Teenager Money Habits

Money Mindset

2007-06-30T14:58:00.000+08:00

It had been a while since I last wrote my blog. Today I am here to share with you about the words we parents use that can influence the children money mindset or we money blueprint. I learn this from my guru called T. Harv Eker.

What is a money blueprint?

This is defined by T. Harv Eker in his book called “The Secrets of Millionaire Mind” - as your preset program or way of being in relation to money. This is like a plan or design to your particular home. It is the programming of our past in relation to money.

Our financial blueprint consists of a combination of your thoughts, feelings, and action in relation to money.

WEALTH PRINCIPLE:

Thoughts lead to feelings

Feelings lead to actions

Actions lead to results

How our money blueprint is formed?

All these are formed through the information we received as a young child. Let us take a look at our own childhood experiences, how our parents taught us how to deal with money.

Every one of us was taught how to think and act in relation to money. Where did this information about money come about? It comes form our parents, friends, authority figures, teachers, religious leaders, media and our culture.

Do you agree that different cultures have different way of thinking and different approach with money? Do you remember what did your parents teach you about money when we were young? All these teachings become our conditioning.

What did we hear about money, wealth and rich people when we were growing up?

Do you remember these phrases like money is the root of all evil, money doesn’t grow on trees; money doesn’t buy happiness, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, save your money for rainy days, money is hard to come by, must work hard for money?

All these phrases will be in our subconscious mind and it will remain in our file throughout our entire life unless we do something about it. Our teenager’s money beliefs come from all this conditioning.

Our subconscious conditioning controls our thinking. Our thinking determines our decisions and our decision determine our actions which will eventually determine our outcomes.

We have been subconsciously programmed from young with limiting beliefs that are working against us. Do you know that our subconscious mind determines your behavior and the results we are getting out?

Now we know that our teenagers have these limiting money beliefs and we must reprogrammed our teenagers financial blueprint or money mindset.

The next round I am going to discuss how do we going to reprogram our teenagers mindset.

Your money teen buddy
Christina
www.realsmarteens.com

Lessons I Learnt From T. Harv Eker, "Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind"

2007-05-27T23:50:00.000+08:00

This week I was in a seminar and was listening to this great guru from USA, T. Harv Eker the author of the best selling books, “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind”.

He is an awesome speaker and trainer with high energy. T Harv Eker came from a childhood where money was scarce throughout his childhood. He was a self made millionaire by the age of 30. Now he is a multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi, multi millionaire.

I learned a lot more about money from his seminar that day. I just wanted to share what I have learned so that we can share our thought and belief so that we can teach our children to manage their money habits.

What I learned that day was why we must understand our roots of money which is very important. Our parents teach us that money is the root of all evil. I am sure most of us have heard this saying before. Does it mean that all of us have the same parents?

As a parent, we must teach our children that our roots are very important. How does this affect our money habits?

If a red apple tree does not have strong roots and we never fertilize it well, what kind of fruits does it bear? The fruits could be small and sour.

This is the same thing if we do not educate good money habits to our children from young. What money habits do you think they have when they grow up? Our children are going to have bad money habits if do not educate them young.

Do you agree that we must focus to build a good money habits roots to our children NOW? But as parents we tend to forget that the roots are very important.

Like what T. Harv Eker taught in his seminar, we tend to focus on the fruits but we forget our roots. We must set the root right then the trunk which then bear us good and abundance fruits.

So parents let us remember that we must nurture the money habit tree in our children now. We want to have good nurturing fruits to come to the world.

Let’s plant a good seed in them. So what we say to them is very important. In my next blog I am going to share with you the words we say to our children that affect their thoughts. How this thought is going to create result of their money habits?

Your teen buddy

Christina

http://www.realsmarteens.com

www.ChristinaHue.com

Is Money A Necessity?

2007-05-01T16:04:00.000+08:00

Have we ask ourselves this question; how much money does one need?

Money is always and has been a big deal in our society. It buys us what we need and what we want. It defines who we are.

Most teenagers depend primarily on their parents for support in terms of their house, food and even clothes. No matter where your money comes from, it’s a necessity need to get through the day.

It’s easy to overlook how much you spend during an ordinary day on things you don’t even think about – a can of coke, bus fare, and food. Little things add up; if you think about it you might find that you spend more than you realize.

We the teenagers occasionally think about what it would be like to move out of Mom & Dad house and get a place of our own. Wouldn’t it be great! A little apartment somewhere far from your parents place with nobody tell us what to do, to clean up our room and what time we need to be home and best of all to what we want.

