A Tale of Two Families

I was standing in a bank lobby the other day and was struck by two conversations I overheard.

The first began with two parents and their little boy who was about five years old. As an advocate of personal finance education I was thrilled to observe the parents patiently showing the child how to fill out a deposit slip. While they stood back a little bit, the boy shyly approached a teller and presented his deposit slip.

After making the deposit, the teller showed him how to read his receipt to make sure his money had been deposited correctly. She then asked him what he planned to do with his money. By this time many eyes in the bank were watching the little boy and all probably expected a typical child's response--a bicycle, a skateboard, perhaps a future car. Not this young saver! He very assuredly explained he wanted to save enough to invest in a mutual fund!

At another counter, a middle-aged woman was asking a teller to check her account balance. Once the parents with the child had left, this woman loudly expressed her opinion: "How ridiculous! Children that age can't understand money."

Standing behind her, I couldn't help jumping into this conversations and saying that young children can and do understand money. I explained I was a teacher and that I often have young adults in a a community college class who are experiencing the negative results of no parental instruction--large debts, poor credit histories, etc. I could see my argument had fallen on deaf ears and finally gave up.

Now it was my turn to approach the teller who had helped the women. The teller very quietly confided to me. The woman regularly visits the bank to get her balance versus calculating it herself. The teller went on to tell me another interesting bit of information. The woman has two sons of her own. One is 22 and the other is 25. Both along with a girlfriend still live with mom. They have never been able to figure out how to be on their own financially.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if all parents were like those teaching the little boy? Unfortunately, this is not the case. Many parents do not have the time or skills to teach their own children. The woman represents a worse case scenario. A parent who does not recognize the importance of financial literacy. She and her children are certainly experiencing the consquences.