How to Talk Money with your Kids

You’ve doled out for years. That’s part of the job description of being a parent.

But at some point, you have to wean your kids off the bank of Mom and Dad.  Before you do that, in fairness to them, you have to have the money talk.  How it works. How to manage. How to respect it. Teach your kids how to FISH!

In this episode of Sara Makes Sense, host Sara McCullough talks to teens about dollars and cents. 

 Got a question for Sara? Send her an email at ask@saramakessense.ca and she might respond to it in an upcoming episode

Sara's website is https://www.wddevelopment.ca/ 

Transcript

Sara McCullough (00:01):

Yeah, <laugh>, I'm completely not ready. So let's do this thing.

Sara McCullough (00:07):

<laugh>

Sara McCullough (00:13):

Kids these days, every generation thinks the one behind them is more irresponsible than they ever were and they just don't get it. And they take things for granted and they just don't understand what's important.  In this episode of Sarah makes sense. I'm talking to kids about money And one of the kids is mine. So in that part, you're going to hear Doug talking to my kid because I wanted to get his actual answers, not the answers he would give his mom.

In this episode of Sara Makes Sense you're going to hear three different conversations with three different kids, about all kinds of things about money. First up is Carol, Doug's 16-year-old daughter. For those of you who've been listening for a while and have got good memories, you might remember that Doug does my sound. So I had a chance to talk to Carol. She has had a job for about two weeks. It's her first job, and she's got some really exciting goals. So how would you say, like how comfortable would you say you feel with money in general?

Carol (01:45):

Uh, I'd say a little bit. Not too much. Not like not too little.

Sara McCullough (01:49):

Okay. Do you think about it much?

Carol  (01:53):

Uh, I mean, probably more so now that I've started work, I'm like comparing things, um, like more prices and stuff to how much I'm making.

Sara McCullough (02:02):

Okay. Right. So now it, all of a sudden kind of gives you like a, a sense of wait, I made this in the shift and I would have to pay this. Okay,

Carol (02:13):

Exactly. Yeah.

Sara McCullough (02:14):

<laugh> I had one of my clients a number of years ago. He got his first job when he was 18. Yeah. And it was a good job. I mean, he was making, this was probably about 15 years ago, so in, in today's dollars, he kind of walked into a job making about $30 an hour.

Carol (02:36):

Oh yeah. That's pretty good.

Sara McCullough (02:38):

Exactly. Yeah. And so he, when he first got the job, he left me a message on my voicemail because I missed his call. He was so excited. He forgot to tell me his name. He forgot all of that. So all I heard was this message from somebody saying I got a job and I need to get into see you because I am going to make so much money this summer.

Sara McCullough (02:59):

Yeah.

Sara McCullough (02:59):

And I finally figured out who it was, so I called him back. Um, but by the time he got in for the appointment, he had gotten his first paycheck and he says to me, he was so crushed. He got into my office and he said, do you know how much they take off for taxes?

Carol (03:16):

Oh,

Sara McCullough (03:17):

And yeah, it was a factory job. So he was, he had union dues. He had all these other things that, that got subtracted off what he made. He said, I'm not going to make as much as I thought this summer. <laugh> yeah. It was such a shock to him. <laugh>

Carol (03:34):

Yeah, that would be

Sara McCullough (03:36):

<laugh>. And I think he would've said before that, that he was really comfortable with money. Yeah. And, and he knew a lot. So have you, do you talk to your parents about money?

Carol (03:49):

Um, not that much. No.

Sara McCullough (03:52):

Do you ever have, like, do they ever try to do the parent thing where they like sit you down and explain money?

Carol (04:01):

Uh, I don't know if they've ever done that. I feel like it's just been little bits and I like know quite a few things.

Sara McCullough (04:07):

Okay. Do you ever feel like, um, you can kind of catch them worrying about money or thinking about money even when that's not what they're talking about?

