“Mom, I lost my wallet downtown”
...If all her money had been in cash, she would likely have kept it all in her wallet, as 10-year-olds oblivious to risk might do... Instead, the majority of her money is in Bomad...
Why I Bomad, part 2
... I’ve come to believe that it’s difficult to teach kids anything. They need to want to learn... I learned this lesson the hard way. Let me tell you a story about my son Andrew, which helped me come to this realization...
Why I Bomad
... Bomad solves a simple, practical problem: keeping track of money for kids... It’s not something that can be taught. They need to make their own decisions (with age-appropriate support) and learn from the consequences...
How I encourage my kids to read
...I’m hopeful that with this new freedom to choose whatever she wants to read, she’ll start reading more... I’m glad that I don’t have to help her choose books, and I'm pretty sure that young girls don't want their dads involved in that either...
Pooling family birthday money
...Since it was an expensive present, we told him that he would need to contribute the birthday money that he was likely to get from family toward the purchase ... I think they appreciated knowing that their contribution helped achieve a bigger goal.
Don’t leave money habits to chance
...Many young kids decide that they don’t like certain foods (like avocado, shrimp, eggs, etc) based on a single negative experience, only to later change their minds... many kids develop some very arbitrary and possibly harmful money habits that never get corrected...
Baby (loan) shark: a parents’ guide
...I think this is a great way to teach kids to be responsible with money. They know that they have to look after it and that they will be held accountable for bringing back the correct change...
Report back: my kids buying stocks
Last time I mentioned that I’d been neglecting my own kids’ stock investments. I was planning to fix that when I visited them in the English countryside last week... You want to encourage your kids to save and accumulate assets over time. Real assets, not just IOU’s from their parents... I did manage to have a conversation with each of them, and here's the report back I promised...
Buy stocks, not bagpipes!
...I’ve come to realize that I’ve been neglecting my own kids’ investments...I think it’s a good idea to get them started in stocks as early as possible...If they just hold cash, it will lose value to inflation...
What happened to all your birthday money?
...the family would be happy to know that she really enjoyed spending the money like this...And I gave myself a pat on the back for raising such a financially responsible young lady. But little did I know that things were about to go downhill in a big way...
2 ice creams for 9 pounds!
...I came across this hilarious video earlier in the week. It’s a young British girl raging about the price of ice cream ... Closely linked to inflation is interest ... So of course saving is much better than not saving, but interest should only be a bonus, not the main reason to save ...
Be a rich dad, not a poor dad
...he would encourage them to buy income-producing assets. Of course buying property is a little beyond what kids can do, but they can buy stocks. I’ve tried to encourage my own kids to do this. My daughter Michelle has some Roblox shares, which I just keep in my brokerage account on her behalf. My son Andrew has his own brokerage account and owns a handful of shares....
How to handle kids' game subscriptions
...A Robux subscription seemed like a pretty good way to control what Michelle spends on Roblox, so we signed her up for it. Previously she would ask me to buy Robux for her every few days and it caused some tension: don’t you think you’ve spent too much on Robux this month already? So now she gets a fixed Robux allowance 🙂...
Your kids want to be just like you
My favorite Bomad feature is debit card support. Kids love it because it makes them feel all grown up. It still surprises me that so few families use it...
Supermarket adventures
In my family, we use Bomad quite regularly during shopping trips. The kids drop some items into the cart, typically a soft drink or a chocolate bar, and after I’ve paid I quickly run through the receipt and deduct the items in Bomad....
I’m back + tips for birthday money
I’m sure many of you were left wondering why I stopped writing back in July last year. Well, the simple truth is that I found these letters too difficult to write. I set the bar impossibly high...
Money, a tool for authoritarian control?
I’d like to share my most embarrassing parenting story. When my son was around 6 or 7, he started getting homework from school. He didn’t like doing it. At around the same time, I decided that I was no longer going to spank him...
Teach your kids to invest
...But what happens when they become adults? Now you owe them a lot of money, and you might not be able to pay up 😬. You’ll have taught them a valuable lesson, but it won’t be good for your relationship! ...
Let them spend!
... It’s only through thinking about money, spending it, saving it, etc, etc that kids really start to understand it. And that’s what I want for them. The admin problem only exists because I want them to learn about money! ...
The secret to teaching kids about money…
... Keep doing this throughout their childhood and they will be well-prepared to manage their own money when they head out into the real world...
