CRASH PROGRAMMES

Many years ago when another enthusiast and I started the Family Budgeting Service Inc., we were heavily involved in trying to get people out of the financial cart . Time and time again I would go out with a budget form to a couple’s home, listen to all the reasons why the heavens had fallen in – how it was everybody’s fault but theirs – and how it was impossible to repay the multitude of debts and hire purchases.

How I kept my cool in some of these ridiculous situations amazes me. But I would cajole and persuade until finally we would arrive at a small surplus of income over expenditure. I would then add up the total of all debts, divide by the available surplus which duly produced the wonderful news that they would be clear of debt and say five years.

Always that would be too long a time-span. They would start off with good intentions but eventually fall by the wayside. After a few of these failures, I injected a bit of steel into my soul. I would arrive on their doorstep, make tracks for the kitchen table, turn the telly off, set them down in front of me and fire questions like a machine gun. In no time I would have all the information without having to listen to the historical diatribe of woes. I would then say, “You got yourselves into the cart but just as quickly you can get yourselves out again – would you like to go on a crash program?” Invariably they would say yes. I would strike while iron was hot and show them how to curtail all extraneous spending and live on an economy diet. That would enable us to produce such a good surplus that many times the time-frame would be reduced to a matter of months.

The interesting aspect was that when a crash program was instigated I didn’t have one failure because the light at the end of the tunnel was more visible and attainable.

When I graduated to using computers they enabled me to mellow because it somehow wasn’t me telling them what to do, but the results on the screen revealed what was necessary to produce the desired action. Often one partner would say to the other, ”Is that what’s wrong with our finances,” as if suddenly all was revealed in a blinding flash. Invariably he would continue, “I’ll have to work some overtime, or you had better get a part time job.”

When they had run out of steam, I would offer the advice that it’s fifty times easier to reduce overheads than generate more income. Then we would go through the pruning process on the screen and at no time the shortfall would be turned into a generous surplus.

Finally the crash program to get rid of all the debts could then commence in earnest knowing that provision was made for every item of necessary expenditure for the ensuring twelve months.

DECISIONS .. .DECISIONS

Some years back I was wanting to prepare seminar material before racing down country so I asked my secretary, who happens to be my wife, to fend off any requests for an appointment until my return the next week. But she relented and booked in an evening appointment. A 48 year-old man who had worked over 21 years as a qualified tradesman in the one workplace was summarily called in by management and offered three alternatives:
1. To leave and take redundancy money of just over $25,000.00.
2. To be retrained and eventually be assigned another task and be relocated in another area.
3. To take a lower paid job in the same place and receive a payment of around $5,000.00 as compensation.

Well, he and his wife came and we had a four-hour session. To solve his problem, and it really was a problem as he literally didn’t know which way to jump, I could have used a few of the decision processes that people use.

Firstly the Binary System. This is a computer term which uses the method of either on/off or yes/no. Yes, we will take redundancy; no we won’t take redundancy. Yes, we will retrain; no we won’t retrain. If this is a system you use, you will eventually make a bad decision.

The next is the Voting System. Ask as many people as you can what they think you should do then take a vote.
Or we could use the Intuitive System. “I just have a very strong feeling that I should take redundancy,” or, “I had a dream last night that I was sitting in a rocking chair enjoying the scenery. That must mean redundancy.”
Well I’m not enamoured with any of these puerile systems and prefer to do a feasibility study using the Pros and Cons method.

I quizzed them about retirement. Would they be content to stay in the same house and locality? Had he any skills that would enable him to turn a hobby into a small income? Did they have a mortgage free house? If not would they repay the mortgage if they took the redundancy money? Could they exist on the unemployment income without touching capital and many other questions. It was fascinating as we went through all the options how one started to strengthen with many pros while the others racked up more and more cons.

By the end of the evening he knew without a shadow of doubt what he was going to tell his boss the next day. Then we completed the financial plan (using the unemployment income) balancing with a reasonable surplus. It was rather nice to receive a telephone call of thanks the next day by someone who had considered all the options, weighed up all the consequences, and then made a firm decision.

By the way, I knew right at the start which option they should take and could easily have completed the interview in a quarter of the time. But then it would have been a decision made by external influence rather than considering every angle and together planning the future.
Can you guess which option they took?

