responsible financial citizens. So you know, a lot of times if they, if they see you, just like it, just money is there. All of a sudden, this is you, oh, you want that. Yeah here, boof, boof, oh you do, you wanted to go do this poof and I don't, I don't mind, you know, being the source of you know their, their ability to have activities, their ability to have family fun things. But if it's like man, you need the next game console and just poof, it's there. It doesn't really teach them anything of value to get there. And so I have a hard time with that kind of an example of that.
Speaker 1:For for me lately is my Now 13 year old, so now two teens in the house. He just recently asked for a computer, for like a gaming computer so he could play. He's heard from all of his friends it's way better than a game console to use a computer to play fortnight on. So I'm like, oh, neat, this is the beginning of a big problem. So, but he came to me and he's like I, you know, I want to earn, I want to save my money, I want to earn this much money so that I can pay for this. Well then he found one that was on sale and he's like oh shoot, how do I get this right now? I don't have a right now. So he came to me with a proposition and he's like if you get this and I make these, these payments in this time frame, so I have like a length of time it's not a signed agreement with him, but he knows like it'll be my computer if he doesn't. So I'm the repo man and I I have no grace period and that's exactly.
Speaker 2:I mean, he came to you with an option for a loan because he found a really good deal on something he was saving for. It found a really good deal. He's gonna go get a personal loan from dad in order to go and get this. Yeah, now, a lot of people look down on personal loans or things like that. There are times when you need them. Obviously, saving is the first option, but when you come across a good deal, sometimes if it's something you need or want in this case it's a want but Then at those times it may be a good option to go and do that. But but here you go. It may be a good option to go and do that, but but here your kid is coming to you with a loan agreement. He's learning about lending, he's learning about financing.
Speaker 1:He's the one that would read rich dad, poor dad, where my oldest is not, yeah, he will go get a job. I'm a rich dad, poor dad kind of mindset, so I'm the one that's like huh, I wonder how many businesses I can operate at 13 years old. You know, like, who could I employ in the neighborhood and they not notice that they're actually being employed by a teenager? You know, like, that's that's where my brain goes. But my oldest is the other way, like but, but he did. He did something he had. He had a goal in mind. He wanted to get something. He worked, he saved and when he got to that point it was actually a hundred dollars less than he had saved for because it went on sale. He's like, boom, I can buy a, buy this with it. You know kind of a thing. So it was, it was really cool to see them kind of work with, you know, the different goals setting that they wanted in order to achieve what they wanted.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the younger you start with this, the better it is. And and that's the advice to both parents and to kids, any kids that are listening or watching this if you've got something in mind, create a plan. When it comes to starting a business, you create a business plan. When you want to go get a loan, you create a loan plan. All these things are established so that you can get what you want. And so when you go and you show, I'm going to do this, this and this, these are the terms, this is what's going to happen, then you have a much better chance of doing, of accomplishing that. And parents, when your kid comes to you with something like that, reward that kind of behavior. Because by rewarding that behavior, what you're doing is encouraging that cognitive thinking, that critical thinking process. You're creating new neural pathways that are going to help them to develop better skills as an adult to manage money, to budget money, all those things. And by rewarding those behaviors, you're strengthening that entire well-rounded picture.
Speaker 1:One of the things about an allowance that this article kind of talks about is don't tie allowance to regular household responsibilities, and you mentioned that. I mentioned that the main reason why was because you have a little bit of kind of self-pride that kicks in when you've completed some of these tasks. But a household if I think about the chores that I do, I'm not paid to do, but they're a contribution to the household and there's kind of a mutual tribalism that takes place in that. That makes it so that every part of that household or tribe is a contributing portion to the best of the household. And then these extra things is where you can really negotiate.
Speaker 1:However, that has bit me as well because, like the leaves or something else, I remember a while back I had a giant pile of dirt that I was moving from somewhere to somewhere on my property and both my oldest boys I'm like you guys are young, you know, like you guys are strapping your back's, not going to hurt 15 minutes in that kind of stuff get to work and my both of them are like how much will you pay me? And then I'll be like I think it's worth this much. I don't think it's worth that much. I think it's worth much more than that and I'm like who are you Go away, freaking shark?