Carol (04:19):

I think so. Yeah. Yeah. I think I pick up on it.

Sara McCullough (04:22):

<laugh> is there anything you can kind of pin down that tells you that that's actually what they're thinking, even when that's not what they're saying.

Carol (04:33):

It's just kinda like, if I see them sitting down together and like looking at a bunch of papers and they look maybe a little stressed over things and they go quiet when one of us walks in.

Sara McCullough (04:45):

Ah, yeah. Right. <laugh> okay. Do you think, so, do you think adults in general are obsessed with money?

Carol (04:58):

Um, I think it really depends on the person, but I think probably more as you get older, when you have to worry about things like that. Cause like, for me, I don't have to worry about money right now. It's just like, it's nice to have to like buy some clothes, buy some food or like, if I'm going to go out with friends, but like my parents still have to worry about like taxes, feeding their kids, feeding themselves, like the house, like all of these things.

Sara McCullough (05:23):

Okay. So you feel like even though you're working and that's new and you've kind of, even in a really short time had that switch of now you're looking at what things cause versus what you bring in. Yeah. You're not really feeling like it's, it's a stressor for you right now.

Carol (05:41):

Not yet, but I think once I get older, it will be.

Sara McCullough (05:45):

Okay. Can you see a time that you would be more worried? Like, is there anything that you want to do now that you kind of think I don’t know if I am going to have the money to do that.

Carol (05:58):

Um, well, my school offers a year up trip that they might be running next year because with COVID it got shut down and I really wanted to do that, but it would be a lot of money. And so I'd have to probably start saving now. And I don't know if I could even do it then.

Sara McCullough (06:17):

Okay.

Carol (06:18):

But that's something I I've wanted to do since I found out about it a few years ago.

Sara McCullough (06:23):

Oh, fun.

Carol (06:24):

Yeah.

Sara McCullough (06:25):

So now this is, this is maybe an unfair question because you have just started working.

Carol (06:31):

Okay.

Sara McCullough (06:32):

Can you think of the most expensive thing you've ever bought for yourself? Like even if you didn't pay for it, was there anything that you were maybe surprised that you got, that you asked for and got like, has there been any surprise Christmas presents or things that wow, I didn't think my parents would do that.

Carol (06:52):

Yeah. I mean, I have a phone and my parents have bought that. So I guess that's something that comes to mind. But also, probably a few years ago I used to take piano lessons and they bought me like a keyboard. I don't know how much that is, but to me that seemed like a huge expense, like buying a keyboard, a piano.

Sara McCullough (07:13):

Yeah. Okay. Do you ever talk to your friends about money?

Carol (07:20):

Uh, not really. Okay. No.

Sara McCullough (07:24):

Could you name something that you learned from your parents about money? Like is there one thing that kind of stands out?

Carol (07:34):

Um, they've always told me to like, be careful with my money and you know, not spend it all on stupid things and things that won't be worth something in the future and like just pace it out and save some and spend not as much.

Sara McCullough (07:49):

Okay. Okay. Does it feel like that's something that you know how to do that? So you kind of know what they want you to do? Does it feel like you know how to do that?

Carol (08:06):

I think so. Like even since I was little, like if I got like birthday money. I've like never spent it. I still have most of it. Okay. I don't know what I want to spend it on. And like my brothers they'll like spend it right away on like video games or food or something and I just saved it for years. Okay. I don't even know what.

Sara McCullough (08:27):

Okay. Well, I mean maybe a Europe trip.

Carol  (08:30):

Yeah. 

Sara McCullough (08:30):

Maybe, maybe you do know <laugh> yeah. So it sounds like you do really kind of think things through just not even, not even specifically connected to money, but kind of just the way you make decisions, you sound like you're maybe a little bit, your brothers might jump into something, but you would maybe..

Carol (08:53):

I'd like to think about it.

Sara McCullough (08:55):

Okay. Okay.

