Latest / Dr Justin Coulson's Happy Families / #1296 - Hey Kit #2: Teaching Kids About Money
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: If you're looking for ways to encourage your kids to
- 0:02Speaker 1: learn about saving and smart spending, check out Kit, a
- 0:06Speaker 1: pocket money app and card built by Combank. It teaches
- 0:10Speaker 1: kids about earning money through chores and saving in buckets
- 0:14Speaker 1: or what Kit calls stacks. Kit is free for eligible
- 0:19Speaker 1: Combank Yellow customers, t's and C supply, or just fifty
- 0:23Speaker 1: dollars a year for up to five children. Download the
- 0:26Speaker 1: app or visit haykit dot com dot Au. You can
- 0:29Speaker 1: also download Kit's free Pocket Money one oh one guide
- 0:32Speaker 1: from the Kit website at haykit dot com dot Au.
- 0:35Speaker 1: TMD available on the website. Consider it appropriate for you.
- 0:43Speaker 1: Teaching children about money is one of those things that
- 0:45Speaker 1: feels tricky. Where do you start? What do you talk about?
- 0:49Speaker 1: What if the children ask a question that you don't
- 0:52Speaker 1: know the answer to. What if it looks like you
- 0:54Speaker 1: might start teaching them things about money that aren't going
- 0:57Speaker 1: to be in their best interests.
- 0:58Speaker 2: Like the stakes feel high if you get it wrong.
- 1:02Speaker 1: Or maybe we're just too neurotic about it, and the
- 1:04Speaker 1: psychology of money has gotten into our head so much
- 1:06Speaker 1: that we don't know what we're doing and we just
- 1:09Speaker 1: need to trust our gut Caulday and welcome to the
- 1:11Speaker 1: Happy Families podcast, Real Parenting Solutions every day on Australia's
- 1:14Speaker 1: most downloaded parenting podcast. My name is doctor Justin Couson today,
- 1:17Speaker 1: I'm joined by Nicole Petterson McKinnon. Nicole's a longtime financial
- 1:20Speaker 1: literacy campaigner and educator across newspapers, online, on TV, radio,
- 1:25Speaker 1: on stages around Australia. She's had a weekly advice column
- 1:29Speaker 1: for twenty years in the Cidney Morning Herald, Age, The
- 1:33Speaker 1: Brisbane Times and WA Today twenty years.
- 1:36Speaker 2: Nicole gives speeches with her.
- 1:37Speaker 1: Lived advice to prosper She regularly MC's events, including multiple
- 1:42Speaker 1: Canberra Parliamentary breakfasts for asik or is it is it
- 1:46Speaker 1: assic or acik? I say acic and I feel like
- 1:48Speaker 1: I'm saying it wrong. What do you think, Nicole?
- 1:51Speaker 3: I think it might be ethic, but you know, potato Festado,
- 1:54Speaker 3: it doesn't really matter.
- 1:55Speaker 4: Everyone gets it.
- 1:56Speaker 1: I like the sound of acic better, but for some
- 1:58Speaker 1: reason it just comes out wrong every time. And the
- 2:00Speaker 1: Australian Government Financial Literacy Board updating members of Parliament in
- 2:02Speaker 1: Australa's financial literacy progress. A couple of other things, I mean,
- 2:06Speaker 1: such a long and impressive bio. Since twenty fourteen, Nicole's
- 2:10Speaker 1: delivered her Smart Money Start incursion in schools, and she
- 2:13Speaker 1: was recently the guest judge for the ATOS Tax Super
- 2:16Speaker 1: and You High Schools competition. Nicole has won the top
- 2:19Speaker 1: Award for Money journalism in the UK and Australia. Is
- 2:21Speaker 1: the author of How to Get Mortgage Free Like me.
- 2:24Speaker 1: I feel like I need more of you in my
- 2:25Speaker 1: life and we haven't even properly met you, Nicole, I
- 2:28Speaker 1: would like to be mortgage free like you.
- 2:30Speaker 3: Well, full disclosure, I now have a small mortgage because
- 2:33Speaker 3: that was my first mortgage that I became mortgage free of.
- 2:36Speaker 1: But yes see, that's the thing, isn't it. You get
- 2:38Speaker 1: mortgage free, but then you buy a bigger house.
- 2:41Speaker 3: Well that's exactly what happens right at the time.
- 2:43Speaker 4: But that's the process, and that's a good thing. The
- 2:45Speaker 4: more equity, the beout it.
- 2:46Speaker 1: All right, Well, well, I'd love to talk to you
- 2:47Speaker 1: about me and make this a special Justine calls in session.
