When you tell this magnificent advice “Save for a rainy day” to Gen Y and they will look at you like you are a three-headed alien from space.
They don’t understand why you want to save while money is meant to be spent after all. And to them, making purchases by taking up credit is a norm to them.
I don’t know about you but I feel that Gen Y and I have different values in money and finances.
They want to spend everything they have without thinking about the future.
That brings back to my point of this post.
I want to sort of “prevent” J and K from thinking and spending like Gen Y. I want them to curb their desires on spending on unnecessary things that the merchants are dying to sell them.
Honestly, it’s not easy as we are bombarded by hundreds of con-mercials every day.
But somehow it has to be done. And the job lies on the shoulders of the parents.
If you happen to read the headlines of the newspaper in the past week or so, our country is now facing the worst haze in the history that caused by forest/plantation fires from Indonesia.
Due to health reasons, my children’s school has closed for the past three days. J and K have to stay at home.
Since they have “extra time” to kill, I suggested to them to play Cashflow for Kids. Cashflow is a financial game created by best selling author Robert Kiyosaki. And the main objective of the game is to be financially free.
Meaning?
In short, financially free is when your passive income is more than your expenses.
The players have to accumulate assets that generate enough income so that they can reach a level that is called “Cashflow Kid.” Of course, along the way, as in real life, you’ll encounter opportunities and setbacks. The players have to make a decision as to whether to invest in an asset while they play and spend on unexpected expenses called doodads.
At first, I didn’t know how J and K would react to the game. But once they started playing, they couldn’t stop. In one session, they could even play up to 4 hours straight.
It has become very addictive. I don’t mind and it’s a good thing.
Though they are not sure of the terms and their meaning of certain financial words. But they are catching up fast.
The best part is I don’t need to do any extensive teaching and explanation. Slowly but surely, they will learn the gist of the game.
What turned out to be a boring topic has now become an interesting one. All is made possible through playing a board game.
I took them out for late breakfast this morning (after a slight improvement in the haze due to a downpour last night) at a nearby noodle shop.
K asked me out of the blue when he pointed to the man at the counter, “This is not passive income?”
I was shocked and laughed, “It’s not. Unless he hires someone to do it for him.”
You see, you’ll never know how fast children learn. And they can learn serious topics from any means, including games.
Money is a very important topic in parenting. That’s why I dedicated a section for it in “The Nonconformist’s Guide to Parenting.”
To find out more about the book, goto:
