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Saturday, July 22, 2006

Nurturing the Entrepreneurial Spirit in my Children

My children have always been around their Dad and his business. They have seen the inner workings of a business and they have taken intitatives that demonstrate they have an entrepreneurial spirit. Since I have started this blog, I have spent much time researching different topics and reading many pf blogs. My kids have read several articles I've shown them on MSN money and now they want to start investing.

As parents it is our job to teach our children basic life skills, but financial skills are important too. Unfortunately, they are often overlooked. Reading through many pf blogs, I keep coming across the same statement: "My parents never taught me about finances." I don't want this same statement repeated by my children, so I have started their education.

As I have mentioned before, they are involved with the home businesses and the blogging. They have also engaged in their own entrepreneurial pursuits. My daughter just came back from visiting her father and told me she set up a lemonade stand and made some money. My 13 and 11 year old sons have already learned their father's trade and often practice on customers for free....waiting for the day they can charge for a haircut. Although they do not want to pursue this as a career, it is something they can do for extra money part time. Perhaps in the future,they can own their own business like their dad. They can rent all the chairs and just collect the money weekly.

Last week, we visited Morgan Stanley, someone close to us works there. My son loved the building, the ambience and now he wants to know more about investing. (We read several blogs. We were trying to get a sharebuilder account open, so that he can learn with $50.00. If you have a great how to post, feel free to email it to us.) Where is he getting his $50.00? In order to motivate him, I told him I would pay him $50.00 if he got a 90 or above in his summer school classes. He has a 97 average in math now and he's helping the other kids?!?! I guess money is the best motivation for him. (He has ADD, a high IQ and no motivation....what a mix?!?!) So, it is my desire to nurture the entrepreneur in him. They are all very frugal when it comes to shopping and stretching their money, now it time to learn how to make their money grow. They know savings accounts don't return much, so they are eager to see what stocks can produce.

I'm curious to see how long it will take him to double his money. I'll keep you posted. What's the worst that can happen? He loses the $50.00? Mistakes can sometimes be the best teachers, wouldn't you agree?

If you know of any entries about investments that are exceptional guides for beginners, feel free to leave a comment with the blog's name or a link. You can even leave your own, if you're proud of it and you know it's good...link away!

1 comment:

Rosemary said...

You seem to have a lot of good ideas to share here.

I’d like to invite you to join our family friendly BLOG VILLAGE TopList. We have over 100 members, and we’re striving for a diverse group of blogs. I think your blog would be a great addition.

You can find out more about it at the Blog Village blog.