Carol (08:56):

Yeah. Weigh the pros and cons of it.

Sara McCullough (08:59):

Yep. Yeah. I think that's interesting because sometimes we think that money is just, you know, numbers on a page or kind of like math and that, that we sometimes, I think expect ourselves to deal with it differently than we deal with all of the other decisions that we make in our lives. Right. And I think, it's so interesting that that your brothers will spend the birthday money and you will yeah. Will let it be <laugh>. Yeah.

Carol (09:32):

I just, I don't know. I just like to save it.

Sara McCullough (09:35):

Okay. Does it, does it feel kind of good having it, knowing that it's in the bank account? Does that kinda

Carol (09:43):

Give you definitely. Okay. Just knowing that like in case something happens, I, I can cover it, hopefully.

Sara McCullough (09:49):

Okay. Yeah. All right. So it feels a little bit like a, like a blanket, like a little bit safer. Okay.

Carol  (09:57):

<laugh> yeah. Like a weights off my shoulder. <laugh> I have something there.

Sara McCullough (10:01):

Yeah. All right. So no big purchases planned then even with the job?

Carol (10:11):

Uh, not really. No. Okay. Probably just going to save most of it still.

Sara McCullough (10:16):

Okay. All right. Yeah. If there was one thing that you wished you knew about money, what do you think that would be?

Carol (10:26):

Um, oh, I've had this explained to me so many times, but like the difference in values between currencies,

Sara McCullough (10:34):

Like okay.

Carol (10:35):

American versus Canadian, like, I don't know. It just confuses me how there's different values.

Speaker 3 (10:42):

Yes mm-hmm

Speaker 4 (10:43):

<affirmative>

Sara McCullough (10:44):

Yeah. And I think that one, um, honestly, Carol, it confuses most people. Yeah. <laugh> and you can actually, I know this for sure, because you can actually make a career out of trading between different currencies and you can actually kind of make money as you're going back and forth. Oh, so it's yeah. So what I'm saying, if adults who watch money all day long, can't figure out which direction each of them are going. Yeah. And if you can guess, right. You get to make money. I'm saying it is no problem at all. Yeah. You look at it. Right. And that's a whole, it's so interesting because that question is really, it is about money but the reason there's the different values is because we've got different countries who have different government systems and we kind of place different values on it. Yeah. Do you know what I mean?

Carol (11:41):

Yeah. No, that makes sense. Like,

Sara McCullough (11:43):

Yeah. And so a lot of it again is not about the numbers. It's about how do we feel, how stable do we think that country is, right. Yeah. So it's, it's almost the same as, you know, if your friend wants to borrow a sweatshirt, if she's not a very reliable friend, you're not going to let her borrow press sweatshirt. Cause you're not going to see it again. <laugh> yeah. 

Carol, That makes sense. Yeah. It's kinda like that. Yeah. <laugh>

Sara McCullough.  In the second conversation. You're going to hear my son, Hugh talking to Doug, because you don't want to talk to your mom about these things when it's being recorded. So Hugh is 20. He's been both working and been entrepreneurial for quite a while. And so you're going to hear his take on money purchases and things in between.

Doug (12:54):

Hugh. How are you?

Hugh (12:55):

Oh, I'm doing okay. How are you?

Doug (12:56):

Good, good. Uh, thanks for joining. I, um, I have a few questions here for you about money if that's okay. So money is involved, but it's not involved if you know what I mean.

Hugh (13:07):

Exactly. First

Doug (13:08):

First question. Is money important?

Hugh (13:12):

I think money is always important, obviously to everyone is differently important. I think it's always most important though, if you don't have enough, um, otherwise it becomes somewhat irrelevant, at some point, but I think definitely, yeah, always important, but depends on where you are and how you're sitting in life.

Doug (13:34):

Do you think there's a point like where I get it? If, if people don't have money, that's a problem, but do you think there's a point where people who have money, they don't really need more.