SLOWLY DOES IT:

Motivational books abound telling us how to be successful in life – the main emphasis being that success is equated with how much money we have accumulated. They may endeavour to disguise the base desire to be a millionaire but the suggestion that if we had a million or two all our troubles would be over appeals no end to avid readers. Castles in the air can produce an airy-fairy attitude of let’s get rich quick, hence the popularity of the TAB, lotto, football pools etc..

Money is really only good for what it can do. We need sufficient of it to run our household but it shouldn’t be a main goal just to accumulate riches. Misers are never happy and contented people and they won’t be remembered just for having a lot of money. When a multi--millionaire died someone asked, “How much did he leave?” The answer was, “Everything!” But the great philanthropists are remembered with gratitude for having given this world a legacy that endures. So, if you want to make your mark in this world, you need to learn how to work less and get more done. Most of us work harder than we have to in order to reap the benefits life has to offer. People can lock themselves into circumstances which make it imperative that both partners have to work too hard just to stay afloat.

Mastering our personal finances is the key to succeeding in this life. It’s all very well taking speculative risks but even a minor disaster can tip the scales and lock us into a debt situation. We are all apt to take risks now and then but some people don’t do their homework and try a feasibility study to see what the end result of their action will be. We all hear about and envy the entrepreneurs who take enormous risks, pull them off, and live in the lap of luxury. But seldom do we hear about those who fail and litter the bankruptcy courts.

My advice is to beware of the get-rich-quick syndrome and look for long-term stability that comes with adequate financial planning. To always have a sufficient percentage of unallocated income to cover any future contingencies and to gradually improve the financial position year by year is the best proposition. In this way while we won’t rise to any great financial heights we will not suffer the depression and despondency of those who have bitten off more than they can chew and failed financially.
Discouragement is the one commodity that we cannot afford to live with for any length of time.

HOW TO EVALUATE A GOOD BUY

Let me share with you a few rules that have saved us a mint of money over the years. Firstly I must confess to being a bit of a spendthrift. It’s quite disastrous for me to enter a hardware shop. I can see so many good reasons to buy a power tool. I will be able to make endless works of art for the house and save vast amounts of money by not having to call in a technician.

Years ago my wife suggested that we check with each other before buying any item of a capital nature above $20.00. I realized that this would have an inhibiting factor on my buying escapades but nobly assented to the proposition. It has been one of the best rules governing my spending and has enabled us to save for the larger goals instead of frittering our money away on the odds and ends.

The second rule is that we took it in turns to decide what to buy with our special savings money as it builds up. Again my wife suggested a limit of $2,000.00 just in case I had big ideas to save up for a BMW. Over the years it has been real fun to work out what month each partner would be able to achieve his or her goal. We would invariably have a little celebration of some kind to mark the achievement so both of us could enjoy the purchase. Now that our income has shrunk we have graduated to writing out our individual financial goals separately, then coming together to merge them, and finally putting them into order of priority. Then we save up to achieve these one by one not forgetting the treat which marks the occasion.

The third rule has saved a mint of money. We call it the “delayed action” rule. When the shop assistant has made his pitch we say, thanks very much, we’ll be back with within an hour after we have discussed the pros and cons. Time and time again the decision is not to buy. The reason for the delayed action is to give us opportunity to coolly evaluate the purchase without the pressure of the salesman and also to look around for another make which may be a better bargain.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself when considering a purchase.
Do I really need it? Just because it has a bargain price tag doesn’t mean you need it.
Is the price reasonable? Don’t be afraid to check around.
Is this the best time of the year to buy? Prices get inflated around Christmas time.
Can the appliance be serviced? It may be a throwaway appliance that would be a bad buy.

Compulsive or impulsive buying doesn’t reap happiness in the long run.

RISK TAKING VERSUS SECURITY

I was jolted while sitting in church to hear the minister say:
“Youth is prepared to take risks – older people stick with security.”
As I look back over my life I could see the accuracy of that statement. I took risks in those early days that I wouldn’t dare to now. However there must be a reasonable balance in all things and I’d like to look at both sides of the coin to discover a pathway that is neither two rocky to negotiate nor two smooth to lack excitement.

When I was dishing out housing loans as a bank manager and a young couple was facing me keen to purchase their first house, the easiest thing to do was to grant the loan to make their dreams come true. But bitter experience always made me dig under the surface to determine their capacity to cope with the extra mortgage and interest repayments, rates and insurance , repairs and maintenance. Invariably this aspect hadn’t entered their young heads. The availability of mortgage monies to purchase the house property was their prime consideration. Nor would they have done their sums correctly and added on all the hidden costs of settlement.

