Investing for Your Children’s Future: Beyond the Piggy Bank?

Speaker A00:00:00

You know something? I can still remember my first piggy bank. And honestly, the truth is, it didn't last long before that money was spent at the arcade.So here's the question for today. I got this from a listener. I thought, this is perfect, Ralph. I've got a piggy bank started for my kids. But what's the next step?To really invest in their future. And the truth is a piggy bank is a great start. So many people don't do those anymore.Abby, my assistant and I were talking about this before we started recording today and we started talking about what kind of piggy bank did you have? And I asked her a question. I said, abby, why do you think they call it a piggy bank? And she says, ralph, I'm not sure. Well, here's the thing.Pigs get big and fat. That's the whole point of it. So that's a good way to start your children. But it's not enough.It's got to be more than just those loose chains in that piggy bank because there's all kinds of things that are going to come up. Education to lifelong financial wisdom. Let's talk about that on today's show, how to really invest for your children.This is Financially Confident Christian, your daily dose of gospel, grounded insight and faith driven tips to help you break the cycle of financial shame with confidence. Hello there. Welcome back to the show. I'm Ralph. This is Financially Confident Christian.This is your daily show to help you break that cycle of financial shame that so many people are feeling. I hear from listeners every day.We're all, a lot of us are feeling this financial shame and I want to help you give, I don't want to give you confidence. That's the whole point of today's show. And today's show is all about that.For 30 years as an accountant, I've worked with families helping them set up savings and investment accounts for their children's future. Because, listen, children are our future and we've got to really think about how can we teach them the skills that. And here's the problem.A lot of us didn't learn the skills ourselves, but now we got to make sure our children learn those. So I've been a financial coach, but here's my real street cred today. A lot of people say, well, what's your street cred, Ralph?I've been a parent and I've raised two boys. They're 24 and 28 right now and they are completely different as it relates to finance. Even though good old dad is an accountant and a finance guy.I've seen firsthand the impact of starting early. So let me tell you about a client that I worked with many, many years ago.I've been in practice now for 30 years and I think it wasn't too soon after I started I had this young couple come in and man, they were just, they were in love with each other. Just had a little baby and they said, Ralph, we really want to see see our daughter go off to college.And I said, well, here's one of the things you could consider doing. There's a thing called a 529 plan. I'm not going to get into the details about that today.You can check out our show at Financially Confident Christian. It's a little search button at the top and just put in there 529 plan. I've done a couple shows about it. That's not the topic for today's show.Just want to give you some 30,000 foot views about investing. They sat down with me and they said, we really want to create something.Now this baby, I mean this was in a baby carrier when they came in, this baby was fresh. I'm talking about straight out the oven fresh. But they had an intention.And I remember working with them over the years and now as a matter of fact, she's graduated from college now. But I remember when she reached high school, they were coming in and they were showing me their 529 statement.Let me tell you right now, they were consistent. They were sowing those seeds every single month. And by the time she reached college, she had a strong foundation for her college cost.Now here's another little fun thing. She was a Cracker Jack student. She got 100% scholarship to go to college. So that money now is going to be used for grandchildren.And see, it's all about consistency. If you've not learned anything else in this investment series, we've been doing this, it's going to be a 30 day series for the entire month.One of the key takeaways, and I hope you're hearing this, is consistency. And I love what Dave Ramsey said.Dave and I aren't always on the same page, but he said this and he said, teach your kids how to handle money and they'll never forget it. I don't know about you, but if you're a parent raising kids seems like they forget everything.Remember when I told you, I don't remember that, dad, but teach them how to handle money and they'll never forget it. And I'm not saying That a piggy bank isn't a great start. Abby and I again, we were talking before the show. She had a piggy bank. Hers was plastic.She said to me she was rough. It was real easy to get into it. Mine wasn't so easy to get into, so I ended up breaking it. But I wanted that money for the arcade.But it is a great way to start teaching kids about savings. It's a start. But listen, don't stop there. So