Hugh (13:45):

oh, a hundred Percent. A hundred percent.

Doug (13:47):

Yeah. Why did, why do you think they're driven to have more? Is it just simply more power?

Hugh (13:52):

Power control, being able to appear the way they want to, live the lifestyle that they want to, things relating to that. I feel like,

Doug (14:03):

So what about saving? Cause that's a part of it, especially when you're young, um, unless you're born into money. You're not going to really come into it until later when there's an estate involved and all that stuff. But what do you know about saving?

Hugh (14:19):

I think everyone's definitely taught very young, you know, save, save, save. But then you realize that with inflation and with the fact that if you do just save all your money, you're going to be losing money because of inflation, if it's just an end of bank account most of the time. So I think definitely if you have issues with money, saving is always the first step, because if you're living paycheck to paycheck, obviously cutting your spending, looking into saving some of it before you invest is always the first step. But I think a lot of people, get past that step without knowing it. And then just keep saving, not knowing that maybe putting it into something like a mutual fund or something more long term is going to do a lot more than just saving it because endlessly saving your money is going to lose you money because of inflation.

Doug (15:09):

I totally agree. Totally agree. but do you do it like, of course I you're talking to talk, do you walk the walk?

Hugh (15:15):

Of course, of course. So I think everyone, you know, you make a bank account, they ask, oh, you want to $10 from every, from every, every paycheck, every time you get money, do you want that to go into your savings account? I think that's a great idea. I think something small like that, adds up and always keeps you on track. But I think also having, you know, your mutual fund, having the same thing where you're, where you're having a monthly or a per paycheck, contribution to your mutual fund or whatever investment long term type you're looking at is I think a way better idea. you're just simply not going to make interest always off that savings account unless you are.

Doug (15:56):

So, so how much of this did you learn on your own and, and how much, you know, what of your parents, and in this case, at least one of your parents I think is pretty financially savvy <laugh>

Hugh (16:06):

Yeah, so both of my parents did come from being, retired stock brokers. So they are very literate financially and do know a lot more than, than most parents I feel like. but it also does come from, , I have a mindset that I like to learn and like to grow. And I'm a person who likes to do more when I'm doing more than do less. I don't think of myself as a lazy person. So I think definitely, I learned from a young age that, you know, there's always better ways, to use your money. There's always better ways to spend your money. You know that a lot of people use their money in maybe not the most effective ways, if that makes sense.

Doug (17:01):

It does think back to when you were a lot younger, you know, when you were 10 or younger and, and when your parents first started trying to talk to you about money, did you want to hear about it or was it incredibly boring?

Hugh (17:17):

I think it was extremely interesting to me because I have always, always liked cars and cars got expensive and I liked cool cars when I was young. So I was like, you know, I can put two and two together that cars cost a lot of money. And that learning about money earlier is always a good idea. And they always had, I wasn't someone who always got like an, I always got a small allowance. I wasn't someone who just, went out and asked my parents if they could buy me this, it was always, they would kind of talk to other parents and say, oh, you know, we brought the kid out and they, they spent this much money and they said, okay, well let's give them that money and they can learn how to, how to be mature and learn how to deal with that money.

Doug (18:04):

Do you think sometimes, you know, the question is, as I've got written here is do you think adults are obsessed with money, but, but I want to rephrase it. Are there just the people obsessed with money Sometimes?

Hugh (18:15):

I think, I think it's healthy to have a small, maybe not obsession, but a knowledge of money. I think you, I think that is correct. A lot of people are way over the top with how they think about money, how they think they can, use their money. When if you look at, you know, if you were to look through all of their financial statements, all their paychecks, they, those people that are obsessed with money, aren't always the people that, I would trust with my money, if that makes sense.,

Doug (18:46):

<affirmative>,

Hugh(18:47):

Mm-hmm, <affirmative> because I it's a slippery slope, you know,

Doug (18:51):

What's the most expensive thing that you've bought yourself.

