I love talking to my kids and students about finances and how to think of money not as something you must work for, but as something that works for you.
I recently read this piece by Thomas Corley, called "Will Your Child Be Rich or Poor? 15 Poverty Habits Parents Teach Their Children". I was a bit torn. There were parts that I thought were spot on, and others that seemed a bit degrading.
The first part of the piece was a list of fifteen stats comparing the wealthy and the poor, things like, "6% of the wealthy play the lottery vs 77% of the poor" and "72% of the wealthy know their credit score vs. 5% of the poor".
These statistics give the impression that if the poor change their habits and stop playing the lottery and find their credit scores, they can become wealthy. But, I wondered if it wasn't the other way around, if maybe it wasn't the actions that created their financial situations, but their financial situations that created the actions.
If you are poor, do you really want to be reminded of your credit score? If you are poor and see no way out, wouldn't the lottery hold out some hope for you? I'm not stating that the financial circumstances create the actions in the statistics Corley lists, but it got me thinking.
The second part of the piece I absolutely loved. Corley lists habits that parents and teachers should instill in children to create better opportunities for success, things like creating to-do lists and sending thank you cards.
If kids learned these habits and internalized them, I truly believe they would be happier, healthier, better balanced, more successful, and possibly better off financially as adults.
If you get a few minutes, it's worth the read.
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/idahoeditor
I recently read this piece by Thomas Corley, called "Will Your Child Be Rich or Poor? 15 Poverty Habits Parents Teach Their Children". I was a bit torn. There were parts that I thought were spot on, and others that seemed a bit degrading.
The first part of the piece was a list of fifteen stats comparing the wealthy and the poor, things like, "6% of the wealthy play the lottery vs 77% of the poor" and "72% of the wealthy know their credit score vs. 5% of the poor".
These statistics give the impression that if the poor change their habits and stop playing the lottery and find their credit scores, they can become wealthy. But, I wondered if it wasn't the other way around, if maybe it wasn't the actions that created their financial situations, but their financial situations that created the actions.
If you are poor, do you really want to be reminded of your credit score? If you are poor and see no way out, wouldn't the lottery hold out some hope for you? I'm not stating that the financial circumstances create the actions in the statistics Corley lists, but it got me thinking.
The second part of the piece I absolutely loved. Corley lists habits that parents and teachers should instill in children to create better opportunities for success, things like creating to-do lists and sending thank you cards.
If kids learned these habits and internalized them, I truly believe they would be happier, healthier, better balanced, more successful, and possibly better off financially as adults.
If you get a few minutes, it's worth the read.
image courtesy of ©MorgueFile.com/idahoeditor
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