In Gary Keller’s book The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, he mentions what he calls Nina’s Rule. Nina was a personal trainer, hired by Gary, who always sought to correct a client’s posture before venturing into assigning certain exercises to meet the client’s desired end-state. Gary tells us that Nina believed a good (or bad) posture shared a high correlation with overall physical health. She correctly reasoned that the best of us work on our muscles one or two hours a few days a week, but for ALL of us, our posture is at work about 16-18 hours every single day.
Gary made the analogy that our fiscal posture is similarly at work every single day through the almost subconscious, seemingly innocuous decisions we make with our money. While the big muscle movements of car and home buying are certainly important, the value of making smart decisions when handling money through small transactions in our everyday life can be immeasurable.
You and I have a great opportunity and responsibility to address our child’s financial posture that will prove over time to have a profound impact on the health of their financial relationships.
Subsequently, the intent of these posts is to equip you as the parent and identify the base concepts (posture) that will aid you in raising a more money-savvy child. Here are the 5 takeaways from the previous posts:
- Define rich as having breathing room in your finances.
- Have an open dialogue regarding opportunity cost.
- Reinforce planning/budgeting and name each dollar.
- Help your child begin to understand debt – when you borrow, you steal from tomorrow.
- Relational budgeting – consider and communicate with others.
All subsequent posts will be focused on one of these concepts and provide a practical lesson you can apply at home. I hope you’ll continue to follow us and allow us to partner with you in teaching your child or children about personal finances!