Maybe life on our own is fantastic but it would be super expensive. What are the expenses we will incur if we support ourselves?

RENT - Take a look at the classified advertisement in the newspaper and find the section that lists properties (house & apartment) for rent. You will read something such as “2R 1 bath apt fully furnished for rent. Rental – $700.” Sounds cool, right. You can look for somewhere cheaper and but the place might not be so desirable.

FURNITURE - Assuming you wouldn’t want to rent with a fully furnished apartment. You‘ll need a furniture. Like a sofa, couple of chairs, a coffee table and maybe a TV. Of course you need a bed. All this will cost a thousand dollars. Fortunately there are a lot of used shops so you can get everything for maybe a Thousand.

PHONE & CABLE TV –Unless you want to walk to a pay phone, you need a telephone or a handphone. Cable TV is great but expensive. Figure about $50 a month for a basic package plus $100 to install it.

Electricity and water- Usually this is not included in the rent, we need to add this cost of living.

OTHER STUFF –Sheets and blankets for the bed, towels, a couple of lamps, dishes to eat from, silverware, pots and pans, some glasses, toilet paper, toothpaste… you need a lot of stuff and it will cost money.

These are only some of the cost if you live on your own. There are other important to think about like food, clothing, entertainment, etc.

Now, think about it and ask ourselves does it cost us a lot if we live on our own?

Your teen financial consultant

Christina

www.realsmarteens.com

The Importance of Financial Education

2007-04-07T22:49:00.000+08:00

Education is not restricted to school. Reading and training are part of your education. Set your mind to making money and you will succeed. Right now you have no idea how much money you will make in your life so don’t put any limitations on it. Get into the habit of building a positive image about money,

It may seem a silly thing to do but the results may impress you. Thoughts are things put them to use for you. Think good thoughts and good things will happen

Recently I read a very interesting book from two famous authors; Donald J. Trump and Robert Kiyosaki called Why We Want You to Be Rich. Both of these gurus feel that lack of financial education is the cause of the world economic problem.

In this book he shares about vision that most people never see. Both of them share what they think and why they think the way they do, through their eyes you will gain additional insight how one can improve your financial future.

Your education fund is the first priority in your goal setting we want to give you a tip on how to make it grow. Once you have set up an account with either your local bank you need to plan how to put money into it.

One of the best ways is make deals with your parents. Tell them college is a big dream of yours and that each month you are going to put $20 into your account. Ask them to match it. Your parents will like that you are helping pay for your education and it shows that you are willing to work for it, suddenly you are getting twice as much money and your account is growing faster than it otherwise.

In the first year you will put $400 into your account and with interest you could have saved over $500 at the end of the year.

Financial education is very important to everyone who wants to seek a better life at a time when we all need to be financially equipped for the future we face.

Your Teen Buddy
Christina

www.RealSmarTeens.com

The power of money

2007-03-23T22:45:00.000+08:00

I was watching this movie on television the other day about this man who does whatever it takes to get money. To him money is power. He killed his own brother and even his wife to get what he wanted. This man didn’t allow anything or anyone to stop him.

Money is a source of power and status. People who make a lot of money also have a lot of money to spend. We always considered this to be a powerful people. A lot of money allows people to control other people as well.

Do we as parents realize that at an early age that kids recognize that having money to spend provides them with a feeling of power? It allows them to take control of a situation.

Teens learn this feeling of power from adults when they observe parents showing off their purchases or talking to neighbours about their new BMW. Teens quickly associate money with success and power.

Who are the most powerful people in the world? Bill Gates? President George Bush? Take a look at the well respected business magazine, Forbes. Each year Forbes releases a list of Top CEOs: Corporate Most Powerful People. The list is based on how much money each CEO makes during the preceding year.

Do you know that not all powerful people are rich; some have been very poor. Like our dear Mother Theresa, the nun who worked tirelessly to care for the world’s poorest and most desperate people. She did all these as it came from her courage and conviction and most importantly from the love of her heart.

So does money and power goes hand in hand? Is money powerful? What do we want to tell our teens? Let’s give a good thought about this.

Your teen buddy
Christina
www.RealSmarTeens.com

Want & Need

2007-03-19T00:48:00.000+08:00

During one of our recent camp our students were taught the topic about Want & Need. All of them were enlightened after our camp as they know what are their want and need.