Speaker 2:They're negotiating but and those extra chores being paid for those. But I am also an advocate of a standard weekly or monthly allowance. They get X amount for just being a member of the household and so because a 10 year old can't go out and get a job per se, I mean certain things they can do. They can do a lemonade stand, but you got to watch out because some people, if you don't have that sales tax license or that business license, you're going to get that lemonade stand shut down, no matter how cute you are. It's amazing how many times that happens I've seen it yeah.
Speaker 2:But so they don't really have a way of doing that and so, but you can't just give them money, and not your 15 year old, so we cut it off at 18. Once you're 18, then you don't get an allowance anymore. But even if they have a job, even if they're going out getting a job, they still get their weekly allowance, and it's because it's just part of being able to learn how to spend money. And parents, they will fail for the first, while probably six months to a year they will get their allowance and then they will spend it. They will lose all of it, and you have to be okay with that, because it is better that they learn how to fail with money management when they're 12 than when they're 20.
Speaker 2:True, because that 20 year old is going to go out, they're going to get a job, they're at college or out in life, and this is the first time that they have a lot of excess money. You know they're not paying for. Their money is not just going to rent, just going to food, and so they have extra money and they are going to blow it, yeah, and it's just going to go away. And now they're 20 years old and getting into a war state. They're getting offered credit cards and so they think, hey, free money, this is great. And they're going to go blow all their money and now they're going to be in huge credit card debt. It is better that they learn how to fail at money management at 12 years old.
Speaker 2:And you have to let them, because they're going to go out, they're going to get their allowance let's say it's 10,000 dollars A week. They're going to go and they're going to spend that 10 bucks. And then on Wednesday they're going to say I really wanted that bobble, but I don't have any money left because I spent it all on candy on Saturday. And so they start to learn. And then the next week they get their $10 and they spend it on that bobble that they wanted. And then come Tuesday they're like oh, I wanted candy, I don't have anything left. I don't have anything left. And so they will start to develop and learn the skills of okay, I saw what happened those last two times. I didn't. I spent all my money right away to get candy and I couldn't get that toy I wanted.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So the next time I spent all my money on that toy and then I didn't have any candy. So they're they're little brains are going to start thinking how can I make this work? And so they're going to say, well, maybe only spend half my money and then I'll have half in case something comes up. And so they're going to spend half of it on candy. And then the other half comes around and there's nothing that they want to buy the next week. Ooh, I've got extra money, I'm going to buy lots of candy. They waste it all and they don't get the toy that they want the next week. And all of these things are so important because they are building neuro pathways. They are learning how to develop, how to critically think about how to spend money in a very simplistic way. It's very simplistic in a 12 year old mind or an eight year old mind, but they're learning how to develop and then those simplistic basis then build into a much more complex, comprehensive money management style.
Speaker 1:My uh, my middle son is the one that negotiated the contract with me. He is much more savvy when it comes to. He's always like growing up with his older brother Like I swear, like I'm gonna guess, like the Bible story of Jacob and Esau. That's a very good example, because he's got like contractually bound. His older brother probably owes him in the thousands of all the money because he would always save all of this, it'd save everything he had, and his older brother would be like, hey, I really wanna get this thing, but I need a couple more bucks. And it's like every couple of weeks it's this. I was like I don't know where he's getting all of this money, but he seems to have a lot of it. And so like it's crazy, because it always like I'm like what are you doing, son? Are you stealing this money? He's just really good with it. He just doesn't find a need for it.
Speaker 2:Yep save your Christmas money. Save your birthday money. Sell bookmarks on the side.
Speaker 1:And we don't necessarily do an allowance because I mean like there are so much that we pay for that. It's more about the fact that on a regular basis, almost weekly, there is something we're talking about for them, for their benefits, and so I think that's one of the things that it talks about here is talking about it and maybe having the conversation to say, like, why is this? This last week, my boys were going to a snow camp with our church and they're going up to a cabin and all that kind of stuff, and we're talking about covering the costs, about how to do that, and my oldest, all of a sudden, he's like can I go? And I was like well, I wasn't planning on you going. Like he goes, that's okay, I'd love to go. If I can, if you can help, I'll pay for half of it. I was like are you sure? He's like yeah, I can do that.
Speaker 1:I was like, literally, that's like almost all of his paycheck that's coming in. So I'm like that's a pretty good, you know, a willingness. He's happy to spend money. He's like his first paycheck was. He learned what not Uber, eats, doordash? Yeah, he's like oh, they had a promo code, so I got a couple of free ones and then they got expensive like instantly, and he ran out of money. Boom, it was gone.