- 2:50Speaker 1: But that's not what everyone is listening for. Everyone's listening
- 2:53Speaker 1: because they want to know about how to talk to
- 2:54Speaker 1: their kids about money. You've been going in and out
- 2:56Speaker 1: of schools talking about this and writing these columns for
- 2:59Speaker 1: twenty years. Is just before we get into the nitty
- 3:02Speaker 1: gritty of the questions. I'd love to know, how do
- 3:04Speaker 1: you become the money expert? How do you become the
- 3:06Speaker 1: person who writes about this stuff?
- 3:09Speaker 3: Well, I think to this point and to this podcast,
- 3:12Speaker 3: I think that I was kind of bred for it,
- 3:15Speaker 3: which is.
- 3:15Speaker 4: A really weird thing.
- 3:16Speaker 3: And I'm not sure that my parents realized they were
- 3:18Speaker 3: doing it, but I am. I am the daughter of
- 3:20Speaker 3: an English teacher and an accountant, so I kind of
- 3:24Speaker 3: think that naturally becomes the financial literacy kind of fare.
- 3:28Speaker 3: And what I would say is that in my house
- 3:31Speaker 3: growing up, money was on the menu.
- 3:34Speaker 4: Like, we talked about money all the time.
- 3:35Speaker 3: And what's really interesting is a brand new poll out
- 3:38Speaker 3: by a finder that says that forty peopercent of families
- 3:41Speaker 3: only speak about money with their children. So I do
- 3:45Speaker 3: think it's that awareness, you know, because this help is
- 3:48Speaker 3: not rocket science. It's actually not like the fundamental though,
- 3:52Speaker 3: is attitude not aptitude. It's great parents can give their
- 3:56Speaker 3: kids both, but they've got to start with the attitude.
- 3:58Speaker 3: And that's sort of about you know, talking the talk.
- 4:02Speaker 1: Yeah, this is not anywhere that I thought the conversation
- 4:04Speaker 1: was going to go. But let's stay on this for
- 4:05Speaker 1: a second. I think that is really important attitude towards money.
- 4:10Speaker 1: Some people's psychology around money is money in, money out.
- 4:14Speaker 1: It's just money. It comes, it goes. Other people have
- 4:17Speaker 1: got the attitude, what do you think money grows on trees? Well,
- 4:19Speaker 1: it doesn't. Our psychology around money can be kind of
- 4:23Speaker 1: messed up, right, it can.
- 4:24Speaker 4: Be really messed up.
- 4:25Speaker 3: And you know, particularly when we're in an environment where
- 4:28Speaker 3: families have been stretched and stressed for at least the
- 4:31Speaker 3: past three years. Wow, And we do need to be
- 4:34Speaker 3: really careful about you know, there's a lot of talk
- 4:36Speaker 3: about eco anxiety now among children. I believe economic anxiety
- 4:40Speaker 3: is something that we can pass on to our kids
- 4:43Speaker 3: if we sort of convey too much of that the
- 4:45Speaker 3: pressure that's around us, and they're not being able to
- 4:47Speaker 3: avoid things, et cetera, without the empowerment to go. You
- 4:51Speaker 3: know what, kids, We're going to make concrete decisions today.
- 4:54Speaker 3: We're going to save money there, we're going to cut
- 4:57Speaker 3: back on that here, we're going to target this long
- 4:59Speaker 3: term thing, going to really really enjoy and we're all
- 5:01Speaker 3: going to get to achieve together, just giving them those
- 5:04Speaker 3: little little teeny crumbs of input that makes them feel
- 5:08Speaker 3: empowered and in control and set them lot for a
- 5:11Speaker 3: better life.
- 5:12Speaker 2: Yeah, this is really interesting.
- 5:13Speaker 1: As you're saying that, I'm reflecting on one of my
- 5:16Speaker 1: mates that I grew up with. His dad was Scottish.
- 5:18Speaker 1: Obviously there's a pretty strong stereotype around the Scots and money.
- 5:21Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's true, but the stereotypes are there
- 5:23Speaker 1: for a reason anyway, the territory. Yeah, so my friend Richard,
- 5:27Speaker 1: his dad was Scottish, his mum was English, and they
- 5:31Speaker 1: were tight. Like one day they were taken into the
- 5:34Speaker 1: bathroom and told how many squares of toilet paper they
- 5:36Speaker 1: were allowed to use when they went to the toilet.