What is a Need?
In Wikipedia it is define as “A need is the psychological feature that arouses an organism to action toward a goal and the reason for the action, giving purpose and direction to behavior” . To put it simply a need is something that you have to have.

What is a Want?

This is how it is defined in Wikipedia, “A want is something desired, distinct from a need which is something that is necessary”. A Want is something that you would like to have.

Most teenagers spend their money on things that they want rather than on things they need. This is because we as the parents have been providing their basic needs for them. Today teens do not have to worry about most their needs and they probably get a lot of help in their wants too.

When our basic needs are satisfied, we tend to escalate wants into needs. For example if we haven’t had a meal for three days because you have no money to buy food, you absolutely know that a food is a need and the latest CD isn’t. But if we get food everyday and never have to think about being hungry, you probably will put great importance on the CD.

To me there’s nothing wrong with buying things we want as long as we do it moderately and keep it to a reasonable limit and keep our spending habits in perspective.

Let us think carefully about what we want and need. You will realize that most of the things we say we need are really things that we can live without.

Make a list of everything you think you need at this particular time. Then go over each item and really ask yourself if it’s a need or a want. Chances are you’ll discover the majority of the items on your lists are wants and not needs.

Thank you.

Christina Hue
www.RealSmarTeens.com

Teaching the value of money in this festive season

2007-02-19T23:16:00.000+08:00

Gong Xi Fatt Chai. Today is the second day of the Lunar New Year. This is a festive season which is celebrated in most Asia countries especially in

China

This celebration marks a new year to the Chinese calendar.

During this festive celebration, the children would be the most happy as they will be receiving a red packet called ‘hong bao”. What is ‘hong bao’? This red packet contains money inside which is given during Chinese New Year, weddings, birthdays or any other auspicious events.

Why the red packet must be red? The purpose of the red packet is that the red symbolizes good luck and prosperity.

The cash amount contained is not important but the amount contained has to be in even numbers. The numbers are auspicious and odd numbers are perceived as loneliness. Usually those who are married can only give out “hong bao”. Any unmarried person is eligible regardless of age.

I believe that during this Chinese New Year it is also a good time to teach children to appreciate the meaning of our traditional values. We as parents must teach them the significant of the “hong bao” .

The amount value is not important. I have seen children open up the ‘hong bao’ and say to the parents that the amount inside is very small. It is not whether they receive $20 or even $2. Children must know the custom of receiving “hong bao” as it signifies good wishes and good fortune.

It is also a good time to teach the children to give. Teach them the joy of giving and sharing. Bring them to the orphanage or any charity homes, ask the children to use part of their “hong bao” money to buy some gifts to give and share. It makes them realize where they are and how fortunate they are to have what we have.

This Chinese New Year is a good time to teach the children that money is a valuable tool that can use to help others. By giving part of their ‘hong bao” it can make someone else happy.

We can teach the values of money to our children in any occasion. As long it is fun the children will always learn better.

Gong Xi Fatt Chai to all who celebrate this festive season. Happy collecting 'hong bao' and Happy learning.

Christina Hue

www.RealSmarTeens.com

Principles to Engage Teenager's interest in financial literacy

2007-02-07T02:02:00.000+08:00

How the three principles that I have share the last time help you in engaging your teen’s interest in financial literacy?
Below are the other three principles that help to engage or re-engage teens in the interest of financial literacy strategies.

This principle teaches us that we must talk to the kids in the interest of their financial ideas and not ours. When trying to motivate children to learn don’t think about what you want. Think about what they want and help them get it by offering them opportunities and options.

Be prepared to relinquish power or delegate whenever possible or in other words throw the teens a challenge. For safety, you have to be careful what decisions you allow them to make and how far down the wrong path you’ll let them go before they get into trouble. But if you can stand the nerves, let them set off in the wrong directions for a while before they discover for themselves that your experience would have saved them

Be genuine and keenly interested in sharing great new financial tips with your family and when your children come to you with new ideas, return their excitement. Treat the negative experiences as learning opportunities.

I do hope that the 6 principles that I have shared will help you to create your teen’s interest in financial literacy. These principles will help you to engage your teens as our own parents weren’t able to pass their financial knowledge and skill base to us.

Please do not feel embarrassed about having holes in our own financial literacy because you’ll be learning new things from your teens as they progress through each challenge. It is my hope that this discovery with your teenagers will help you rediscover your own aspiration for financial literacy.

The important thing in learning is that you must HAVE FUN!