Speaker 2:Failure happens, and you would much rather than fail at 15.
Speaker 2:Then at 20. 20, and that's the big thing here is is they've got to learn how to failure. Failure is the first step to success. Yep, that's it is. You have to fail because you're going to learn, you're going to be able to grow, you're going to be able to develop because of those failures. But you know talking about. You know where that money is going to. Being able to manage that money, the more that they can control that, the more that they're cognizant of what is my money actually going to? What is my parents' money actually going to? That makes a big difference.
Speaker 2:Cell phones if you start a kid out at eight years old with an allowance and then they turn 12 and they say all of my friends have cell phones, can I have one Now? Aside that, you know, when should kids have cell phones? We're going to put that to the side right now. But let's say you're okay with it. You put parental controls, all those things, on it. Well, you tell them if you want a cell phone, it's coming from your allowance and so now, if they want that cell phone, they're going to get less spending money, which is exactly what happens to adults.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:I want something, that means I'm going to have less somewhere else, and so it teaches them that when they want something desperately that is keeping up with the Joneses, it's going to mean that you have to cut back somewhere else. You know, this happens a lot when you've got neighborhoods and you see someone else put up all these fancy things around their house and you're like, ooh, I really want that, I want to be the cool person on the block, and a lot of people get into really bad debt because they're keeping up with the Joneses.
Speaker 1:Well, and I think what you were saying about like, well, do I want this or do I want this sort of things, and helping them make those choices is kind of a simplified budgeting system. You're not telling them, hey, you need to allot this much money for groceries and this much for phone bill or car payments or whatever you have. You're just saying, okay, do you want candy or do you want a new phone, like you know, and they're drastically different in price. But it's one of those things that even if you say like, hey, I want you to pitch in a little bit for the phone payment, you know we'll add the line to our plan and then you know like, have you pitch in a little bit to that payment? Is that something you're willing to do With my kids?
Speaker 1:I never really did that, but the budgeting side of it is kind of where, like my son coming and talking about, well, I can make payments over the course of this period of time. I'm like, well then, now you have a future goal that you've already set forward with this. My oldest did something he just did it the other way around where he saved up to that. So his goal was down the line, knowing that if he's stuck true to this, he's going to succeed, he's gonna get what he wants. And that's, you know, a real good basic form of what we do every day when we go to work.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and that's the idea is that you want to start young. Teaching kids in an allowance is a great way to do that. You supplement the allowance so give them you know, x amount every week for just being alive and in the house, and then you supplement that with extras. You know, mowing the lawns, raking the leaves, whatever it is chores that you really don't like doing. Then you supplement that with those and they can make extra money. They're doing gig jobs at that point and they're learning how to be able to work harder to get more, getting an education so as they get older.
Speaker 2:So, growing up, we had to. If we wanted a car, we had to be able to pay for the insurance, and so if we had to get a job before we could get a car, and it had to make enough to be able to pay for that. So for the first while you know, parents are driving you to your job so you can make enough money. But you know I wanted a car and so my dad found a really cheap $500 truck that barely ran, and so he and I spent, I think, six months underneath that truck rebuilding it, and so it was great. I love the memories of those times rebuilding that truck with my dad because it was. It was just a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:You know I'm not a mechanic by any stretch of the imagination. Now a lot of my dad is a mechanic, my brother's mechanic. They've gone into those careers. It was not something that I ever wanted to do Again.
Speaker 2:Starting from a very young age I was destined to be an accountant. But it's something with that now, because my dad did that, because we got a really cheap truck and it's something that we then rebuilt, put money into that could be afforded by a guy working part-time fast food. Now I know how to repair vehicles. I'm still going to go to the mechanic shop when it's a serious thing, but if I need to replace the brakes, I know how. If I'm ever in dire financial straits and I can't afford to go to a mechanic shop to pay for it, to have someone else do that for me, I can, and so and it's because it all started with that financial management side being able to pay for things that I want, yeah, now, my dad took a lot of time out to do that. He could have been doing a lot of other things, but those are skills that have carried forward for a long time.
Speaker 1:You think you felt bad because he always promised money and never gave it to you. Maybe that's why I was contractually bound to do this. Sorry, son.
Speaker 2:There you go, there you go. I paid my tuition with mowing lawns of how to repair vehicles.
