Wisdom can be like fine wine
With age comes experience and wisdom. Like a fine wine, age can be a great asset. The last two weeks of our Family Money Meal have been a chance to showcase this.
For the uninitiated, the Family Money Meal is a concept from the Barefoot Investor, in which once a week the family gets together to create a meal, and then go through the weekly job roster for each child to receive their weekly pay. Part of the process is to play the Family Legends Game, in which Barefoot has added to his weekly menu’s questions to discuss to enable children to learn not only about money, but also about some family history.
Grandparents Dinner Date
With both sets of Grandy’s not living close by, we had to do the Grandparents Dinner Date over the phone. Having no pre-warning that we were going to call, they all did very well – particularly Poppy who had already tucked himself in bed (due to the time difference) and still shared funny tales of his first job.
The children, and us, listened intently as each grandparent discussed how they learned about money, what they bought with their first pay check, how much they earned, spending regrets and much more.
What we learned
The main thing I learned was that while all the Grandy’s can now enjoy well deserved holidays, and all have gone out of their way to care for our kids or spoil them when we are altogether, they too started from scratch and have definitely done the hard yards. Doing budgets to ensure all the basics were done and that some money could be set aside. The Grandy’s spoke tales of spending half their income on rent, and still managing to save for their young family.
They openly discussed the meals they put together on tight budgets to make ends meet.
One of the Grandy’s even chose jobs that would nowadays be considered unsafe and likely not done without extreme safeguards, so that they could add more money to the budget.
Family Legends
Each of the grandparents worked hard to support their young and growing families, and continue to work hard to keep reaching their goals. These family legends have shown our kids what life was like ‘back in their day’ and praised our kids for the hard work and lessons that they are learning through our weekly Money Meals.
In a nutshell…
If you are able to, make a dinner date to call the Grandy’s and listen to the tales they have to tell. Our kids found it funny to hear the regretful purchases of the people they look up to, and to be able to tell their grandparents about how they are managing their own money and saving to achieve their own goals.
And, if you have kids, give the Barefoot Money Meals a go. Our kids are learning so much, achieving their goals, and I haven’t had to do the washing for weeks…did I say that out loud.
– Karen Patterson