5 Consequence
of Money Mistakes – Step 3
At some point we have all made mistakes with money,
and no matter how much we are told and warned about the consequence, nothing
drives the point home better than personal experience. As parents it is
remarkably easy, particularly when the mistake is at a point while the children
are still at home or wholly dependent on us, to bail them out immediately – and
they then see no real consequence.
Move forward a few years when we, as parents, are
either unaware, unavailable or unable to bail them out and the mistake could be
catastrophic for them. Let them make mistakes when they are younger and work
out how to deal with it – it’s a lesson that will stay in place.
It is also worth discussing mistakes we have made,
how we dealt with them and what lessons we learned.
6 Delayed
Gratification – Step 4
Current western society norms
challenge this every hour of every day. With instant and easy credit (even post
2008), we (parents and children) are constantly bombarded with not only why we
“need” that product identified by the marketeers in section 3, but how we can
actually have it NOW!!!!!
Based
on the key point of “need” and “want” outlined in section 3, an item that falls
into the “want” category is not actually required right now. Whether the “want”
is delayed as the reward for achieving an important goal, target or result and
when the money is available, it is an absolute key to our children’s thought
processes that they will have to wait for some things, and need create a
personal discipline to do just that. Some of the consequences of the “have it NOW!!!!!”
culture are discussed in the next section.