So I would have to go through the tedious task of working out the budget forecasts, add up proposed income and expenditure to discover whether there would be sufficient surplus to cope with any subsequent aberrations. Often I would have to say that on the face of it they could just cope but the risk factor was extremely high. When asked if they still wanted to go ahead with the transaction invariably the young couple would say, yes we’ll have a go! But I noticed that older people would reconsider and plump for a lower price house to give them a safety margin.

With a reasonable predictable economy the risk factor is lessened but these days with interest and inflation going up and down like yo-yos, there certainly needs to be a larger safety margin.

Even though my banker’s instinct would want me to deny a young couple their mortgage money, after warning them of the risk I would say, “if you don’t have a go now, you probably will never own your own home.

Well what about security? Should we go through life always financially solvent, never using credit, only buying what we can afford and taking no risks whatsoever? Many would say that would be a humdrum existence

But in hindsight I believe financial freedom is the only way to go. If we plan our spending to achieve our financial goals neither using credit nor taking excessive risks we may never rise to any great heights financially but money worries will never be our lot.

Then we can take risks in other areas. Maybe we will volunteer for community work, learning how to be a good secretary or treasurer of some committee. Trying some sports like skydiving or skiing. Learning skills in mechanics, electronics or woodwork.

Life can be exciting or dull whichever way you want it.
However the tortoise only makes progress when he sticks his neck out!

REAPING WHAT WE SOW

Some young people need to wake their ideas up because what they are sowing now, they will be reaping in the future. Parents also need to realize that maybe they are unconsciously allowing bad habits to form in their children that will be difficult and sometimes impossible to eradicate in the future. Inculcating good financial habits in children does not come easy. There’s not much practical information available these days and most parents have only a vague idea of how to go about training their children in financial expertise.

Take weekly allowances for instance. Some children don’t get any, some have to earn it, some get it gratuitously, others ask or demand at the drop of a hat. Some parents put the allowance in a Savings Account for their children, others invest it in Life Policies, Shares etc..

One thing for sure, your children watch you like a hawk – they observe how you budget and spend your money. Unfortunately they never seem to hear much about the income side but they certainly see the ease with which money seems to flow in a never ending supply from purses, cheque books, credit cards or just on the never- never.

No wonder they learn an ‘easy come, easy go’ attitude. I would be surprised if 5% of families have at least an annual family conference when Dad explains how his budget scheme works, how he apportions a set amount to cover committed expenditure, how much Mum gets for housekeeping and her allowances. How much he retains for his allowance and contingent, variable items such as repair bills, dental and medical etc. How much for holidays and the all important factor, how much is left over to achieve the immediate goal. Wouldn’t that be a great start for your children (that is if you are operating a good financial system).

Richard Halverson wrote:
“Each of your children will meet an old man or woman someday. Down the road ahead – 30, 40, 50, 60 years, waiting for them to catch up. What kind of person will they meet will depend upon your input and their own. They may catch up with a generous, likable person who has financial stability and plenty of friends. Or they might meet up with a dried up, cynical old miser or spendthrift, soured, friendless, alone. The kind of person they meet will be the sum total of all they think, do and say from now until then. A point to remember is that these things don’t always tell immediately but they will show up sooner than they think. Time to take care of the old man or woman is right now because the day comes when it is too late.”

Habits formed in childhood usually set like concrete. I know you have good intentions to get your own household financial plan in order then you fully intend to teach your children the necessary financial skills. Let me remind you that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and unless you schedule prime time and make this your number one goal, your children might just end up like you.
You wouldn’t want that would you? Or would you?
Better check it out

FREEDOM . . . to do what?

The catchword during the immediate past has been, ”Let’s free up.”

Disciplined action has been largely done away with. No longer is the strap or cane tolerated in schools. Because there is very little discipline in the home, parents have to resort to cajoling and bribery to get some law and order in their everyday living. Politicians have leapt on the bandwagon to free up the economy by throwing out existing rules and regulations; the old has been ousted and the new regime instituted so fast that the populace is lagging behind, uncertain and apprehensive of what the future will bring

What is freedom? What does it mean to be totally free? If freedom is to have lasting value it must be contained within definitive borders. In so many cases freedom is degenerating into, “Yes, I’ll do what I want even if it means breaking, or bending the rules so long as I am pleased, satisfied and rewarded.”