- 5:37Speaker 1: It was like that super super super tight. But we
- 5:42Speaker 1: used to mock our friend Richard because if we were
- 5:44Speaker 1: going to buy takeout after we'd been surfing as teenagers,
- 5:47Speaker 1: he would choose KFC over Yuck Donald's because the straws
- 5:53Speaker 1: were skinnier and therefore the drinks lasted longer.
- 5:56Speaker 4: Yeah. Well that's amazing, isn't it. And luck we've all
- 5:58Speaker 4: got those friends. You know. I've got a friend who
- 6:00Speaker 4: at university, lived on Maggie noodles and vitament tablets.
- 6:04Speaker 3: Very financially secure right now, because that was okay with her.
- 6:07Speaker 3: I'm not, you know, not financial advice. It's also not
- 6:10Speaker 3: nutritional advice.
- 6:11Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, you know.
- 6:13Speaker 3: And you know that person who took their own banana
- 6:15Speaker 3: and wanted to discount for the banana smoovie, because you know,
- 6:18Speaker 3: that's how that's where their mindset was at with money.
- 6:21Speaker 3: I am not like, I'm notoriously stingedpied. I'm not that tiped,
- 6:26Speaker 3: do you know what I mean? Because I do think
- 6:27Speaker 3: the money is for enjoying along the way, and particularly
- 6:30Speaker 3: as parents, when we've got these small people, we do
- 6:33Speaker 3: want to give them those experiences that they're going to remember.
- 6:36Speaker 3: So there is a line where maybe not the counting
- 6:39Speaker 3: out the toilet paper. Maybe that's something that's going to
- 6:41Speaker 3: stick with you in a negative way through your life perhaps,
- 6:45Speaker 3: but you do want to give them that sort of
- 6:47Speaker 3: enjoyment without the indulgence and the appreciation where the money
- 6:51Speaker 3: is coming from and where it's going, what it's getting you.
- 6:55Speaker 1: So you go into schools and give talks. Let me
- 6:57Speaker 1: make a provocative statement to you. The stuff that you
- 7:01Speaker 1: share with kids in schools is probably going to have
- 7:04Speaker 1: a fairly small impact on the way they approach money
- 7:07Speaker 1: in comparison to what they're learning day in day out,
- 7:11Speaker 1: breathing in in the environment. With what their parents are
- 7:13Speaker 1: saying about money fair one.
- 7:16Speaker 3: Hundred percent accurate. And I mean, you know, I do
- 7:19Speaker 3: what I can, and what I do in schools is
- 7:22Speaker 3: more at that very last, you know, exit from the
- 7:26Speaker 3: school gate. Hey, guys, be really careful. I do a
- 7:29Speaker 3: lot of he's what you haven't learned in school. You know,
- 7:32Speaker 3: it's an incursion right at the very end. The sort
- 7:33Speaker 3: of exams are done and dastard and it's like you're
- 7:37Speaker 3: going to have a credit score US style very very soon.
- 7:40Speaker 3: You need to protect that with your life, because your
- 7:42Speaker 3: life really does you know, really affects your life. You
- 7:46Speaker 3: need to be really careful about debt. You need to
- 7:48Speaker 3: be really careful about putting your name on leases and
- 7:50Speaker 3: about the liability of that. You are going to get
- 7:53Speaker 3: targeted by funky fintech companies because that's your generation who
- 7:57Speaker 3: are going to want to clip your ticket. They're going
- 7:58Speaker 3: to offer you all this liberation of spending, all these
- 8:02Speaker 3: ways that we didn't have of getting money that we
- 8:04Speaker 3: haven't earned.
- 8:05Speaker 4: Right there.
- 8:06Speaker 3: Used to be one needs to be bank guard introduced
- 8:08Speaker 3: in the nineteen eighties. Now there's about twenty different ways.
- 8:10Speaker 4: Of getting it.
- 8:11Speaker 3: So I think it kids, you just got to be
- 8:12Speaker 3: really aware that all this kind of free money is
- 8:15Speaker 3: not free at all. And the impact of interest rates
- 8:18Speaker 3: that's another one, but just really really key to your
- 8:21Speaker 3: future life. You know, you pay too much on your
- 8:22Speaker 3: mortgage and you go way backwards.
- 8:24Speaker 1: So let's talk about kids from let's say eight and up,
- 8:27Speaker 1: maybe ten and up somewhere around there. Okay, so they're
- 8:30Speaker 1: old enough now that they're earning some pocket money, they've
- 8:32Speaker 1: got access to perhaps their parents' credit card when they
- 8:35Speaker 1: jump online and they're playing Roblocks or something like that
- 8:39Speaker 1: and Fortnite, or they've got a part time job perhaps
- 8:42Speaker 1: and they're starting to earn money.