Hugh (18:56):

Most expensive thing I've bought myself. I bought myself a 2015 BMW for around $45 or $50,000.

Doug (19:07):

Oh, <laugh> when was that?

Hugh (19:10):

So that was right before my 19th birthday. That was May 15th of last year.

Doug (19:14):

So what did it feel like signing the document that like pledged your life <laugh>,

Hugh (19:19):

paying for

Doug (19:20):

This car?

Hugh (19:22):

So I did pay cash for it, so I, it kind of, I have goals for myself and I never, ever want to be in debt. That was one of my big goals in life. Obviously, I'm going to get a mortgage, obviously I'm going to, there's going to be places where I have debt. That's kind of inevitable because everyone has a mortgage. It was definitely, it was a, it was a weird feeling, because I feel like I definitely did rush it to some degree. I definitely did not need that car. I already had a very nice BMW. So it was, I'm not it's, I'm not sure how to really answer that. It was a lot of different, different feelings at once. Definitely.

Doug  (20:09):

Yeah. It's like a surge of power and yet yeah. It's someone, you weren't going into debt. Yeah. But it's a similar feeling because you were erasing some capital

Hugh (20:19):

<laugh> exactly. Oh, era. A lot of capital. Yeah.

Doug (20:22):

<laugh> yeah. I get that. So value. How, how would you define the term value?

Hugh (20:30):

The term value. I think a lot of people get wrapped up because they base their value off what others see. And that also relates to a lot of financial issue because you really don't need that expensive sports car or those expensive clothes or things like that. I think you should always keep your value, um, to yourself and how you value yourself and always compare yourself to yourself and how you were previously because other people are other people and they're living a different life. So I think defining the word value comes down to you evaluating yourself and how you were, let's say a year, six months, three months, a month, two days ago. And then looking at yourself now and saying, have I gained more value? Have I, have I lost value? Has my life, my quality of life increased, decreased. What do I look at it from that perspective?

Doug (21:24):

I am going to put you on the spot with this one a little bit. I hope that's okay. Okay. You're smart with money. I know your parents, are smart with money. Where do you disagree?

Hugh (21:35):

Where do we disagree? There was definitely a time over quarantine where because my mom is very, I'm not going to say very non-risk taker, but she doesn't, if she could choose less risk over more risk, she would do it.  Me, unfortunately I'm more high risk. So there were times over quarantine that I was day trading on the stock market. When was all those huge moves and I was making options trades that were definitely insanely risky that could have gone horrible. And I'd be like, Hey, I did this. And she'd be like, what the, what the hell are you doing? <laugh> this is horrible. And I'd show her, I'd show her, I'd show her, I'd show her this. And she'd be like, no, this is, and that maybe only happened once or twice, but definitely I think most mostly me and my mom, stick on the same page because I stick to making my set-in stone contributions that every paycheck, I put this into savings, but I put this in a mutual fund and that is that. She also isn't super up my ass, always controlling. And she has never been that mom. She lets me make my own decisions and mistakes because there were definitely times that I made that trade and I was like, mom, you were right. This went horrible. Um, but

Doug (22:58):

Were there equal number of times that she was wrong and it went right.

Hugh (23:01):

I think I only maybe showed her or talked to her about a couple of them and I wish I could remember more of how those situations went. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was about two for three where I was like, I'm going to put money in this and she's like, no, that's horrible. And she'd like, she'd look at me. Like I have said the most crazy thing ever. And I think it went wrong once and went right twice from me telling her.

Doug (23:27):

Okay. And then the positive side to this is what's the most important thing that you have learned from your parents about money? 