But we are also free to do right and live justly. When rules are broken we not only hurt ourselves but we hurt others. When the raging sea breaks down the barrier meant to contain it, chaos reigns until justice takes over to enforce the existing rule and the wall is rebuilt even stronger.

A person, who is free, is free to live an ordered life within the limits of well-defined conscience. If everyone on a collective basis lives in similar fashion within the confines of authority we are free indeed. In this country we have more freedom than many other countries but I fear we are abusing our privileges. We’ve been free to borrow up to the hilt both nationally and privately. We’ve been free to split up with our life partner if the going gets rough. This type of freedom only seems to spawn a bucket full of problems and sorrow.
May I suggest that we are still free to decide on a new course of action for our lives and, since it will be our decision, we will have the sense of responsibility for what happens. We are rewarded with the decision when it is a good one and we should learn a lesson when it is a bad one.
You are totally free to plan your spending within your income. You are free to teach our children money discipline and skills. You are free to live on a lower income in order to save for your retirement. You are free to drive an old car even though your neighbor has a BMW. You don’t need to suffer the tyranny of others’ expectations. You are free to be honest, up front, full of integrity, free to keep the laws of the country and free to legitimately avoid tax so long as you don’t evade it.
Which freedom will you choose – to do right or wrong?
The ball is totally in your court

ECONOMY EATING

Judged by world standards New Zealanders eat very well. It’s been estimated that we eat 72% more than is necessary for good health. With food prices constantly rising the weekly Supermarket cost is a big drain on our overall expenditure. The fact is that many families are eating the profits and wondering why there is no surplus left from their income.

Feeding a family can be either a haphazard affair or a managerial operation. With so many solo parents and wives working there is precious little time for them to set aside for planning well balanced, low-cost meals. The tendency is to opt for fast foods, pre-cooked, or easy-to-prepare meals.

Eating habits can become a very personal affair with different members of the family demanding different diets to the extent where the cook is stretched to the limit trying to keep pace with individual idiosyncrasies. I firmly believe that consistency in eating nutritious, satisfying meals can not only bring good health but also to trim the budget at the same time. Most foods need an acquired taste and if it is served up long enough with no alternatives permitted it will eventually be enjoyed.

Why not turn over a new leaf this year. Become a home executive with managerial skills in housekeeping, learning new ways to cut food costs, so that you can have a greater purchasing power for more permanent items. Just a few hints to get you going but I hope you leave me for cold eventually.

PLANNING: Perhaps the most important hour you set aside once a week is to plan your menus for the ensuing seven days. This should preferably be completed the day before you go shopping. Jot down your seven main meal menus then write out a shopping list to provide the necessary ingredients.

SHOPPING LIST: Also keep a continuous shopping list and add items as soon as they run low. You will save on emergency trips to the store to buy single items.

SUPERMARKET BUYING: Stick to your list and don’t be tempted buy unnecessary goodies. Don’t rush your shopping or shop when you’re hungry. Try to do the weekly shopping yourself. You’ll soon become an expert, quick to spot seasonal bargains in vegetables, meat, fish and fruit. Whenever possible, buy the exact amount required for the recipes. This minimizes leftovers.

RECIPES: Scan cookbooks for wholesome low-cost recipes – go easy on the meat – be lavish on rice, pastas, coleslaw and salads of all descriptions. You can’t beat a breakfast of muesli. It tastes like cardboard and needs plenty of chewing to get the juices going but it provides plenty of bulk to fill the corners until lunchtime. You can then economize on the toasts, jams, honey etc..

BECOME AN EXPERT: You have the potential – all you need is to schedule enough prime time each week to accomplish that task. But learn to develop an inquiring mind that will enable you to ferret out the shortcuts and best ideas.

ECONOMY LIVING

I must confess that sometimes I get bogged down with terminology and occasionally see blank stares when I’m giving a talk entitled “Planning a Simpler Lifestyle”. What is a simple lifestyle? Simple compared to what?

Some people imagine that I am advocating a hippy life style, living off their organic gardens, selling craft goods at the front gate and bartering for the commodities they cannot produce. I have a certain admiration for these hardy and innovative folk but that is not what I mean by a simple lifestyle.