- 8:43Speaker 2: What are the biggest.
- 8:44Speaker 1: Money traps that parents don't usually talk to their kids about,
- 8:48Speaker 1: but the kids definitely get caught up in.
- 8:51Speaker 4: Well.
- 8:51Speaker 3: I think what it is is not getting that broader
- 8:54Speaker 3: picture of what money can do for you. I think
- 8:56Speaker 3: that's the key thing that parents need to pass on
- 9:00Speaker 3: very quotely entwined with that is the idea about being
- 9:03Speaker 3: able to delay gratification. That's a really key lenny, and
- 9:07Speaker 3: every parent knows that, you know, as beings, we arrive
- 9:11Speaker 3: hardwired at some level of being able to delay gratification,
- 9:15Speaker 3: either wear a consumer or wear a delayer, and that's
- 9:18Speaker 3: kind of been built to us with us. And it's
- 9:21Speaker 3: a parent's responsibility to kind of show their children just
- 9:24Speaker 3: what they can achieve if they just delay that. Food
- 9:28Speaker 3: is the fantastic proxy for money in small children. So
- 9:31Speaker 3: you can kind of start getting these attitudes across to
- 9:33Speaker 3: your children very very early, and you know, talk about
- 9:36Speaker 3: the concept of future. You may you eat that all
- 9:38Speaker 3: that chocolate bar right now, you're going to be super
- 9:41Speaker 3: sad this afternoon.
- 9:41Speaker 4: Won there's a chocolate bar left.
- 9:43Speaker 3: If you have half a hour and half later, imagine
- 9:45Speaker 3: you'll be double happy. And you know that idea of
- 9:47Speaker 3: you know, justin knows that I'm a bit of deputy
- 9:50Speaker 3: of chocolate. So I actually hearing these tools to get
- 9:53Speaker 3: across these messages is really really great.
- 9:55Speaker 4: And then it's about the goal targeting.
- 9:57Speaker 3: You know, no matter what the money is, if you
- 9:59Speaker 3: grow as the kids have ten, what are they going
- 10:01Speaker 3: to do with it? What is the magic money slit
- 10:03Speaker 3: that means that they're going to enjoy it as much
- 10:05Speaker 3: as possible, rather than just fresher it and have it disappear.
- 10:09Speaker 1: We've always done this thing with our kids, where we've
- 10:10Speaker 1: had them set a goal. They look at how much
- 10:13Speaker 1: income they have. I mean, when they're getting pocket money,
- 10:16Speaker 1: it's very very clear. But even once they get their
- 10:17Speaker 1: part time jobs, they've got a pretty decent sense of
- 10:20Speaker 1: how much money they're going to earn on a week
- 10:21Speaker 1: tweek basis. And we'll set like a three month or
- 10:24Speaker 1: a six month or even a twelve month goal with them,
- 10:26Speaker 1: what are you working towards? How much you think you
- 10:28Speaker 1: can put away? And they'll give us that number, and
- 10:31Speaker 1: then we'll say, all right, what would a stretch goal
- 10:33Speaker 1: look like? And so they might add an extra hundred
- 10:35Speaker 1: bucks or an extra five hundred bucks, again depending on
- 10:37Speaker 1: their age and what their income is. And then we'll
- 10:40Speaker 1: say to them, here's the thing. If you hit that
- 10:42Speaker 1: stretch goal, we'll bonus you by this amount. Sometimes we'll
- 10:46Speaker 1: match it, other times we'll give them a percentage of
- 10:47Speaker 1: it. It just depends on how big that goal is. Now
- 10:49Speaker 1: we're going ourselves, but the idea there is to teach
- 10:53Speaker 1: them that if they can delay that gratification for the
- 10:56Speaker 1: three months or the six months, if they can think
- 10:59Speaker 1: about future to me rather than present me, that the
- 11:03Speaker 1: benefit to them down the track is going to be
- 11:06Speaker 1: a really significant payoff. What's your take on that? And
- 11:10Speaker 1: do you have any other strategies that can help to
- 11:12Speaker 1: teach these principles.
- 11:13Speaker 3: Yeah, Look, I love the idea of the stretch goal.
- 11:15Speaker 3: I think that's really good branding. It's all about the
- 11:17Speaker 3: brandings of kids, all about the gearick and like the
- 11:20Speaker 3: cut through to to make that really land. A love
- 11:23Speaker 3: idea with stretch goal. So what you're embodying there is
- 11:26Speaker 3: this thing of pain in the game. So as humans, adults, children, whatever,
- 11:33Speaker 3: we know that something that's given to us is just
- 11:36Speaker 3: not appreciated as much as something that we strive for
- 11:38Speaker 3: and earn, write anything, right, you know, bars goods, whatever.