Till my next sharing. Have Fun

Christina
www.RealSmarTeens.com

EngagingTeens Interest in Financial Literacy

2007-01-22T15:07:00.001+08:00

This is just the beginning of year 2007, what are the plans you have for your kids that you can educate them about financial literacy?

Times are now different as parents are shaking their heads at the differences between themselves and the children which we called generations! The generation gap is fast becoming a generation lap as our kids or maybe our grandchildren overtake us in the information they have at their fingertips.

The processing skills, especially using the internet, are one key element that sets us apart, sometimes the differences between adults and kids are rarely radical as you think.

A teen faces many of the same dilemmas as us in making their own financial decisions and consumer decisions based on research.

As parents we need to recognize the learning process of each child so that we can work on them individually. Each of our children is unique. I have some learning strategy that I always remember which I am sure some of you have learnt but didn’t apply it to their lives. We can take these principles to help our children to engage their interest in financial literacy.

The guru I am talking about is none other than Dale Carnegie. I got these principles from his bestseller “How to win friends and influence people”. Below are the principles I gather that help to engage or re-engage teens in the interest of financial literacy

Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Criticism to a teen that is learning a new concept will always boomerang back, because a child switches to a defense mode instead of staying open to new ideas. So avoid criticism, condemnation and complaints wherever possible when teaching financial principles to your children

Give honest, sincere appreciation. Reward correct decisions of financial behaviour (especially the small achievements in the case of beginner) by giving honest, sincere appreciation whenever it’s warranted. At the same time keep an open eye to help discourage bad habits from forming. This fundamental principle can be used for training everything.

Arouse the teens an eager to learn. Don’t force any finance idea down your children throats. Much better to back off if you experience problems and let them discover ideas for themselves by:-

a) putting them in positions where they need to handle cash or make purchasing decisions as regular as possible

b) leaving book marked books or open newspaper with useful information lying around where they likely to find them

What do you think of the above principles? I will share with you the other 3 principles in my next blog.

Till next time. Happy engaging your time with your teens

Christina

http://www.realsmarteens.com/

Moral of the Story

2007-01-13T00:36:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year and may this wonderful year 2007 brings you more ideas to teach your children with Smart Money Habits.

So what is the moral you can use to teach your kids from the ancient story that I last wrote in my previous articles.

Alright,let me share with you, the moral of the story are:-

Never drool over the advantages that others seem to have, just do the best you can with whatever you can gather.
Is best to teach your kids to fish than to give them a fish.

In this 2007, what are the plans you have for your kids that you can educate them about financial literacy?

Share some ideas with me by giving me a comments at this blog.

Till next posting.

Christina
www.realsmarteens.com

Giving Cash Vs Giving Knowledge

2006-12-30T23:08:00.000+08:00

Many parents would want to give their children cash and knowledge if they can afford it but there are others who desire one or the other. To me this is a decision you have to make for each of your child individually considering their character and personality.

Here I would like to share an old moral story that I have read and some of you I am sure will remember this story too.

This is a story of “The Old Merchant and The Two Bags of Wealth”.

A rich old merchant had two sons which both wanted to take over the family business. So the merchant decided to give each of them a bag of wealth and sent them out to the world with instructions to use the contents to grow wealthier and prove which of them was the worthier.

The first bag was filled with gold and the first son took it and ran out into the world. The second son took the second bag and was surprised that it was empty. He begged his father to know why his brother had been granted a bag filled with gold.

The rich old merchant consoled his son that he loved both his children equally and explained how the bag had already taught its first lesson of business that is to seek understanding in the process of filling it. The merchant then spent the week sharing lessons of his experience in business and then sent his second son off to the world. He quickly hurried of to catch up with his brother who had the bag of gold.

At the end of the year, the first son returned home as a beggar with his clothes torn, his feet bare and his body dirty and thin and looking hungry and weak.

“What have you done with the bag of gold I have given you” asked his father. The son fell on his knees and wept.

“You didn’t give me enough, he replied. “I started well, spending the first half to set myself up with a fine house and many camels, but then I lost everything to poor investments, bad merchants and disreputable money lenders.”

Then the second son came home with a herd of camels trailing behind and his empty bag now full of gold and each camel carrying more gold, treasure and gemstones.

So the first child ran to his brother and begged to know what had been inside the second bag, and the younger man emptied the gold into his father’s lap as a gift, than tossed the empty bag to his brother.

What is the moral you can get from this story that you can share with your children?

Is this the best time you share this story with your children? Don't you think this is the best time to teach our children smart money habits?

