So of course, I have to start off with a YouTube clip. It's about 10 minutes long, but you will be happy that you watched it. So here it is:
So on this blog, I'm going to be talking about my views on personal finance, fiscal responsibility, economics, and many money types of topics. So, I think it's important to start at the beginning about my early dealings with money. Let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
A Lawnmover
I've had many business ventures in my short time on this Earth. The fist one that I can recall was my lawn mowing business. It was an interesting business, because it only had one customer. She was our next door neighbor, I believe her name was Janet. My older brother started mowing her lawn when he was younger but then he moved on to bigger and better things. So I took the baton and started my first financial endeavor. I don't remember how long I did it for, I just remember that I had a bad collections process. Sometimes, she had to come to our house to give me my money. My guess was that I was too shy to ask for my payment. Silly kid I was.
A Shovel
So the lawn mowing business didn't last very long. You only can do it certain times of the year and my main customer eventually moved away. So I dealt with my first business closing. Had to lay myself off. So my next business venture was a partnership. When I was a youngster, I had a next door neighbor who I was very close with. So after a particularly bad snow storm, we had the day off school. So, it dawned on us to start our own snow shoveling business. I don't think we had a name, just two kids shoveling snow. Our street was pretty long, so we went door to door asking people if we could shovel their driveway and/or sidewalk. I think we charged $5 for smaller driveways and $5 for larger driveways. Or, we charged $10 for both driveway and sidewalk. All I remember is that we had a sophisticated pricing system. In the end, we made about $114 and we split it 50-50. Not bad for a couple grade school kids. I would love to say that I took that money and invested it, but I didn't. I'm sure that we spent it on candy bars and/or video games. But not investing.
Some Cardboard
The link I shared above shows some awesomeness that I couldn't dream of at that age. A 9 year old boy created an arcade made entirely of cardboard, duct tape, and basic things you have laying around your house. How awesome is that? I'm sure he's made more than my meager $57 shoveling snow. The best is that he did it on his own, his father never asked him to do it. Just like when I shovelled snow, it was something I did on my own. If you didn't watch the video, please do.
Putting It All Together
As I stated above, I plan on talking about money a lot. But I try to think of it in terms of simplicity. And the most simplistic lessons I learned about money was in those early years when I learned the basic lesson that "work = money". And since then, I've never had a problem with the concept of working to get paid, because I was used to it. Even since then, there have been many mini business ventures that I've done. Some very lucrative, some not.
So if we want our children to be productive members of society and be smart with their money then one idea is to have them be little businessmen or businesswomen looking for ways to serve others and getting paid in return. It's even tax free! When I have kids knocking on my door as an adult asking to shovel my snow, I usually say, "No Thanks". But, at least I can appreciate what they're doing and the fact that they get it.
Until next time.......Happy Budget, Happy Life
But wait.....there's more!
No comments:
Post a Comment