- 11:43Speaker 3: So the idea of pain in the game and a
- 11:45Speaker 3: stretch goal of hey is my fifty percent here?
- 11:49Speaker 4: Is your fifty percent here?
- 11:50Speaker 3: And that being expandable based on incentivizing spending up and
- 11:56Speaker 3: up and up is a really great mechanism of again
- 11:59Speaker 3: and powering children to show them that they can make
- 12:02Speaker 3: a real, real difference.
- 12:04Speaker 4: One of the things that I do.
- 12:05Speaker 3: Is, you know, I tell to you a little bit
- 12:06Speaker 3: about interest and the implication of that. A lot of
- 12:09Speaker 3: the kids that I talk to in schools, you know,
- 12:11Speaker 3: these sort of seventeen eighteen year old, you know, adults,
- 12:15Speaker 3: they feel really disempowered. They feel like property prices are
- 12:19Speaker 3: out of their reach. They feel like they're going to
- 12:21Speaker 3: give up before they try, because you know, the economy
- 12:24Speaker 3: is such that they're not going to succeed anyway, which
- 12:26Speaker 3: is a really super dangerous set. And so I say
- 12:29Speaker 3: to them, you know what the thing is that you
- 12:30Speaker 3: have an asset that is so powerful on your side
- 12:34Speaker 3: that your parents don't have, that no other adult has.
- 12:37Speaker 3: And of course that act is time, right, So the
- 12:40Speaker 3: earlier you start saving and investing, the cheaper and easier
- 12:45Speaker 3: it is, the more powerful that is.
- 12:47Speaker 4: And the time to start is today.
- 12:48Speaker 3: So I just give them a really straight up example,
- 12:50Speaker 3: which I you know, I would tremend to parents. If
- 12:53Speaker 3: you start saving six dollars a day from the day
- 12:55Speaker 3: you finish school, and you get an eight percent investment
- 12:58Speaker 3: return under standard, you know, over the long term you'll
- 13:01Speaker 3: be a millionaire by sixty to six bucks a day.
- 13:05Speaker 3: You wait till fifty you're going to have to save.
- 13:07Speaker 3: With apologies to everyone at the other end of this scale,
- 13:10Speaker 3: one hundred and seventy nine dollars a day. Wow, So
- 13:14Speaker 3: that you speaks to the amazing impact that time has
- 13:18Speaker 3: and the earlier they start, the cheaper. It is like
- 13:21Speaker 3: we're talking micro savings that can make an absolute maximum difference.
- 13:25Speaker 3: And if you put numbers on it like that. Here's
- 13:28Speaker 3: another one for parents. Right of that million dollars, a
- 13:31Speaker 3: child who starts saving the minute they leave school gets
- 13:35Speaker 3: nine hundred thousand dollars for free. They only save one
- 13:38Speaker 3: hundred thousand dollars of it themselves, and that's where that
- 13:41Speaker 3: magical compound interest comes in. That's the beautiful thing about it.
- 13:45Speaker 3: Whereabout a literally poor fifty year old has had to
- 13:48Speaker 3: save six hundred and fifty thousand bucks or thereabouts themselves.
- 13:52Speaker 3: So you know, it's really incredible. If we can just
- 13:56Speaker 3: incentivize our children and stretch them by matching to show
- 14:00Speaker 3: them just how far they could go with whatever money
- 14:04Speaker 3: and limited resources they have, then that's future changing.
- 14:07Speaker 4: It really is.
- 14:08Speaker 2: It's to get rich slow strategy.
- 14:11Speaker 4: Line, and they can do it because they've got the
- 14:12Speaker 4: time to do it.
- 14:13Speaker 1: I turned fifty this year and I'm currently me too,
- 14:16Speaker 1: trying to work out how I'm going to put away
- 14:18Speaker 1: one hundred and eighty dollars a day for the next
- 14:20Speaker 1: ten years. I know, I know, it's the kind of
- 14:24Speaker 1: is now you mention it right, kids, It'll be fine.
- 14:30Speaker 1: I did go and have six children, which certainly made
- 14:33Speaker 1: it hard to put.
- 14:34Speaker 2: Them anyway well to look after you. Just hopefully they'll
- 14:37Speaker 2: be able to do that.