Others think that it is driving a twenty year old bomb, going to the opportunity shop for clothes and salvaging anything that the might be useful someday. This again isn’t what I am on about either. I could go on because simplicity takes many shapes and forms. Baking instead of buying; turning the unused lights off; cycling instead of using the car. All these things are a part and parcel but it’s it’s not where I suggest starting. Simple lifestyle in these terms can become faddish, almost cultist.

Simple lifestyle is not a way to cop out of social relationships and responsibilities. Many of the specifics that mark simplicity might also be seen as selfishness or stinginess.

I prefer to talk about “Economy Living” rather than the simple lifestyle. When I see what people are frittering away on nonessentials and wasting precious commodities without a thought for the millions of starving people in third world countries, there has got to be something wrong somewhere. One small step taken towards economy living with the intention of sharing with those less fortunate could get our eyes off ourselves and open up exciting avenues for many who otherwise would only live for themselves. We seem to be getting oblivious to empty stomachs with the growing need for a few scraps off our well-laden tables.

I saw a statistic that really hit home to me, “If all the starving (not just the undernourished) children in the world were lined up, one behind the other, starting from your front door, the end of the queue would be 25,000 miles away. That should make us choke on our oysters and pate. But we cannot remedy other people’s problems until we have our own house in order. The right use of money includes using it properly for our own needs. Only when have done that can we turn to the aid of others. In fact it’s a balancing act and we walk a tightrope strung between our needs and the needs of others. To stand on either side is to neglect the other side. We need to be poised so that a delicate balance is maintained and that’s not easy.

So, if your attitude is, “ Yes, I'll give the hungry something to eat if you show me how” – great! -- may I suggest that you don’t go overboard but take a few small steps towards creative economy living.

First you need to establish a target or goal to aim for like sponsoring a child through the one of the aid organizations. Then to make consistent giving a habit you need to determine your capacity to fulfill the obligation. Establish your present financial situation then, if necessary, prune away extraneous expenditure until sufficient surplus can be maintained in your financial plan for the ensuing twelve months.

You can find a deep personal satisfaction in learning to live more simply that the poor may simply live .

BOOMS & BUSTS

I suppose change add spice to life and most people learn to adapt to changing situations reasonably well. But there are too many who throw a wobbly when something unexpected hits them. Mainly these are people who live in the past or present and let the future take care of itself. When some crisis, be it family, financial or health hits suddenly they are totally unprepared and a sequence of events takes place.

1. Alarm.
2. Temporary Panic
3. Apathy and Disinterest

We spend 80% of our waking day working for money. That’s why we get concerned at the state of the economy. We enjoy the boom times, which started in earnest in the 1960’s but we were totally unprepared for the first big bust, which came early in the 1970’s. Since then the value of the dollar has been shrinking on the world market. Inflation increased and grew at an alarming rate. Real production dropped and the only real growth has been in the investment area, shifting money around like a commodity. The effects of the inflationary spiral just resulted in higher and higher prices and these continued to soar while real production declined. We stand the risk of pricing ourselves out of the world markets because no longer do people beat a path through the forest to buy the best mousetrap. Nowadays, the mountain won’t go to Mohamed, Mohamed has to trot along to the mountain. Sometimes I think that we had it too good for too long and the last few Kiwi generations grew up with too high expectations without putting their backs to the wheel.

We certainly don’t benefit from history and the 1987 crash reminded ourselves of this fact. But since then we have enjoyed another boom and this one has lasted a long time but it looks now as though a bust is inevitable.

Too often we react to events around us without understanding what is really happening and why. We need to expect crises in the economy and learn how to respond rather than react.

It’s an interesting fact that when times are good people resort to easy credit and hock themselves up to the hilt assuming that the good times will go on forever but when the downturn comes, as it inevitably will, those who are in a debt situation are just the ones to panic when their capacity to repay is not possible.

Happy are the people who not only owe nothing when the bust comes but have a nice little nest egg tucked away to cushion the effects. The fact that you have accumulated a nice bunch of material assets doesn’t mean much in depression times because you can’t flog them off when there’s no money around. For what it’s worth I’m forecasting that the next bust isn’t too far away and suggest that you start preparing for it. Here’s a better sequence of events:

1. Pay all your sundry debts off as soon as possible
2. Save up a nest egg of $2,000 minimum and tuck it away in some high interest, “no touch” account.
3. Effect some economies and learn to live on a lower income – it can be fun.
4. Write out your financial goals for the next five years.
5. Save up for purchases instead of going into debt to acquire them.

Then you will be able to forget money matters for a while and enjoy some of the forgotten pleasures that we take so much for granted in this beautiful country.

