Financial Literacy Isn’t Just For Grown Ups: Here Are Tips For Frugality At Any Age

Forbes

David Delisle is a successful author, entrepreneur and real estate investor with a background as a financial advisor and marketing director. But most importantly, he is a dad. He has been investing since he was eleven years old and is passionate about passing on the lessons he’s learned, which he has done through his upcoming book The Golden Quest- Your Journey to a Rich Life.  It teaches kids (and adults) how to live a rich life and create the freedom for what is most important to them…the Awesome Stuff. David is a contributor to Entrepreneur, a millionaire mentor for Money Club, and has been featured on countless podcasts, including Impacting Life 24/7, and The Mind of George Show.  David Delisle, author of The Golden Quest, joins ‘Forbes Talks’ to offer tips on teaching children financial literacy.  0:00 Introduction 0:17 David's Inspiration For The Golden Quest 2:08 What Is The Process To Great Financial Literacy? 4:13 Helpful Money Conversations To Have With Your Kids 7:54 How To Apply David's Book To Your Budget  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00 Hi everyone, I'm Rose Marie Miller here with author of The Golden Quest, David Delisle,

00:08 here to tell us about teaching children financial literacy.

00:12 Thank you so much for joining me today, David.

00:16 Thanks so much.

00:17 I'm so excited to be here.

00:18 Absolutely.

00:19 So David, can you tell us your inspiration for writing your book, The Golden Quest, and

00:24 what just motivated you to teach children about financial literacy?

00:29 So for me, I was always a bit of a money nerd.

00:31 So I read finance books when I was in like grade six and seven.

00:36 So I've always loved this stuff.

00:39 And now that I'm a dad, I have two young boys, I want to sort of pass on some of that knowledge.

00:44 But I was looking around seeing what stuff was out there.

00:47 And I realized there wasn't really anything that kids wanted to read.

00:51 There wasn't like these fun, fun books.

00:53 So I went about writing a graphic novel to make financial literacy fun for the people

00:59 that aren't money nerds like myself to learn some of these concepts.

01:03 Yeah, I definitely remember being a child and no one taught me anything about financial

01:07 literacy, probably all of my life.

01:11 So I think that's a really cool thing that you're doing.

01:14 And could you just tell us what unique approaches or strategies did you put in the book to help

01:19 teach them about financial literacy?

01:22 Yeah, so my approach is a little bit different than most people's because I find typically

01:28 when we think financial literacy, the entire goal is on how to have more money, because

01:35 that's what we think it's all about, which which is a part of it.

01:38 But we never really think about the why we want money in the first place.

01:42 And so because of that, we quickly find ourselves and it's just this endless chase of more even

01:48 as adults.

01:49 So for me, I focus a lot on the mindset piece of why financial literacy is so important.

01:56 What is your why?

01:57 So then I call the awesome stuff and walk through kids like walk the kids through that

02:01 whole process.

02:02 So so we start changing, changing that whole conversation, how we look and think about

02:06 money.

02:07 And you say walking them through that process.

02:10 What exactly do you mean by that?

02:13 So it's fun, because it's a graphic novel, so I can create the story.

02:18 And so in the in the story, the young boy goes on this adventure and learns basically

02:23 these different lessons from different mentors.

02:25 And one of the first one is this older sort of monk like figure who teaches this concept

02:31 around mindset and only buying the awesome stuff.

02:35 And so his first lesson to the child is only by the awesome stuff, because he's trying

02:38 to teach this mindset piece.

02:40 But because it's a, you know, a crap cartoon or graphic novel, the boy obviously, as any

02:44 of us would say is, you know, everything I buy is awesome.

02:47 Like this is there's no wisdom in this lesson at all.

02:50 What are you telling me?

02:52 And then this is where the monk sort of walks him through sort of a visualization exercise,

02:56 thinking of his room, thinking of all the stuff in his room.

02:59 And we as adults can do the same thing, think of our house and all our things, and sort

03:03 of picking out all that stuff and what the child really loved, what was his favorite

03:08 stuff, what lit him up, what brought him joy.

03:11 And once the child was able to sort of identify that, then that becomes a benchmark for what

03:16 we really love.

03:18 And we can do that as adults as well.

03:19 We start thinking about the things that we remember a year from now that we still love

03:22 versus you know, that purchase we made last week, we've already forgotten about.

03:26 So that's sort of the first step in starting to look at things a little bit differently.

03:31 Have your own kids read this book?

03:33 Hmm.

03:34 Well, so when they're 11 and 14 now, so when I started, they were a little bit younger.

03:39 So yes, they read it.

03:40 But it was great because they were at ages where I could bounce a lot of these concepts

03:44 off them as well.

03:45 And it helped so I could see sort of what landed, what didn't, what confused them.

03:49 So I try to write it in that way.

03:51 So the responses you'd get from children are the responses in the book and what's confusing

03:57 to them, I would take out or change.

04:00 And it really has a big impact because our conversations around money are very different.

04:05 It's less about how much you can afford, but more about what do you love, what's important

04:09 to you, is this your awesome stuff?

04:13 And having these conversations with your children and letting them read the book, how do you

04:17 feel that their mindset about money may be different than someone else who's good like

04:23 me, a kid who didn't really know about financial literacy growing up?

04:28 Well, that's the thing is we it can be so much easier, we should just really start having

04:33 these conversations for their kids.

04:35 So like a perfect example is how much things cost.