Hugh (23:35):

The most important thing, I think people forget that when you spend that money, it actually leaves your account and you don't have that money anymore. And you see a lot of memes about that of, you know, oh, I bought this, I bought this and then, oh, my seeing the actual money come out of my account. That is a huge thing because people think they look at their account and they see they have more money than they did a week ago. And they think they're a millionaire now, or they think that they're rich now. So that's completely incorrect. I think my parents and especially my mom, because I don't know a ton about my father’s financial. My mom definitely has an extremely minimalist, uh, mindset and spending habit. And I mean, like I went to a butcher shop last week and spent maybe five or 10 more dollars on meat than we would've at Walmart. And she like gave me a crazy look because of that. Oh wow. And that's how minimalist and, frugal she is when it comes to her money,

Doug (24:37):

She had a beef with that.

Hugh (24:39):

It's extreme beef extreme. It was insane. Geez and luckily, you know, we made it work and now we go to a butcher shop every week

Sara McCullough (24:55):

For our third conversation. I'm talking to Owen, Doug's oldest son. So Owen is 18. He's been working for a little bit even while he was in school part-time and he has made a few big purchases. And at the end of our conversation, you're going to hear Owen's big idea about money. Okay. So I don't know what your dad told you, but money, thoughts,

Owen (25:29):

Money, thoughts. Yeah. He told me I'd be answering financial questions.

Sara McCullough(25:34):

Yeah. I mean, I <laugh> right. Everybody's face kind of looks like that. You should see my clients

Owen (25:40):

<laugh>

Sara McCullough (25:41):

I think, you know, for me, it's one of those things that we have such a, a tough relationship with something that we at the same time think is just numbers. So we kind of think like, how come I can't figure this out. I think everybody else can do this better than me, but then I think we do have this like desire to want to figure it out because part of us knows we can use it to get the stuff we want or, or to get the life we want. And, and we, it's so hard to get those things kind of together. So, like, do you, do you think about money? Worry about money?

Owen (26:27):

I mean, I'm 18 now. My plan is to leave the house, hopefully. So yeah, money is something I usually think about, every now and then it's not something that controls my every thoughts. I hope it doesn't control anyone's every thought.  It's something that's not, I guess, overly important to me. I know it will be once I leave the house, but right now it's something that doesn't control me that much.

Sara McCullough (26:58):

Okay. So when you think about like leaving your parents' house and getting your own place, is there, is there one thing in particular that kind of, stops you a little bit about thinking about living on your own and being independent?

Owen (27:17):

Yeah, all the, all the time, the whole money thing actually is the thing that's stopping me. Like constantly, because I know you need money for groceries, you need to be able to afford your taxes. You need to pay rent. Or if I get a mortgage, I have to pay that off. Phone bills, car insurance,

Sara McCullough (27:38):

All of a sudden you realize how many times you kind of touch money in a day.

Speaker 7 (27:43):

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah once it gets to that point, yeah. Money will be definitely something that's, hopefully will not be a big issue, but will be something that is definitely controlling some of my actions, which I guess that's, that's everyone sometimes. Right.

Sara McCullough (28:05):

I think it is. And I think we all have, you know, those, those dollar limits, right. We, we earn a set amount and you know, you kind of can't spend over that. But I think the other thing that I've found when I'm meeting with clients that stops them is they just don't understand what they have and what they can do with it. Right. So we do get in that mindset where, um, I don't have enough money and I think we feel like that because we're, we're kind of thinking, I don't understand if I spend this today, what happens to exactly

Owen (28:38):

Mm-hmm

Sara McCullough (28:39):

<affirmative> right. Okay. So do you feel like you can talk to your parents about money? Do you feel like you've had conversations?

Owen (28:50):

I have before, yes especially with Doug, or I guess my dad. Yeah. I think it's something I'm maybe not overly confident in doing, but at times I know, that I can, he and my mother definitely know a lot more about finances than I do right now. So it's, something I can talk to them about.

Sara McCullough (29:19):

Okay. And do you feel like when you have those conversations that are directly about money, do you feel like you get a sense of how they feel about money? Do you think they feel confident about their money and what they're doing?

