Equipping your children for the future

Why the choices you make today will impact them as adults.

I know you care, and so do I.

As a parent, I know you care about your children and their future. I have been there too. Well, I’m still there, but my children are adults now, and I reflect on my choices as they grew up. After all, there is no handbook, and we all do what we know and think at the time is best.

I didn’t always get it right, and I am sure they will be the first to highlight those moments, but I did some things by default that have paid off, or maybe I thought I was helping. If there is one thing I do know that is common in all of us, it is that we want to help. 

In saying this, I have decided to share some things that I can see better equipped my children for when they needed to make choices or mitigate risks and, most of all when they reached that stage of managing money.

As someone who has lived a life with a career surrounded by money, I took a lot for granted and thought that everyone thought like me. But I was wrong. I soon realised that you can only ever see things through your own lenses, that of which you have experienced and that from which you take away life lessons.

This has led me to a few things that I have become passionate about, including equipping parents, grandparents, and adults in general to make choices that may better prepare children to make more informed decisions and to give them experiences in their young years to become better equipped as adults. 

Equipping and Enabling 

My goal is, wherever I can, to continually support you to enable those you love to be self-reliant. As it happens, what I thought was the way everyone lived happens to be a bit of an anomaly. As parents we tend to do as much as possible to make our children’s lives easier, but does it do that really?

You have all heard the saying “If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. If you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.”. This has always been my mantra in life, with my children and family, as well as in any business I ran or developed. 

We laugh now, or maybe I do, but I know my children are grateful. With 3 bank accounts and a system that equipped them to plan ahead for what they wanted, they lived life growing up knowing that they had immediate access to cash, short-term funds that were available for the small things they wanted, and then long-term savings for the BIG STUFF. Yes, that was their bank account system that started in a contract and then became their bank accounts.

They also knew how to make their lunch and get their breakfast ready and yes they also knew that if they left something behind they would need to be accountable and find solutions. Excuses did not really sit well. Mistakes, on the other hand, were great because we could look at options moving forward that would potentially have a different outcome. I still celebrate mistakes; it is the only way we innovate.

I was not the parent that ran after them, but rather equipped them to better prepare for what they know now. Life is great when you live in flow and when you can prepare and anticipate what else may happen or better still what else is possible. They also did know how to iron at the age of 4, yes FOUR, because they were shown, and they were given a small portable iron. They were introduced to charity and the gift of giving at the same time and they also began to understand the art of negotiating and critical thinking. 

These skills are not taught in school, but they do form part of life at every age. I remember parents telling me they were hoping that their child and my children would be sharing a room or a tent when they went away on school camps because my children were organised and knew that they could show them how to do things that they could get them to do. It was at this stage I began to realise I was equipping them for what was to come and what would be expected as adults.

Critical thinkers

I began by showing them the art of negotiating. Yes, they shared what they wanted to be paid for chores, and we negotiated terms. I know it may seem too hard but it really isn’t and it’s actually fun for them. They like to talk and make choices and they like to be the ones guiding and directing their future. When you allow them to be responsible for the things they want, it gives them a different perspective. It allows them to think things through. “How much do I need? How many times do I need to do this to get that? What can I do to get it faster?” These are all questions that play out when you create a space and an environment for them to take action and to be accountable for what they want in life. 

This process enables them to also begin to understand the value of time and money. They no longer see things through the lens of an ATM, EFTPOS Machine or credit card. If you don’t have the money you can’t buy it. If you want to negotiate terms, then come up with a plan!

Collaborations are formed, and oh yes team effort is introduced. If they both wanted something they pooled money together. They even considered if their charity money would go to the same place or if they would donate separately because they had different things that they were concerned about.

When we equip our children to be accountable for the choices they make, the way that they think about the future and how they want to contribute to society, their community, and the world, their perspective changes. They become global citizens without thinking twice. It becomes a pattern, a lived experience, a ritual. 

Equipping them is not about taking something away.

Let me preface by saying that these are practices that I found useful now that my children are adults. I can see that the way they have lived life has equipped them in ways that I had assumed everyone else was doing too, but I have realised that this was an assumption on my part so I am sharing it for those who may want to look at what resonates for them.

The same applies to budgeting. I also assumed that everyone understood budgets, but I have quickly begun to understand that this is far from the truth. I have seen even accountants who understand the practices for work, but don’t apply them in their personal life. How can we enable others to know what we know if we don’t show them how they can do it too?

I have seen way too many people in my career bury their heads in the sand or say “Cathy numbers just aren’t my thing” but here is what I say: “YET! Numbers aren’t your thing yet because nobody has shown you in a way where it can make sense for you!” The same applies to our children. 

If we aren’t prepared to better understand, how can we equip them to be better prepared? It’s up to us as adults to equip them by sharing ideas, negotiating, and creating agreements that stand the test of time and then we need to practice with them.

This is why I am sharing those 3 quick tips with you. If you want to be an enabler and want your children, grandchildren, nieces, and nephews to be better prepared register your interest in getting access to our Children's “Budget for my future” program. 

• Tip #1 Don’t let your fear of understanding budgets hold back your children. 
  We often share information, tips, and tools that we are good at, but we leave out some important things just because we don't know or are afraid to learn them. This is how we create generational gaps with important things in life. Seek out someone that can help guide you.

• Tip #2 Allow creativity to be driven by the children. 
  Creativity is important in everything we do, but it is even more important for children when it comes to their future and what it holds. Their ability to discover what they want for themselves is important as this will be the driver to their success in life. At the core of everything, of course, will be money. Enable them to think about all the possibilities available to them to help them get there.
  
  Our role is to equip and enable them to become better critical thinkers and to solve things for themselves.

• Tip #3 Anti-fragility is an art.
  Understanding our greater purpose. Whilst this is about equipping them to become more independent in thought and financially, we also want them to make mistakes. Mistakes enable us to reassess the situation and then come back to consider what we could have done differently. This will also enable them to become anti-fragile. A skill so seldom talked about, let alone practised. 

Many lessons in life are around money, so learning these skills at an early age will equip them to apply their learnings as they get older. They will also learn to ask more questions, plan ahead, and collaborate where possible.

None of these skills are taught at school, so you will be equipping them well ahead of their peers.

The future begins with what we do today.

This may not seem like something that needs to happen yet, but I have seen and known children as young as 9 and 10 know what they want to do in life. They have listened and taken on board the opportunities and have started their own “side hustle”, a small hobby. Something that allows them to create, think, plan, negotiate, and so much more! Nothing happens if you aren’t prepared to start. But when you start this will define where you stand in beliefs, patterns, and skills, but most of all it will identify what you want for yourself and for those around you.

It’s all up to you of course. My passion is to share and equip those who want to support and develop themselves and their children to be global thinkers so that they learn what others have opted to better understand at a young age.

It is always a choice. Only you know where you are going and where you want to be.