Weekend What If: What If… You Earned a Million Dollars?

For Day 7 of Financial Literacy Month, FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™ serves up the first in a series of Sunday posts designed to help kids imagine a bigger and brighter future by playing a game of “What If…?” These “What If. . .?” settings help kids to “see” possibilities they might never have considered.  

Everybody knows weekends are game time—whether your kids are into football or board games, this is an ideal time to set aside a few weekend minutes to play a fun-filled “What If” game that helps kids imagine big things in their own futures. This financial literacy game also works well in any classroom, and makes a great kick-off to the week or a strong wrap-up for next Friday afternoon. With the framework mapped out in this post, you'll be able to tap into some creative big-picture thinking with your family or your class.

Just think of the reaction when you toss out this question as you and your kids are wrapping up the week or running weekend errands—

“What Would YOU Do if You Earned a Million Dollars?”

A million dollars sounds like a lot of money—and it is, especially to kids! This simple question can fuel many lively visualizations. Don’t you want to know what your kids think is possible for their bigger futures? A million-dollar salary is a great starting point. How far does money really go? In this activity, kids will learn the value of a million dollars—to them—and they’ll be able to determine their financial “worth in the world” as they contemplate, perhaps for the first time, just what they could contribute that would empower them to earn a million-dollar salary.

STEP 1: Brainstorm!

Ask: If you earned a million dollars, what would your job be?  

Start with the HOW. Begin by helping kids visualize their dream jobs. What would be your million-dollar job? What would you contribute that would help you to earn this much money?

These questions reinforce the need to work to earn money, no matter what the dollar amount might be. “Earning cash before burning cash” is a big financial factor for all of us.  

Ask kids to describe what they will do for their paycheck and you may just discover some hidden interests. A dream job like “inventing a new kind of phone” might spark explorations into STEM, engineering, and other education tracks. A dream job like being a rock star might speak to musical talents or a computer design program at the community center. When kids pop up with dream jobs like playing for their favorite sports team, this provides the chance to discuss “stretch goals” and more realistic goals. Could your potential pro athlete also begin to volunteer for the school broadcasting club to get some experience “around the sport” just on the “off-chance” that the pro-ball contract doesn’t come through?

Ask: What would you DO with the money once you earned it?

Move onto the WHAT. Once you help your kids “see” themselves as capable of earning a million dollars, it’s time to move into what money can “buy.” Ask kids to share their ideas about what they would do with the million dollars they earned. Remember, most kids don’t have any idea how big a million dollars is not. When kids suggest ways of spending their paycheck, you’ll gain valuable insights into their priorities. Are they focused on acquisitions, helping others, building businesses, or travel?

If they’re stumped for ideas, kick off the conversation by asking these questions:

• Do you think a million dollars is a lot of money?

• Where would you live?

• How would you get around?

• How much of your million dollars a year do you think you would need to live? (Prompt them with rent, mortgage, bills, food, clothing, transportation categories to guide their thinking.)

• Once you pay for all that you need, what would you want to do with what’s left?

• Would you save any of your money? If so, how much?

• If you would save money, what would you save it for? (Prompts: College, rainy day, a time when you can’t work, retirement?)

• Would you use any of your money to help other people? Who?

• Are there any causes that are important to you that you would want to support financially?

• What do you think you would need to pay in taxes on your million-dollar salary?

• Do you know what your tax dollars would pay for?

• Would you invest any money in the stock market?

• Would you buy something special?

• Do you think a million dollars is a lot of money, now?

STEP 2: Capture!

As you can see, any of these questions can lead to a longer exploration of just how far a million dollars can—and cannot—stretch. As kids solidify their vision, write down their game plan. These make wondrous keepsakes to share with your kids at milestone events like high school graduation. Such Million-Dollar Dreams Lists have even been presented at an engagement party or two! When you and your kids look back on these early visualization plans, you might detect the first threads leading to a future career. If your pre-teen plans to live on a mountaintop with five kids and a boat while helping everyone to have as much dessert as they want, you just might discover your rock-climbing young adult has a true flair for pastry and may one day run a major cupcake franchise!]

STEP 3: Explore More!

Older kids can rank and prioritize their goals and visions in order of importance. They can also separate the items on their Million-Dollar Dreams List into the two categories of needs and wants.

As a bonus activity, once your kids have narrowed down the list to their biggest wants, goals, and intentions, they can further cement their visualization by “browsing the real world” for examples. Prompt kids to look up options online, get a sense of what their dream ideas might cost, and re-evaluate their ideas. “Wait. THAT’s what a motorcycle would cost—today? What do you think it will cost by the time I can drive one?”

Even if you end up being the “recorder” for these vibrant exchanges, it’s well worth it to capture and document these early discussions. Be sure to snap a photo of your notes, too. In today’s busy world, it’s easy to forget about these predictors. What a treat when these are rediscovered down the road.

To develop a strong financial future, kids first need to “see” themselves as able to earn, learn, and wisely manage their earnings. As responsible adults, we not only need to serve as strong role models; we also need to help our kids to discover their visions, passions, and pathways for their bigger futures, financial and otherwise.

  Visit Us Every Day in April

Tomorrow, tune in again as we continue Financial Literacy Month with a close look at the five-dollar bill. Where does paper money come from? What do all the numbers and labels on the bill mean?

Click here to take a closer look at FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, an innovative financial literacy program designed for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. You may also download any of the 29 sections of the program—for FREE! Just click below.