Owen (29:36):

I get two different answers. okay. Maybe that's not something I should say over the microphone, but

Sara McCullough (29:41):

That's okay. I won't let him delete everything that you say that he doesn't like

Owen  (29:44):

<laugh>. Yeah. I feel like it depends on the person, that I talk to. It doesn't seem to be something that controls them. I know that we're at least somewhat stable. It's not something we're constantly beating ourselves up on trying to get. So it's, I, I think that goes for both of them. It's never usually too bad.

Sara McCullough (30:14):

Okay. Do you ever notice any other times where your parents aren't maybe talking to you directly about money, but they'll say something about some other thing and all of a sudden you realize, oh, you're really worried about money this week or, oh, you're not sure that we should have, so again, it's, it's not direct, but it's indirect, but it's clear to you. Yeah. Have you ever had those

Owen (30:39):

Moments? Yeah. Yes. quite a bit, okay. Quite a bit at times. I think that's hard that disguise for anyone though. I think it's pretty easy to tell when, like money is definitely a problem for someone, even when they try to hide it. It's usually you can, you can put the pieces together when someone puts them

Sara McCullough (30:59):

There, so. Okay. So have you, have you picked that up in conversations with people other than your parents? Oh

Owen (31:07):

Yeah.

Sara McCullough (31:07):

Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. So do you talk to your friends about money?

Owen (31:13):

I have before. Yeah.

Owen (31:16):

A lot of the friends I have are definitely like pretty, wealthy. They come from wealthy families, so, okay. normally the conversations I have with them is more like, what to do with excessive amounts. Like if they were millionaires, what would they do with their money if they had you, you know, never so much oh God, I can't, I'm not going to eat this week because my parents are out of work. I've never had that, luckily have that conversation with any of my friends. Okay. So that's a bonus in my opinion. Mm-hmm <affirmative> but yeah, just sort of mm-hmm

Sara McCullough (31:51):

<affirmative> mm-hmm <affirmative> so it sounds like you have these kind of theoretical, you know, if we won the lottery or I had a really good paying job and then I would, do you ever have any, kind of day to day, I would like to do this on the weekend, but I was also saving for this other thing and now I'm not sure what to do conversations <laugh>

Owen (32:18):

So yes and no. Okay. It's when I bought my first car, it was, it drained my bank account. Pretty heavily. And then it, it took some more money off of that afterwards as well. So, yeah, there were times where I was like, geez, I really want to do this, but I, I don't have any money. All of my money's going to my car. So that, that was pretty much it though. Nothing. Okay. Nothing too bad. Just interesting financial decisions on my part <laugh> happens.

Sara McCullough (32:55):

Cars will do that to you. I they, I think they kind of do it to everybody, but, men under 25, I think have a different kinda, I

Owen (33:07):

<laugh>, maybe I'm in that boat. There's an argument for that.

Sara McCullough (33:11):

Well, and I remember one of my, one of my first jobs as an advisor, I was doing a group savings plan. I was the advisor for the company and it was a high tech company. So a lot of the employees, it was their first job out of college. So a lot of them were kind of 24 to 26 kind of range. And I would be asking them about their expenses, and I would ask them if they had a car payment and then they would tell me, and I would, ask them about insurance and they would give me this number, you know, at the time that was kind of in the $300 range. And at first I would say, no, no, I didn't mean your car payment again. I meant your insurance payment. And they would say that is my insurance payment. Ah, right. Geez. That was kinda my first up close and personal with, with car insurance.

Owen (34:03):

Not fun, not fun, especially for minimum wage teenagers.

Sara McCullough (34:08):

Exactly. But it sounds like, so you did buy your own first okay. Was this, did it take you a while to save

Sara McCullough (34:18):

Did you know what you were looking for?

Owen (34:21):

So it was, I regret it now at the time I was like, really I was going to be dope. I'm going to have my, my own car. I drive myself to school. It's going to be sick. No, it was not it. Yeah.