- 14:38Speaker 1: Thanks for the yeah, the good news. It can be
- 14:48Speaker 1: helpful for kids to learn the basics of how finances work,
- 14:52Speaker 1: especially in this digital age of invisible money. Kit is
- 14:56Speaker 1: a pocket money app and card built by Combank. It
- 15:00Speaker 1: helps kids learn about money through earning, saving, and spending
- 15:04Speaker 1: pocket money, as well as by playing fun games and quizzes.
- 15:07Speaker 2: Kit is free for.
- 15:09Speaker 1: Eligible Combank Yellow customers, t's and c supply, or just
- 15:13Speaker 1: fifty dollars a year for up to five children. Download
- 15:16Speaker 1: the app or visit haykit dot com dot Au. You
- 15:19Speaker 1: can also download kits free pocket Money one O one
- 15:22Speaker 1: guide from the kit website at Heykit dot com dot
- 15:25Speaker 1: Au TMD available on the website. Consider it appropriate for you, Nicole,
- 15:30Speaker 1: I want to ask you a couple other questions as
- 15:32Speaker 1: a parent who sometimes feels a little bit lost when
- 15:36Speaker 1: it comes to financial conversations and so many parents do
- 15:40Speaker 1: are any Are there any tools that you think are
- 15:43Speaker 1: really useful that are available online to help them, maybe
- 15:46Speaker 1: even yours? And for what it's worth, this is not
- 15:48Speaker 1: a setup question, like I'm asking out of genuine interest.
- 15:51Speaker 1: I don't know where you're going to go with this,
- 15:53Speaker 1: so I just want to be really clear about that.
- 15:54Speaker 1: We haven't planned this ahead of time.
- 15:57Speaker 4: Yeah, and look, don't feel like you're alone. You know.
- 16:00Speaker 3: They're studied by the Extra Foundation, which does not for
- 16:03Speaker 3: profit financial literacy in schools, which involves the amazing Paul Clitho,
- 16:07Speaker 3: who was involved in the governmental financial literacy push as well.
- 16:11Speaker 3: A recent study of THEIRS shows that all parents understand
- 16:15Speaker 3: that money smarts is a really important lesson for their kids.
- 16:18Speaker 3: Twenty four percent of them feel like they don't have
- 16:21Speaker 3: the head around it themselves, you know, might one in
- 16:24Speaker 3: five don't know where to start teaching kids about money.
- 16:27Speaker 4: So it's a really really common thing.
- 16:30Speaker 3: So in terms of tools to help, there's actually a
- 16:32Speaker 3: lot out there for parents. So in terms of skilling
- 16:35Speaker 3: up yourself, take take a look at the moneysmart dot
- 16:39Speaker 3: gov dot AU website. Lots of really small, targeted, factually
- 16:46Speaker 3: correct information on there to just lift your own aptitude
- 16:50Speaker 3: just that little bit. And then there's a couple of
- 16:53Speaker 3: great pocket money apps that are available in Australia, which
- 16:56Speaker 3: I like, we have migrated between a few. You know,
- 17:01Speaker 3: money is earned, not bestowed. I believe that kids need
- 17:04Speaker 3: to work for their pocket money. I think that's really important,
- 17:07Speaker 3: and these apps let you kind of set those criteria
- 17:11Speaker 3: for your kids and tick them off and then show
- 17:14Speaker 3: them when and why they're getting their money delivered. And
- 17:17Speaker 3: they have kidtastic celebrations around the fact that go, you
- 17:20Speaker 3: look what you've achieved. You've done this yourself, and now
- 17:23Speaker 3: how are you going to split this money to make
- 17:26Speaker 3: it maximum enjoyment from you to reap the rewards of
- 17:29Speaker 3: what you do. So the couple here there's Spriggy, which
- 17:32Speaker 3: is good. It's got some really great interfacing features for
- 17:36Speaker 3: children to give them that goal targeting which is just
- 17:39Speaker 3: so important. No interest earned on that one, which is
- 17:43Speaker 3: a problem. Then you've got kit which is backed by
- 17:46Speaker 3: the Commonwealth Bank. Now let me just stay upfront that
- 17:48Speaker 3: I was a very vocal critic of the previous Commonwealth
- 17:52Speaker 3: Bank you know, school banking, et cetera, which.
- 17:54Speaker 4: Was banned several years ago. Now this new iteration is
- 17:58Speaker 4: very good.