Weekend Reading: A Chair for My Mother

What’s better than ushering in the weekend by curling up with, sharing, and building upon a good book? That’s easy; curling up, sharing, and building upon a really good book that is rich with financial literacy concepts, strong positive values, and a feel-good ending that will have your entire family smiling. Such is the case with Vera B. Williams’s classic picture book, A Chair for My Mother. The perfect choice for Day 6 of Financial Literacy Month, FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, even features this book in one of its 29 program instructional sections. It’s that good.

The book centers on a young girl named Rosa who decides to save up to buy a new chair for her mother after a fire destroys everything in their apartment. Working as a waitress at the Blue Tile Diner, Rosa’s mother is on her feet all day. Rosa dreams of giving her with a comfortable place to sit when she returns home at the end of a long day. Along with her mother and Grandma, Rosa works hard and diligently puts aside coins in a big jar. Day by day they save until they finally have enough saved for a trip to the furniture store. Together, the family tries out chair after chair until they find the perfect chair for her mother.  

Named a Caldecott Honor Book by the American Library Association, this engaging and heartwarming book focuses on the joy and love of family while teaching the importance of saving.  

The story can serve as a fun springboard for lots of weekend discussions about family, stories, and extended family tales that your kids will treasure. On a more practical front, this book serves as a delightful foundation to talk about the benefits of setting short- and long-term savings goals. Kids will see that Rosa and her family make difficult choices as they budget their money and save up for an important purchase. You might also share some stories about big purchases you have saved for or that a family member or community group worked hard to achieve. Your own stories will make this award-winning story that much more real to your kids.

Along the way, Rosa learns an important lesson about gratitude. Kids will relate to Rosa’s story, lessons, discoveries, and accomplishments. Together you can apply her lessons to you own lives.

Use these questions to spark a lively discussion about the topics in this very real, fictional story.

• How did Rosa achieve her goal?

• Could you ever see yourself doing something like this?

• Who do we know who really wants something big?

• Why was the goal important to Rosa?

• What sacrifices did she make to achieve it?

• What goals do you have for saving?

• Can you think of anything you’d want to save up for to help out a family member or a friend?

A Chair for My Mother is available at the library or you can purchase it on Amazon by clicking here.

Visit Us Every Day in April

Tomorrow, check back again as we continue Financial Literacy Month with a weekend game of “What if…?”

For more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, designed for students in kindergarten through eighth grade, or to download any of the 29 sections of the program, please click below.

Be a Goalie! Teaching Kids to Save $$$

Now that your kids are getting to know the difference between wants and needs, it’s time to help them understand that wants can require different actions and non-actions. Sometimes setting a goal for a want can mean giving up some things in the sort-term. Big wants can mean some upfront sacrifice to get to a longer-term want. How can you encourage your kids to save up for the fun things they want? Or to even persuade them to begin to think about saving money for future needs? If your kids are looking to go to college, it’s a good idea to encourage them to “put aside” a little bit of money each time they receive even a small windfall.

On Day 5 of Financial Literacy Month, it’s easy to begin teaching kids to BE A GOALIE! Learning to manage money for both wants and needs means setting goals for saving. To get across the concept, use this simple saying: “Saving requires waiting.”

The most important part of money management, of course, is making sure our basic needs are covered—starting with food and housing. Any extra money beyond that can go toward wants, but we can’t have everything we want at once. Adults often do this kind of planning without even realizing it, such as waiting to buy tickets to a concert until after we’ve paid the rent or mortgage, but kids don’t have this level of experience yet and often need some guidance. Many kids “want it all” and by setting up some goals, you can help kids make choices— “I want this, yes, but I want THAT even more.”

 You might need to make specific suggestions to your kids. You could propose that an older child could give up that after-school stop for fast food for a period of time in order to buy a pass to a water park. You could work together to determine just how many of those $3.00 snacks it will take to purchase one $45 water park ticket, for example. You can encourage younger kids to put away pocket change to save up for a desired toy or other small purchase.  

One easy way to get started with this type of goal-setting is to try this activity from FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society.™ This activity will help your kids or students to learn how to begin to set goals and save money. It’s as easy as one, two, three.  

1.     Instruct kids to create a list, draw pictures, grab screen shots, or find magazine images of several things they’d like to save for. Kids will enjoy this part, and can create a sort of “want-list” mood board that can serve as a good visual reminder of bigger goals when they are faced with making smaller financial choices like downloading a song or stopping for a snack after school.

2.     Older kids can then rank the images of their wants in order of importance or from smaller, easy-to-achieve purchase goals to the much larger, longer-term ones. Sometimes, kids recognize that the smaller goals are much less important and they choose to stay focused on the bigger goal. For other kids, smaller goals give them a sense of accomplishment and progress.

3.     Finally, it is time for kids to consider HOW they will fund these wants. Have kids write a second list describing ways they could potentially save/get enough money to fund their wants. Some ways might include an allowance, gifts from extended family, or even a part-time job like pet-sitting or plant-watering. Help them brainstorm ideas that work in your home or classroom setting. Can they earn money doing extra activities? Can they offer out their services to neighbors?

Ask kids:

• Do you think it’s easier to save for short- or long-term goals? Why?

• What big purchase or purchases would you like to make?

• How can you get there?

• What are you willing to give up to reach your goal?

• How important is this goal to you?

• How can we help you?

• How long do you think it will take you?

Visit Us Every Day in April

Tomorrow, visit the site again as we continue Financial Literacy Month with a weekend book recommendation. We’ll discuss a story about a young girl who does something special for her mom—and learns about saving money along the way.

Please click (here?/below?) for more information about FUTURES: Financially Literate Kids for a Financially Literate Society™, a new and exciting financial literacy program for students in kindergarten through eighth grade. You can download any of the 29 sections of the program, too!