Sara McCullough (34:34):

Not, not that feeling all the time on

Owen  (34:36):

<laugh> first, first month, first three was like, this is wicked. And then okay. I bought a, I bought it off my friend. It was a used car. It was a mini Cooper, so okay. She was banged up. Pretty good. Yeah. She was a 2003. So, she had some pretty bad problems. Like the coolant problems, the engine would smoke at times, not the engine. Sorry. The coolant would leak and it would hit the battery.

Sara McCullough (35:00):

Oh, right,

Owen  (35:00):

Right. And

Owen (35:01):

Then smoke would

Owen (35:01):

And then come up. Yeah. That probably sounded bad. Um, so

Sara McCullough (35:04):

Car was special effects mm-hmm

Owen (35:06):

<affirmative> yeah, it was real Hollywood <laugh> yeah. Good times. But yeah, definitely questionable decision, but learned my lesson. Hopefully we don't get smoked like that again.

Sara McCullough (35:20):

Yeah. I, you know, I think, I think sometimes we, we think there's a way to, to learn how to manage our money without making mistakes. And I'm just not sure that's true. I, I think everybody does it. Because I think again, like you just said, you did want the car, there were a lot of things about the car that you wanted and then you realized it came attached to all these other thingsokay. Yeah. Do you still have the car?

Owen (35:47):

No, I sold it. Okay. Goodbye.

Sara McCullough (35:50):

Did you, did you buy another one?

Owen  (35:53):

No, I, I probably won't for a while right now because I'm doing my best to save my money. I can guarantee you. I'm not the best at that. I'm not that mogul. I don't know the word for it. Mogul. It was mogul.

Speaker 3 (36:07):

Yeah. No money mogul today. No,

Owen (36:09):

Not I try, but

Sara McCullough(36:12):

<laugh> all right. If there's one thing that you could understand better about money, what would you say? That would be

Owen (36:25):

Good question. I guess I haven't, I haven't thought that much about it. If there was one question I would have about money, what would it be? I guess what we can do to allow everyone to have equal opportunity when it comes to money. I'm I know that money, like, luckily for me, it's never been a huge, huge issue, but I know for a lot of kids, I know it can be, especially a big problem. And I just like, I know it's not exactly fair to just strip like wealthy people of all their money so that people who may not like use it effectively will get it. I'm not saying everyone will be. I should probably watch my tone on that. maybe this isn't actually the question I'm trying to answer, but more, if there was a way we could use money to help benefit everyone, instead of it just being just a, just a few people.

Sara McCullough (37:25):

I hope those conversations have given you some idea of how to talk to your own kids about money, what your kids might think about money and maybe a little bit about how you want to relate to money. Because I think as Owen said, we can't hide it. We're not hiding it. So what would happen if we actually started to talk about it and maybe we could change not just our own relationship with money, but our family's relationship with money and we could change how we behave with our money and the choices we make. I think that's a pretty exciting conversation in life. We all have pieces scattered here and there. And that's true about the conversations that we've been having about money. And I think while that's going to continue to happen, I think it's so interesting to think about what would happen if we can start to bring those things together and be more deliberate about how we relate and how we talk about our money. From time to time, we need someone who can cut through the noise. Someone who not only gets to know you as a person, but also can really show and make sense of your financial plan, not just the numbers, but truly what the numbers mean for you. This relationship, this plan, it belongs to you, not your planner. I'm Sara McCullough, thank you for listening to Sara Makes Sense.

Disclaimer (39:08):

The information in this podcast is intended for general information and illustrative purposes. For advice relevant to your specific situation, meet with a qualified financial planner, lawyer or accountant before making any changes to your situation. Sara's designations and licensing include:  Certified Financial Planner, Registered Financial Planner, Certified Divorce, Financial Analyst and holding an insurance license.