Speaker 1:I'm going to run through these real quick, just like. My thought with this is we've actually covered pretty much all actually all of it in our conversation here, but just to reiterate, these are really good things like that. I mean, I think you and I are in very much agreement on how this stuff is. You know, there's not an exact science to it, but these are good recommendations, yeah.
Speaker 2:I am going to say these things work. Now. Those who have listened know that I'm a foster parent, so kids that come into my home are generally older. One of my kids she had no idea how to use money. She came into our home when she was 17. No idea how to manage money at all. She got her first allowance. I think she got a stipend from the state for she's a little bit developmentally delayed on, so she gets some SSI funds from the state for that because she can't work. When she started getting that, the first time she got that money she spent like 600 bucks in a week. I don't even think it was a week, I think it was like $600 in like three days. But that was a few years ago.
Speaker 2:And now she manages her money and she fell into the door dash problem. You know wanting to get that door dash going, but over time and you know it took a year, year and a half and she's still working on it. But that timeframe she learned how to properly budget If she wanted something. Later she knew to set aside money. She now saves a little bit of what she gets every month so that she can, in case, be able to buy something, and so it is something that it works, even in someone that age, yeah, and so imagine starting so much younger when they're able to utilize those skills and develop them over an extra 10 years to be able to develop that. And so these things do work. We're not just spouting some stuff off the internet that we've never tried before. These are real skills, these are real techniques that really work.
Speaker 1:I don't know A lot of parents. Our parents did it. You know parents all over the place. We're in agreement on this. So, yeah, there's got to be more of a common thread of this than the not yeah, and so if you're skeptical at all, look this stuff up.
Speaker 2:You know, as a parent, if you're skeptical skeptical about giving an allowance it's really not going to be that big of a deal. The worst thing you can actually do is give your kids everything and never give them an allowance, because that's no restrictions. Yeah, they don't learn how to restrict and then they just become a rich.
Speaker 1:Snob title little brats, you know and those kids are horrible.
Speaker 2:Yes, they have no idea, and then they think everyone else is below them.
Speaker 1:I joked about teenagers being horrible, but those kids are absolutely. Oh, they're the worst.
Speaker 2:So I'll let you go with yours now, but I just wanted to push that out there and say these are real techniques that really work.
Speaker 1:So in this one that we apply them and you know, keep in mind, I've already said a couple of these, so I'm just going to go back over and so you'll hear the same ones. But that, you know, what we've just talked about in the last half an hour has has really is a general overview of great principles to look at when you're considering, even for your little ones, a kind of an allowance for them so that they can learn and develop good skills that we use as adults constantly are. That is the. The epitome of our life, you know, is to to find means of managing enough money to to. You know, sometimes it's to barely stay afloat to feed our families, and sometimes it's to be responsible and build a legacy, you know, and from everything in between.
Speaker 1:But so the idea of the first one we talked about was, you know, don't just give your kids money and expect them to be financially responsible. The second one is don't tie it to regular household of responsibilities, like chores, kind of take that from the tribe. You know we all contribute to the tribe mutually, and then the extra things is where you can really take a better look at it. Third is talk about it. Don't be scared of having a conversation about money, even in the hard times. It's important because then your kids have a better appreciation for what money can, can and can't do and and how much really it it can and can't rule in our life you know, and they'll surprise you with how resilient they can be and coming up with creative ideas for doing activities or doing things that don't cost money or being patient when you have to say no, we can't, and they understand better because they have a greater understanding of in that time we couldn't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, they're smart.
Speaker 2:If you just say no, they just think you're being mean, yep, but if you give them the reason to help them to understand so much better.
Speaker 1:Number four decide on an amount so you don't really have there's, there's no rule, there's nothing. It's really to your budget, your extent, but maybe incrementally grow that over the years so that it's it's. It's there. Five is create a very simple budgeting system. Simple meaning do I buy candy with my money or do I buy a race car or a Barbie doll, whatever you want, you know, and keep it age appropriate. Do I want to buy Christmas presents for my family members? Number six automate or routineize the payments, like you said, kind of like a weekly. So they have, they can look forward to each week having this little amount that contributes to their overall well-being.