- 17:59Speaker 3: So it does the kid tactic celebrations, It split the
- 18:02Speaker 3: money automatically into the goals, and then it's got a
- 18:05Speaker 3: bank account hooked to it where the money goes directly
- 18:08Speaker 3: in and earns interest for your children. So rather than
- 18:11Speaker 3: kind of paying for the app and paying to let
- 18:14Speaker 3: someone keep your money, which is sort of a bad
- 18:17Speaker 3: adult lesson, you actually earn the interest straight away. And
- 18:20Speaker 3: there's a lot of merits to that particular app. I'm
- 18:22Speaker 3: just migrating my kids to that one. And the other
- 18:25Speaker 3: thing is just you know, his bank accounts is a
- 18:27Speaker 3: really big deal for a lot of institutions, and just
- 18:30Speaker 3: quietly that's because they're a great customer acquisition final That's
- 18:33Speaker 3: why I think they had been so big in this
- 18:35Speaker 3: state for such a long time.
- 18:36Speaker 1: I've got to just say, like we've received some pushback
- 18:39Speaker 1: because we've had some CBA advertising, and I get it,
- 18:42Speaker 1: like everyone's going to have to have a bank account, right,
- 18:44Speaker 1: so it's in every financial institution's best interest to do
- 18:48Speaker 1: what they can to acquire people to do their banking.
- 18:51Speaker 1: So I just have to push back against the people
- 18:54Speaker 1: that are saying, well, that's not okay, because hello, it's
- 18:56Speaker 1: like where.
- 18:57Speaker 2: You're going to put your money, you need to have
- 18:58Speaker 2: an account anyway.
- 18:59Speaker 4: Go on, you do need to have a bank account.
- 19:01Speaker 3: And again that comes back to my point about you know,
- 19:03Speaker 3: parents teaching your children the importance of interest, because you
- 19:07Speaker 3: want to be saving into a bank account that has
- 19:09Speaker 3: the very highest amount of interest, that.
- 19:11Speaker 2: Might not be able take as much money as you
- 19:14Speaker 2: can from the banks.
- 19:14Speaker 3: Is what is yeah, one d per like why would
- 19:17Speaker 3: you donate it to them? Do you mean like they're
- 19:19Speaker 3: just like us paying too much on our mortgage? Why
- 19:21Speaker 3: would we be giving an institution money? And you know,
- 19:24Speaker 3: again another message of parents can get across on this
- 19:27Speaker 3: one is that no two banks has the best of
- 19:31Speaker 3: two products in my experience ever, So you know, tell
- 19:36Speaker 3: your kids you should have probably a different bank for
- 19:40Speaker 3: your savings account, a different bank for a credit card
- 19:43Speaker 3: if you want to get one, a different bank for
- 19:45Speaker 3: your mortgage. The one institution is not going to take
- 19:48Speaker 3: all of your boxes. So that's a really another important
- 19:51Speaker 3: thing to get across. But here there are a lot
- 19:53Speaker 3: of amazing tools, and there is a lot of resources
- 19:55Speaker 3: being spent by a lot of banks that really bring
- 19:58Speaker 3: their kids savings accoun to life and principle among them
- 20:02Speaker 3: is that goal targeting, which is really life changing.
- 20:05Speaker 4: For a chile.
- 20:05Speaker 2: Yeah. Love that.
- 20:06Speaker 1: The only tool that I've been looking at financially is
- 20:09Speaker 1: superannuation calculators lately. But again that's it fifty thing. It's
- 20:14Speaker 1: a different podcast and different conversation. All right, let's wrap
- 20:18Speaker 1: this up, Nicole. I've really enjoyed chatting with you and
- 20:20Speaker 1: this has been quite insightful and a lot of fun.
- 20:23Speaker 1: One last question for you. If you were just to
- 20:26Speaker 1: give one piece of advice for parents to make financial
- 20:29Speaker 1: lessons stick, what would your most valuable idea be for
- 20:35Speaker 1: parents to go, Okay, yeah, I need to have the
- 20:36Speaker 1: financial chat with my kids and this is the thing
- 20:38Speaker 1: that I need to say. Would it be don't sign
- 20:41Speaker 1: up for months to month plans? Would it be stay
- 20:43Speaker 1: away from Netflix and the gaming apps and gambling?
- 20:47Speaker 2: Where would you go? What would you say?
- 20:49Speaker 3: I'd say the key thing is for parents to talk
- 20:54Speaker 3: the talk, right. So the difficulty in you know, you
- 20:58Speaker 3: have the chats, you have chats with kids, you can
- 21:01Speaker 3: have them about the money. You can have the theoretical
- 21:04Speaker 3: aspect to it. They're less likely to land than watching
- 21:08Speaker 3: you every single time you transact, especially digitally, right going
- 21:14Speaker 3: hey kids, I know you know the tap trap. I
- 21:17Speaker 3: know I'm tapping this card, but that's because the money
- 21:20Speaker 3: is coming out, the money is actually in there, and
- 21:22Speaker 3: I'm spending money I already have and I've been careful
- 21:25Speaker 3: about how I've spent that money. I've spent the less
- 21:27Speaker 3: the leaks I can possibly do. I've bought something that
- 21:29Speaker 3: I wanted to buy in the first place. I haven't
- 21:31Speaker 3: given into impulse, and I'm responsibly spending.