04:39 So we expect our kids to understand the value of money and make these great financial decisions.

04:43 And yet money is such a taboo thing.

04:46 We don't talk about anything with our kids.

04:48 So you don't have to sit them down and have a big, deep conversation about money.

04:52 You can just tell them, we went to McDonald's, this is how much this meal costs.

04:55 We filled the car up with gas, this is how much the gas costs.

04:58 And it just starts teaching them a bit of the value of money.

05:01 And so that has a big, big impact.

05:04 And then we're definitely where I'm a little bit different is if I think of sort of what

05:09 we're teaching our kids inadvertently when we talk about money, because you definitely

05:13 learn about money from your parents, just maybe not what you wanted to learn or what

05:18 you think you learn.

05:19 I mean, their views on money and spending and buying, you were picking that up.

05:24 So when you're at a grocery store, a fair, and you want to buy an ice cream or have an

05:29 ice cream and your parents say, we can't afford that.

05:33 That lands for our children.

05:35 And they internalize that.

05:37 And the reality is it isn't that you can't afford it.

05:39 It's that your parents want to spend that money somewhere else.

05:43 And so when you start thinking of things as choices, and that's what I try to do with

05:47 the kids, and that's what I talk about awesome stuff.

05:49 Is that your awesome stuff?

05:50 For some children, maybe that ice cream is.

05:53 Others it might be a teddy bear.

05:54 Some others it might be going swimming with their friends.

05:57 There's all these choices we make.

05:58 So if the conversation is that, is that your awesome stuff versus we can't afford it, it

06:03 really changes the way you interact and see money.

06:07 You know, you're right about that.

06:09 Like what, what is your awesome stuff?

06:11 Because to my mother, it definitely wasn't McDonald's.

06:14 She would always tell me, we don't have McDonald's money.

06:16 We have food at the house.

06:18 I heard that over and over.

06:20 And now as an adult, I find myself telling myself the same thing, but like with other

06:23 restaurants, I don't have McDonald's money.

06:26 I have food at the house.

06:27 Which is why I don't want to.

06:30 David, what are the most critical financial concepts that you mentioned in this book and

06:35 that you believe, even if they weren't mentioned in the book, that children should know?

06:39 Yeah, so I keep talking about the mindset piece.

06:42 I find that's huge because that's something we don't talk about at all with finance.

06:47 And that's what we start getting in this loop of once we've achieved this thing and have

06:51 to buy it, what's the next thing?

06:53 What's the next thing?

06:54 And then we never run out of things we want to buy or we're chasing.

06:58 So that pausing and reflecting, that's the piece that's really important to me.

07:03 But then beyond that, understanding that money actually can earn money.

07:07 So we hear about this all the time, like compound interest or money making money or get your

07:12 money working for you.

07:14 But it really is in terms of growing wealth and getting your money to not be something

07:22 that you're always chasing, but it's actually growing on its own for you.

07:26 That idea of compound growth is really big.

07:30 And for young children to get that concept that if they put a dollar away today, it's

07:35 not worth a dollar tomorrow, it's going to be worth $10 or $100.

07:38 That's a big, big concept that we want to start teaching our children.

07:42 So rather than saving just so you can buy more stuff, saving so your money can grow

07:47 and actually take care of you and give you more freedom.

07:50 That's a concept that really can change your relationship with money.

07:54 So how can parents and teachers use the lessons taught in your book to create financial education

08:01 courses for young people?

08:05 So I'm working with schools right now trying to get in there and talk to them so they could

08:09 use the book as a intro to just introduce these concepts.

08:14 And then from those build out on those lessons and have conversations because that's the

08:17 big thing is like you mentioned, you were learning about money from your parents, you

08:21 just didn't have a conversation about it.

08:24 And so if we can just understand that our children are learning from us, so if we sort

08:29 of take the time to really think of what we want to teach them.

08:34 So a great thing is like this awesome stuff.

08:36 So your mom, you pick that up, but if she told you like, "This is why we don't have

08:41 McDonald's money because what I want to spend my money on is this."

08:46 That's a neat conversation that you can start having with your kids and it doesn't have

08:49 to be heavy.

08:50 And then you start understanding, "Oh, mom's favorite thing is every Sunday we go to a

08:56 drive-in or whatever it might be."

08:59 And you start understanding these things and then everyone else has their different awesome

09:03 stuff and you just have these conversations.

09:05 So it's not about lack or envy or I wish I had that thing.

09:08 These are the choices we're making and why.

09:10 And then you can change those.

09:12 So once you start having those conversations with your kids, like what if your mom said

09:15 to you, "Hey, this is why we don't want to go to McDonald's.

09:18 I can get you a burger for free at the house or whatever for half the cost.

09:22 And instead we can spend money on these other things."

09:26 You might still say, "You know what, mom?

09:28 This one time, can we just go to McDonald's?"

09:31 And you can have those conversations or you might not.

09:33 And that's the thing.

09:34 It doesn't have to be heavy like you think it is.

09:37 Well, thank you so much for joining me today, David.

09:39 I think this is really cool what you're doing.

09:43 Thanks so much.

09:44 It's something I've definitely become passionate about and see how much of an impact we can

09:49 have on our kids.

09:50 Absolutely.

09:51 Absolutely.

09:52 Absolutely.

09:53 Absolutely.

09:54 Absolutely.

09:55 Absolutely.

09:56 Absolutely.

09:58 Absolutely.

09:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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