Will share with you more what I have learnt from this ancient story in my next posting.

Happy New Year!

www.RealSmarTeens.com

Teens Financial Literacy

2006-12-18T20:37:00.001+08:00

Don’t Forget To Teach Your Children About Financial Literacy!

Financial intelligence says by Robert Kiyosaki is not about how much money we can make: it’s more about how much we can save and how hard that money works for us.

Why do some people who do not attend university have been successfully? It is because they know how to manage their finances well. Many who made lots of money have become bankrupt because of bad money habits.

We as Asian parents think that talking about money is a taboo subject and will ‘pollute’ their children’s innocent minds. We make our choice and face the consequences.

Asian parents always think that they want to provide and protect their children, but the day will come when they must provide for themselves. When our children grow up they must know how to live within their mean, grow their money and extend help to those in need. This is an essential skill of life and good financial management needs to be taught.

Can all this knowledge come in a day? No it doesn’t. Lifetime habits need to be inculcated. Who is then the best teacher to teach children about money?

The answer is of course we as PARENTS.

If you think that financial education should be left to schools then perhaps we as parents should think again about this topic!

WHY? The process of becoming financial literate is actually a lifelong process that starts before our children enter schools. It comes in proportion to experiences gained outside a school environment and continues well after graduation day into adulthood and even into retirement.

Schools and financial seminars only help to supplement and reinforce what has been taught at home. We as parents are the ONLY people in a position to provide consistency to the learning curve for our children.

Today, children have access to more resources and more things to buy with those resources. The advertisements proclaiming the coolest toy in town and brand power is exerted on young minds. Not forgetting peer pressure. Both this combination of forces are going to distort a young person’s sense of values.

We as parents forget to guide our children well in the ability to make money as we focus on our daily activities to send our children to numerous tuition class so that they can enter good university to get a good degree and of course a good job.

The important lesson as parents we forget is the need to focus on managing the money earned that is how to save, preserve and grow it wisely.

Do you realize that many people who are wealthy today are not necessary people with large incomes or inheritance but those who save and invest well and spend wisely?

Most youngsters today are ill-prepared for the financial responsibilities awaiting them in adulthood. Now’s the time to teach them lessons you only wish you had known at their age.

How about you? Tell what do you think?

Cheers!

http://www.realsmarteens.com/

Financial Intelligence

2006-12-08T21:43:00.000+08:00

A child’s most important teachers are his parents. Children learn by watching what we do more than what we say. So I must walk my talk, continue to read and learn about money, finance, spend money consciously and live a simple lifestyle.

We as Asian parents think that talking about money is a taboo subject and will ‘pollute’ their children’s innocent minds. We make our choice and face the consequences.

I feel that financial literacy is a life long process. It should start before children enter schools. No matter how much effort is put into formal methods of financial education in schools, we as parents should put consistency effort in providing the learning curve to our children.

Even we are rich or poor, we must always teach our children 'how to fish than give them a fish'. Therefore, we must take action of what we should do now or our children will be left behind. It is very important to educate our children the financial literacy that our parents have never taught us. We learnt from our mistakes so don't let our children learnt the same mistakes we have made.

Do you have anything financial story to share? Please leave a comments and tell me what do you think?

Rich Kid Poor Kid

2006-11-30T21:40:00.000+08:00

I remember reading Rich Kid Poor Kid by Robert Kiyosaki and he stated that most children learn better by playing games. So when is actually the best time to teach kids about smart money habits? I feel that we start teaching money as a life skill as early as their pre school years. But you know your children better than anyone else.

However, Robert Kiyosaki advises that we should not let our children think that they are entitiled to an allowance. Instead, teach them to view the allowance as earned compensation for the completion of certain tasks or responsibilities.

I teach children about saving by introducing them the ‘Three Jars system’. One is for quick change, from which they can take money out and spend it on whatever they want. The second jar is for medium term savings, in which they save for a larger purchase.

And of course the last jar is for long term savings, that is for their college or tertiary education. This will teach them delay gratification and get them into the habit of saving.

Teenager Money Habit

2006-09-17T22:13:00.000+08:00

Is your teens spending money wisely? Do you know how to educate your children smart money habit? How to instil good financial habits in children?

As parents, we want to provide and protect our children. Eventually, the day will come when they must provide for themselves. Children must know how to live within their means, grow their money and extend hep to those in need. All these habits doesn't happen in a day. Habits must be inculcated.

How about you as a parents ,tell me what do you think?