HOW ABOUT A FRESH START

There’s a certain sector of the public that I really feel sorry for and sometimes am in a quandary to know how to give the best advice. These people are locked into a debt situation and no matter how hard they try, have no show of ever getting out. It can happen so easily even to hardworking, honest people and this is how it happens.
Advertising to imbibe a materialistic viewpoint is the first temptation. Buy on easy credit and spread the payments over the next few years. So the purchase is made and everything goes along smoothly until the washing machine breaks down. There isn’t any contingency cash available for a repair bill so the machine is traded in for next to nothing on a shiny new model again on hire purchase. Troubles never come singly – the car engine blows up and the same procedure is resorted to,

Now the point of “ no return“ is reached; too many short term loans and for the first time the budget won’t balance – committed expenditure now exceeds available income. If at this point help is sought it’s an easy matter first to reduce sufficient items of expenditure to reverse the situation. If that fails a debt consolidation loan will inevitably do the trick so long as it’s not just the symptoms being treated but a commitment to correct the cause and stay out of future debt.

Unfortunately the majority don’t recognize the problem mainly because they haven’t the capacity to do a feasibility financial plan accurately themselves. Instead they defer the annual bills that come up to pay immediate debts. Then there is a false hope that a miracle will come their way – they will win the big one or Dad will come to the rescue.

Usually debt depression sets in with predictable symptoms, sometimes a spending spree on credit cards with the thought that they may as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb. Then comes the arguments and apportioning of blame.

If it’s at this late stage that many come to me hoping I will wave the magic wand and fix all problems in one fell swoop. Even though I know beforehand it may be a hopeless case I still put the financial plan up on the computer and am never surprised when up comes a horrible weekly shortfall. I then add up all the unpaid bills, credit cards, hire purchases etc. and shock number two sets in.

But it’s good therapy especially when I see that the horror of debt occurs plus a determination that if they ever get out of the situation, they will never get back into it again. If they have a home with sufficient equity to consolidate all debts and loans I can invariably show them the light at the end of the tunnel. If not and there is no chance to trade out of the situation then the only alternative is a trip to the Official Assignee to file for bankruptcy.

For these people who genuinely want to make a fresh start and have learned by their mistakes, I wish I had a trust fund that I could lend the amount required with little or no interest and build in the repayments over two or three years. It would certainly save a few marriages from going on the rocks.

ARE YOU VERSATILE?

Time and time again I am apt to get a little frustrated with people whose ideas and actions are set in concrete and wonder whether they will ever get the message that we live in a changing world. I presume that the root cause is a desire for safety and security. The fear of the unknown, the dark at the top of the stairs, is enough to make many a heart quail at their inadequacy to face up to new situations.
I think parents are to blame often for not giving their children a chance to make their own mistakes. They like to swathe them in cotton wool in case anything drastic happens to their children. And, of course, parents' tolerance level is usually pretty low especially at the end of the day or weekends when childen demand attention. How often have you said, "Not now Johnny, I'm just too busy."
And he goes off to play with his toys instead of learning to fix the puncture in his bike under your supervision.
Your children learn more from watching how you operate than any other way and they become mirror images of you. Maybe you should look at yourself and ask the question, "Do I like what I see? Am I a versatile person with a good capacity? If anyone shows me a better way of doing something am I willing to change? What are some of the inhibitions I have gleaned from my hereditary or environmental upbringing? Are my attitudes so set that I am unwilling to change?"
Over the years I've discovered that versatility is one of the most desirable of traits to add to my repertoire. And I have had the benefit of bringing up two sets of children, experimenting on the first lot and hopefully doing better with the second lot. The first batch I did everything for them expecting them to watch what I was doing and hoping it would rub of them somehow.
They watched me do all sorts of things but in hindsight I didn't give them much of a chance to make their own mistakes.
The second two had to do things under my supervision and now I must agree that they have proved the most versatile.
In the area of finances childen should be given an allowance and, initially under supervision, spend it and save it wisely.
Different methods of investment should be discussed and the resulting effects nutted out. A mini-budget for the ensuing twelve months should be worked on together and parents should firmly ensure that at least for the first year the plan should be adhered to without too much flexibility. After the child has had the discipline of spending under supervision, increasing lattitude should be allowed until such time as he or she can fly solo. In this way you will be setting a firm foundation that will give direction to your child right through adulthood.