Speaker 1:Number seven let them make mistakes. So part of making mistakes is feeling consequences. My seven year old right now is grounded this week, as of this week of the recording. But she's grounded not because of a of of, of an allowance thing or that behavior wise, but the way she's grounded, she, you know she gets frustrated and she's like, oh, and then I have to remind her I was like, hey, I just just a reminder, you're still grounded. And then she's like and throws a fit. I'm like man, that's. That's part of. Part of the grounding is feeling like how that feels to be to lose those privileges. Huh, that's not fun, huh, you know. So she's really getting like. She's like I. Better better fix this now, you know.
Speaker 1:Number eight is give optional opportunities to make money. You know, some people are good about this. My oldest, um, he's terrible at being creative about money but wants to go get a job. So that's why he's employed at 15 years old, because he will absolutely put a shirt and tie on and go apply for a job and he does great at the jobs that he does. My middle son, he is an entrepreneur. He wants to start, uh, you know, print on demand business online and start doing this and like I'm, like you're 13 and and you're going to start a business empire that's going to make more money than your dad.
Speaker 1:You know how do I invest in his plans here? Well, we can talk. I'm, I'm, I'm currently working on training him so that he, he understands what it takes, but I mean, he has now a laptop to be able to do it all, so he's not restricted at this point to where he he can't go go out and get it and so, um, those, those are just kind of like a rough. There's eight, eight here on this chart and it's it's nothing fancy, but it's something that just kind of gives an overall good point of view or good perspective to to share. But I think one of the things that, um, you know, I, I I'm going to transition over, but I want to make sure that you get get a couple more cents in if you want what. What are you thinking?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I, I, for any young people listening this is. I mean, if we've got six year olds listening to this podcast, I might question, uh, what they're doing listening to this, especially as of a couple of podcast episodes ago, um, but, uh, if there are any young people listening, take these things and practice these ideas and by practicing with your birthday money, with your Christmas money, with with money that you make from anything, by practicing at that, you can prove to your parents that it is a good investment in your future for them to give you an allowance. Okay, do a uh PowerPoint presentation or what are the? Is it slides now on Google that everyone uses? Do a Google slide presentation. Powerpoint was our generation. They don't do PowerPoint. You can still PowerPoint. Well, yeah, it's still there. It's just no kids do that. Um, but but do these things that show that you are responsible and that you want this as part of your life and recognize sometimes parents don't have money, and so you know, be open with that conversation too.
Speaker 2:If you're from a family that does not have a lot of money, you may not get an allowance. You may have a dad who says, if I owe you, you'll never be broke, and so be okay with that because, let me tell you, you can still be successful later in life if you have that. But take some of these same skills. If you don't get an allowance, if you do get an allowance and apply it, try to convince your parents to give you an allowance because it's going to teach you. It's not always going to work, but give it a try. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, and so work hard at it. Work hard at life, parents, if you can try to use these techniques Again, it doesn't take a lot of money Five dollars a week, $10 a week.
Speaker 2:It's something that you can then show to them and, honestly, if it's for chores that you're doing once a week, like mowing the lawn, pay them five bucks to mow the lawn. You just got an hour back of your life to be able to go do something fun and it cost you five bucks. It's a whole lot cheaper than buying, than hiring a lawn mowing service, let me tell ya. But those are the things that you're looking at is, as a parent, see ways that by passing this off, you may be out a little bit more money, but maybe your stress levels are a little bit easier, maybe your outlook on your kid's lives is gonna be better. So keep those things in mind as you're looking at an allowance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think one of the things that is also important to stress is try not to just it's not a try not to Don't go down the road of any illegal means to make money. My example would be I'm not even gonna give you examples cause I don't even wanna give those ideas out except for two money laundering and forgery. The reason why I bring those up is because a couple from Colorado that own a funeral home were arrested, actually in Waggoner, oklahoma. They own the funeral home in Colorado, just south of Colorado Springs, and they were arrested because in their facility that was reported for some kind of a foul smell, nearly two I see that nearly 200 decaying corpses were found and properly stored at the facility. So I mean gross, ew, ew, okay, owners of return to nature funeral home. So in Colorado it is legal to have a natural barrier, which means that they might put you in a pine box, but some way they're looking at earth decomposition.
Speaker 2:It's gonna be. You're covered in a decompostable cloth. You're put in an untreated coffin, so it's not pressure treated, it's not any chemicals in it, so that it will. The reason I know this is because this is how I want to be buried. I want a natural burial.
Speaker 1:I wanna be a tree pod. You know the ones where you're like the face of a tree. Yes, all of a sudden, you're like this beautiful tree and you're like you're eating my fruit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right, we are all cannibals, but no, I really love these natural burials. There's no embalming fluid, and so you are perfectly capable of decomposing and helping nature through your passing.
