I’ve been corresponding with a talented and passionate women named Kelly for a few weeks now about The Money Game and a few days ago she shared a great story with me concerning her daughter. I loved the story so much I asked if I could share it with all of you. The daughter, Jess, was thrilled.

Jess and her mom, Kelly

So here’s Kelly’s email to me…

“Very cute quick story…

“Jess (our 7 daughter) and I were on the way home from a dr. apppointment and out of the blue she (Jessie) said “Mom, in your opinion (which was a struggle to pronounce correctly for her) do you think Savings is more important than Investing?”

CAN I TELL YOU WHAT PAYOFF MOMENT THAT WAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!  All my talks with the kids and explaining what little I know and Adam (our nine year old son) was the only one showing interest. I knew Jess was listening but she’s more of the Mother Theresa type:)

Well anyway – I’m sure you know where the conversation went.

I started teaching our kids about how one does not have to worry about money and about having money work for them as soon as they were old enough to listen!

One last quick comment. As Jessie and I discussed – I asked her what she thought of my answer.  Her answer was, “Well Mom, I agree investing is more important but it seems like savings is easier because you don’t have to think about it as much.”  As you can imagine, that statement was an eye opener and of course led to further discussion.

Jess’s last comment made me start comparing the hours one can take to learn about financial literacy compared to the hours that one works/school, etc. Of course, never discouraging school but merely incorporating the financial literacy into their lives!” End of story.

I guess the thing to keep in mind is that our kids ARE listening, even when we think they aren’t. So, never underestimate the power of your financial conversations in front of your children (or other people’s children) and know that you can’t start talking about the good stuff too early!

Thanks for the story, Kelly. I hope you and Jess will have many more money conversations before she leave home with out you.