- 21:34Speaker 4: I think if they if.
- 21:36Speaker 3: They see you doing that, if you model being that
- 21:39Speaker 3: model money citizen, then that's going to get that biggest
- 21:43Speaker 3: cut through. You know, you've started off saying, you know
- 21:45Speaker 3: what difference am I really going to make? Going to
- 21:46Speaker 3: schools and having that one talk with kids Equally, you know,
- 21:50Speaker 3: a couple of talks from parents may not have the
- 21:53Speaker 3: same power and impact as watching you do the right
- 21:56Speaker 3: thing and say the right words, even if just quietly
- 21:59Speaker 3: the money is not there and you're spending on credit
- 22:01Speaker 3: or whatever.
- 22:02Speaker 4: Just talk about the fact that you've earned it.
- 22:05Speaker 3: You've carefully allocated it and you're going to use it
- 22:08Speaker 3: for the maximum enjoyment for you and your family. And
- 22:10Speaker 3: that could be a long term thing that might not
- 22:12Speaker 3: be today, that might be in a year's time when
- 22:14Speaker 3: you're going to take a holiday, or in five years
- 22:16Speaker 3: time where you're going to stretch stay with them so
- 22:19Speaker 3: that they can buy their first card.
- 22:21Speaker 1: Love that you've just talked about the tap trap, and
- 22:24Speaker 1: you remind me of something that I would really love
- 22:26Speaker 1: to know. This is a quick fact check question. I
- 22:29Speaker 1: read recently that inserting your card means that you generally
- 22:33Speaker 1: don't pay fees, whereas tapping you do pay fees.
- 22:36Speaker 2: Is that right?
- 22:37Speaker 3: That can be true, yes, because that can swing it
- 22:41Speaker 3: to the savings part of your card rather than the
- 22:43Speaker 3: debit or credit part of your card. So yes, it
- 22:46Speaker 3: can be true, depending on the institution and depending on
- 22:49Speaker 3: the merchant. O.
- 22:50Speaker 1: All right, so again, just one of those things to
- 22:52Speaker 1: teach the kids. It's better to wat to it.
- 22:55Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
- 22:56Speaker 3: And legally, if you can't pay by cash, then emerging
- 23:00Speaker 3: is not supposed to be able to charge you that
- 23:03Speaker 3: explicit fee. They've got to wear that themselves. So and look,
- 23:07Speaker 3: cash is another thing we should probably quickly touch on.
- 23:09Speaker 3: I love the use of cash for kids. It's just
- 23:11Speaker 3: really good to bring that sailings to something that is disappearing,
- 23:14Speaker 3: really really quickly. Because the lesson to get at Christ
- 23:17Speaker 3: is it just because you can't see something, it still
- 23:20Speaker 3: runs out.
- 23:20Speaker 4: That's really really key, so valuable.
- 23:24Speaker 2: Such a great conversation.
- 23:25Speaker 1: Nicole Peterson McKinnon is a long time financial literacy campaigner
- 23:29Speaker 1: and educator the in schools, in the media and even
- 23:34Speaker 1: with Parliament. Great to chat with you, and thanks for
- 23:36Speaker 1: giving up some time to help us be more financially literate. Nicole.
- 23:40Speaker 4: Lovely to chat with you. Justin.
- 23:41Speaker 3: I'm going to take my kids dropping and I'm going
- 23:43Speaker 3: to walk my talk.
- 23:45Speaker 1: Have fun, don't buy too much, set a budget, be careful,
- 23:47Speaker 1: use cash, don't tap good fun.
- 23:50Speaker 2: Thanks so much.
- 23:51Speaker 1: The Happy Families podcast is produced by Justin Roland for
- 23:53Speaker 1: Bridge Media. Mem Hammonds provides research and additional admin support.
- 23:58Speaker 1: If you'd like more information about making your family happy,
- 24:00Speaker 1: check out the show notes for more info and visit
- 24:02Speaker 1: Happy Families dot com.
- 24:03Speaker 3: A you.
- 24:09Speaker 1: Kit is a pocket money app and card built by Combank.
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