many parents don't teach their children financial literacy.And as a country, and I'm speaking for the US right now, I think we do a poor job of this. So start there. Start to teach them that financial literacy and do think about college savings. My kids are 24 and 28.I remember when they were just toddlers. Next thing you know, they're graduating from high school, going on to College.So these 529 plans, these ESA, these educational savings accounts are powerful college funding ideas. There's great tax benefits to them. I've done shows on them. I'm not going to get into that today.Another thing you can do is create a custodial account. You might be like, what is that, Ralph? Well, you can go to the bank and you can open up an account with your child. Remember, my mom and dad did this.I did this with my kids. You teach them ownership. I'll never forget it. When I was a kid, they used to give you this thing called a passbook to savings account.I'm really dating myself.But you'd have this book and every time you'd put money, you go into the bank, you stand in line with all the cool people, you go up and give the teller maybe two bucks or five bucks, maybe you got it for birthday money. And they'd stamp that in the book. And I remember as a kid, I was like, that's cool. Look at that, my money's growing. What was my mom and dad doing?And I got to say my mom kind of took the lead on this. They were teaching me finances early. Maybe that's why I'm an accountant now. Of course, I grew up in accounting.I've been doing accounting work since I was 8. But that's a whole nother story.But the truth is, and I've seen this in my own life, the earlier you teach kids about money, the stronger their future foundation is going to be. And as part of that, this is a Christian finance show. One of the strongest things that you can teach them is Christian stewardship.See, it goes beyond money. Teach them about faith. Based financial wisdom, because that's really a legacy gift. Which leads me to this story. I never forget this story.My youngest son. Now, my youngest son, he's more of a spendthrift. He's not one of these savers. My oldest kid, dude, he will save.He probably got more saved than I have. He's a saver. My youngest son is a spender. You talk about deficit spending. This dude is spending money he's never going to get.And I'm not picking on him, but I'll never get. He was a young kid and we were going to church and we're trying to teach the kids tithing, giving something back to the church.And I said, listen, kids, here's what I'm going to encourage you to do. Mom and dad are going to give you an allowance. Now, I don't call it an allowance because they worked for it. I think it's a commission.I did a show about that. Check that out. Don't pay your kids an allowance. Pay your kids a commission. Encourage them to work.Anyway, I said to them, kids, I want you to really think about giving 10% of your commission to church every Sunday. I never forget, we're on the church. We're going to church.One Sunday morning, we'd all piled in the truck and we're driving along, and I said to the boys, I said, okay, are you boys ready for your tithe today? Of course. My oldest son is, yes, dad, I've got the money right here. I've already figured it out. It's exactly 10% of the.Of what I made on commission this week. I said, son, that is fantastic. And he had done a great job. He understood it. My youngest son, he's like, but, dad, do I really have to do this?This is my money. I work so hard for this. You know, I did. I don't remember what he was doing at the time. He was probably four or five years old.Maybe he was putting the dishes away from the dishwasher or something like that. And he said, dad, do I really need to do this?And he was so reluctant, but it was great because it gave me that opportunity to talk about the cheerful giver. We talked about that on this show a few times. My youngest son was certainly not the cheerful give, but he understood that, that stewardship lesson.And I'll never forget, we sat down in the pew and they passed the cleat. And my oldest son, he dropped it in real quick. He heard the clink go.My youngest son, he's looking at the plate and he Looks at his money, he looks at the plate, and I gave him a little nudge. Next thing you know, change went in the plate.Now, I was half thinking he was going to grab some out of the plate and take an extra commission, but thank God he didn't do that. Well, let's get to our Bible verse today. This one comes from the book of Proverbs. This is chapter 22, verse 6.And this is all about biblical foundation. This is one you want to understand and remember this one again, Proverbs 22, 6.Start children off on the way they should go, and when they are old, they will not turn from it. That's this foundation thing right here. What is the Bible telling us? Start showing off on the way they should go.And when they're old, like me, 53 years old, I'm an old guy, they will not turn from it. It all starts with that strong foundation, which leads me to this bonus verse.This is two days in a row we're doing a bonus verse, but I think we need to do this. This is From Deuteronomy, chapter 6, verses 6 and 7. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children.Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Yes, when you're driving to church. Talk to your kids about this. Talk to your kids about finances. Talk to your kids about faith and finance together.When you're at home, when you're walking along the road, when you lie down. Teach them early and teach them often. It's going to make all the difference. Let's pray together right now.Father, we come to you right now and we just ask for wisdom, Lord, and especially as parents, if you're a parent right now. Listen, Lord, we would just want you to help us to prepare our kids well for their future.Lord, you've given us a huge obligation here, Lord, we just ask you right now to help us do that. Help us to model that stewardship, Lord, even if we didn't grow up around that ourselves, help us to model that.And help us to model our faith and help our children to see us as being good stewards of what you've entrusted to us, Lord. And we just thank you again for these children you've entrusted us to.And if we don't have children, maybe you're working with our grandchildren or other people that we come into contact with. Lord, just give us courage to do that.Give us courage to help our children understand Finance and teach them in the way they should go, like the scripture says. And we ask this in confidence in the name of Jesus. Amen. All right, well, here's your one action step for today.Not going to be too complicated today, but here's what I want you to do.If you have a child or a grandchild or maybe you've got a nephew or a niece, do looking into some 529 plans or an ESA account or maybe even a custodial account. I actually set up one of these for my niece when she was born.Start to research how to start your children or your grandchildren this week on how to build that foundation. It doesn't have to be big, but just help them build that foundation. And as I said earlier, piggy banks are a start. They're a great start.Don't do the ceramic ones like Abby said. Do the plastic ones. You don't break them. They're easy to deal with. But be real about that. Real growth comes from structured accounts.It's going to have to go beyond that piggy bank. Think about the 529 plans, the ESA, the tax benefits of those are great. Like I said, I'll cover that in another episode.You can check out our show notes for that. All might consider those custodial accounts. They're a great way to teach responsibility. Because here's the deal.Teaching financial stewardship is the most valuable gift that you can ever give your kids, your grandkids, your nieces and nephews. You got to do that. Now, make sure you join me tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to change topics a little bit.We're still going to continue on investments, as Abby said. Ralph, I love this topic. For tomorrow. We're going to talk about how can I invest to create passive income streams. Yeah.Tomorrow we're going to talk about how to move beyond your daily salary or your hourly wage and really start to build money that makes money when you're asleep at night. Yes, I got the secrets on tomorrow's show. And here's what I would like you to do for me.I don't ask you for this often, but I would love it if you would support this show. Now, one of the ways we do that is this thing called Buy me a Coffee. Now, listen, I don't even drink coffee. I do drink hot tea.There's my cup of hot tea today. But it's a virtual thing. But if you want to support the show, you can buy me a virtual coffee. Buy five virtual coffees. Up to you.But the way you do that is go to our website. That's financiallyconfidentchristian.com/support. Now you might be thinking, okay, Ralph, what are you going to do with this money?Your support's a blessing because what I'm going to do with it is I'm going to help it use to reach other people. I'm going to invest in this. I'm going to advertise.I'm going to do more things to build the listenership so that more people can be impacted by this message of breaking free from that financial shame and moving on with confidence. And you can help me do that by supporting the show.Go to financiallyconfidentchristian.com/support and show me some love today, because your support is a blessing. And together, working together, truly, I believe this with all my heart. We can make a lasting impact on the lives of so many people.So as I close today, remember this today. Start small. Watch it grow. Watch those children just take off with that. That's my oldest son.I know the things that I taught him when he was real young. He's using those to this day. So choose tools that build a stronger future.And let's all guide this next generation with wisdom and with stewardship that lasts a long time, last a lifetime, in fact. So today I charge you with this.Go be a financially confident Christian and let's help our children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews and everybody else be those financially confident Christians as well. Stay financially savvy. God bless you, and you have a great day.