Speaker 1:So this couple. They were arrested for four felony charges, including abuse of a corpse, theft, money laundering and forgery. According to a statement from the district attorney for Colorado's fourth district, two million dollar bonds set for this couple and basically what had happened is they weren't really sure, they just noticed that it started to really smell bad, and when they went to investigate they found all of these bodies just there, and they weren't stored in anything, they were just stacked, and so I can't believe that they could even get away with that for such a length of time to where you have decomposition actually starting. So in order to have a nature or a natural burial, you have it's like a 24 hour window before you have to be refrigerated, so otherwise you lose that opportunity. You can't. You have to do other means or services, and one of those is crematorium, and so this funeral home actually got into a big old argument with the crematorium service that they were working with and severed the agreement all the way back in November, and so what they had found is even in the decomposition which they figured out, ways of determining the identity of these bodies by fingerprints that were still there, and that kind of stuff which is really disturbing but gross.
Speaker 1:But families that had gotten ash remains in an urn were given back their family members' remains, decomposing remains from this and finding that in the urn that they had was just mixed cement, like that's to stir, like messed up, demented, like. What are you doing? Why are you like? I have no idea, what do you do with that many? How do you get that many bodies? It's just disgusting and like the amount of negligence for them to get to this extreme, to go so far that they have no refrigeration for this, no care for the facilities, no care for the deceased of family members. There's only been about 30 of the family members that have been returned to their family, so the rest they're still working on identifying.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they're probably too badly decomposed to identify Wow.
Speaker 1:So months in a room with other bodies just the.
Speaker 2:Oh, the illnesses and diseases that could come from. That is just, and that's why you have the 24-hour period.
Speaker 1:Even just like the ground contamination around that facility for the neighborhoods, like there's a lot of things that could be really really bad because of this situation here and it's a 2,500 square foot building, so it's not that big to host, to hold that many bodies that were found. That's like a that Wow, it's like an auto shop full of bodies Not even an auto shop. Auto shops are bigger. Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the size of our entire office here.
Speaker 1:Could you imagine having Even our bodies plus whoever's stacking them?
Speaker 2:Could you imagine having that here?
Speaker 1:It's disturbing, it's disgusting, but thank goodness that they found this and these people have been arrested, and I pray that they can identify They've been able to also use dental records and things like that but that these families can be returned and have a proper service for their Honor them the right way. So, anyway, I know that that's a really bad note, but the lesson learned is don't be money motivated and make sure that when you commit to something, you do what you say you're going to do and not just stack the bodies in the back.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, Ugh. Wow, I have no words.
Speaker 1:Honestly, I don't either. I don't know other than so, governor Jared Polis. He issued a verbal disaster declaration and just apologized to the families about this, about this happening, literally bringing together state and federal bureaus of investigation and three county coordiners' offices, state emergency management and state and local police agencies, including an agency that has been they were dispatched for disasters like 9-11. So to think that they have to dispatch that on a national level for a facility down in South of Colorado Springs is just, oh yeah, just disturbing. So, on a lighter note, I don't know if I could I'm not sure I could pick this back up again, but Learn how to manage your money better, so you don't end up in a situation where you think that this is tenable.
Speaker 1:It is not tenable, it is despicable and, honestly, it's not worth it to try to do something like this. When you think about making money, when you think about creative ways, guys, this is not creative. This is disgusting, disturbing and you should go to jail. Or any other things that are illegal. Means to be able to produce money is illegal for a reason. Don't do it, even if it seems like it could be possible, and you see the scenarios. I promise you don't do it. You will get caught, but in the meantime, maybe rake some leaves, mow some lawns, be friends with your neighbors and clean up some trash. All of them are going to be happy. Even if it's a shiny nickel from the grandma down the street, it's still a little bit further and, honestly, it's not just the shiny nickel that you did. Now you have a customer for life, so look at it that well. I mean, it's a old lady down the street, so there's a possibility.
Speaker 1:She's probably just yes well for a little bit of a curve, Okay that took a dark turn right there. I just brought it back. We're keeping it positive. Anyway, be creative, be creative.
Speaker 2:Just get to the end.
Speaker 1:We need to come to the end of our show, but hey, life's too short. Keep laughing and keep learning, and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.