My eldest is 11 years old and when people ask her what she wants to be when she is older she tells them "I want to be a teacher!". Sadly, a common response from the adults who hear this is "There's not much money in teaching!". As you can imagine, this response isn't what my daughter wants to hear. Essentially, people are telling her that she shouldn't become a teacher because of money. As my daughter is only 11, there is no saying what she'll do to earn money when she is older but for me, I hope that she does something she really wants to do and is not just driven by the salary it attracts ..read more

When it comes to spending money, people don't always do the logical thing. If they did, most people would be a lot better off financially than they are. Some illogical spending decisions people make are due to some very clever marketing tricks, such as the Two Vending Machines example, which I've shared in a recent blog. Other times it is due to some biases that we have. This latter point is the purpose of this blog. Empowering Good Spending Decisions Before I share the Pen and Suit Experiment, I want to expand on that last point about developing good spending habits. I recommend that parents ..read more

The other day I heard a great short story and shared it with my kids. It led to a great conversation about reputation and money. First, let me share the short story with you. The Frozen Chicken Story A woman goes into a butcher's shop and asks for a whole frozen chicken. The butcher goes to his freezer and pulls out a chicken. He puts it on the scales and it weighs 1.5kg. The lady asks if he has a bigger chicken. The butcher goes back to the freezer, puts the first chicken back down and realises he doesn't have any more frozen chickens. He decides to pick up the first chicken again. This time ..read more

I recently asked my eldest daughter (11) the hypothetical question: Would you rather keep your old iPhone 8 or get a new Samsung phone? Straight away she said that she'd rather keep her iPhone. I asked her why but she didn't have an answer. She just likes having an iPhone. I explained that a new Samsung would have a better screen, an upgraded camera, the battery would last longer and it would be a lot quicker. She didn't care about that stuff and just preferred having an iPhone. This shows the power that brands have on a lot of people, especially younger people. In this blog, I explore this to ..read more

This Christmas there are going to be plenty of mini-teachable moments to help your kids learn about money, in a fun way. In this blog, I share 3 big opportunities. Before I share these opportunities, I want to share something that I think is important when it comes to teaching kids about money (and also helpful for learning other things too). Studying vs Learning The other week I asked my eldest daughter: What's the difference between Studying and Learning? She thought about it for a little while and said: "I think studying is when you take in a lot of knowledge for homework, a test or an exam ..read more

If you want to be a millionaire, buy something for 9 million and sell it for 10 million. Done! No need to create anything and you become a millionaire overnight. Wouldn't it be great if it was that easy to become a millionaire? Sadly for 99% of people, it's not that easy. There is actually a lot of skill and hard work needed to make a deal like that happen. Whilst it might not be easy to become a millionaire overnight this way, there is certainly a lot of money that can be made by becoming a 'broker', i.e., connecting buyers and sellers. Hence, I thought I'd talk to my daughters about it and w ..read more

Lots of people don't like to gift money on special occasions as it is seen as "Thoughtless". In this blog, I am going to set out why I feel that parents and other family members should give kids some money this Christmas. Better still, they consider investing money for the kids. As I'll explain later, I don't mean you should buy kids gift vouchers instead of presents. Don't buy gift vouchers!! Isn't giving money to kids "Thoughtless"? There's a perception that giving money to kids is 'thoughtless' or 'lazy'. It's easy to see why that might be the case. You merely pulled out some cash from your ..read more

You might be asking "Surely we should get kids to spend less money, not be getting kids to spend more money!". You are right that for the majority of kids (and adults) the focus should be on encouraging them to save, however, there are some kids who don't spend any of their money. Remember, good money management is about getting the right balance between spending and saving. My youngest daughter (9) is a hardcore saver. She puts most of her money away in savings and likes to see it grow. She actually has about the same amount of savings as her sister who is 2 years older than her. We therefore ..read more

I love sharing great marketing techniques with my kids. In this short blog, I share one technique that is being used to get us to spend more every day. Teaching Children Mindful Spending and Business Skills I believe sharing marketing techniques/stories with kids helps them to better manage their money in two ways: Mindful spending: Once they understand a marketing tactic is being used, they are more likely to consider if they really want to buy the item (rather than just spending due to the marketing) - which will hopefully lead to less wasteful spending Nurturing Young Entrepreneurs: I'm a ..read more

Despite working in the investment world for nearly 20 years, I have only just learned about one of the best investors of all time. Her name was Henrietta ("Hetty") Howland Green. When she died in July 1916, she was reported to be the wealthiest woman in the world (worth billions in today's money). In this blog, I go through Hetty's history, including why she was referred to as 'The Witch of Wall Street', and the lessons from her story that can help you teach your kids about money (and it's very inspiring for those of you who have daughters). I learned about Hetty from listening to an interview ..read more