In previous episodes, we established the importance of providing your kids good financial education as early as possible.
In this episode, we’ll talk about how to make it as enjoyable as possible for your children!
Our guest today is Will Rainey.
Will’s story is remarkable because it ties back right into the topic of today’s show – he went from working in the big corporate world, advising billion-dollar companies to kickstart Blue Tree, a reputable financial blog teaching parents how to pass on financial knowledge to their kids.
Will is also the author of Grandpa’s Fortune Fables, a best-selling book dedicated to teaching children the wisdom of markets through interactive fables.
Links:
Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki
The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel
The Richest Man In Babylon by George S. Clason
The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss
Contact Finance for Physicians
Full Episode Transcript:
Daniel Wrenne: What’s up guys? We are back at it again, talking money, of course. But we’re gonna be talking about how to teach your children about finances once again. This is such an important topic. I think we could talk about this for many shows, but we have been able to talk to several different people who have really leaned into this topic. And today, I’m gonna be talking with another one of them.
Daniel Wrenne: And so we’re gonna be talking about his blog and book and how he’s been able to really teach his children about how to do money. And he’s using an old form of story or fables to really implant those stories for his children.
Daniel Wrenne: So this is super interesting. Really for me, and as a parent. And I think really even for children is an opportunity for them to learn.
Daniel Wrenne: Our guest today is Will Rainey, and we’re gonna talk about all those things and his experience in transitioning from being in the investment in finance world to becoming an author of children’s books and also a blogger about teaching children about money. So he’s got all sort of really great stories that he shares in today’s conversation and lessons to take away and tools and that we can really use to start moving the right direction with this.
Daniel Wrenne: So I think this is a great conversation and I know you will as well. So let’s jump in and get things going. It.
Daniel Wrenne: Will, thanks for joining me on the podcast today.
Will Rainey: Oh, thank you very much. I’m excited to be here.
Daniel Wrenne: Oh yeah, I’m super excited. We’ve been talking the past month or so about finances and the integration with family. Family is super important and finances are super important, but what we’re gonna talk about today is along those lines, but we’re really zeroing in now on children and helping to teach our children. And I think this is even more, I mean this is really, really important because, our children are our future.
Daniel Wrenne: And as parents I feel this responsibility to kind of first of all, survival. With my kids at least, I’m like, let’s keep these guys alive. But beyond that I’m trying to turn them into good human beings. And so Will has been really leaning into this subject matter of teaching children how to do money the right way at earlier ages, which I love and I look forward to chatting with you about it.
Daniel Wrenne: I think it’s a great topic and I think, definitely not enough of these kinds of conversations going on.
Will Rainey: No, totally agree. And it’s such an important topic and yet most parents never talk about money themselves. So they find it really hard to talk about money with their kids.
Will Rainey: And also a lot of people think money’s a taboo subject and they don’t wanna put that pressure. So I’m really glad to be here today and raising this topic with your listeners.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. I think money is like you said, one of those taboo topics. So what happens is the natural tendencies for us to not talk about taboo topics or uncomfortable topics like sex and religion and politics and money and all those things. We just dodge the conversation.
Daniel Wrenne: But then with our kids, especially like they become influenced by something else. They’re gonna get influenced either way. And so the idea, or I guess what’s at stake here for everybody listening, if you don’t bring it up or if I don’t bring it up, it’s hard to bring up, but if we don’t bring it up, they’re gonna get influence either way.
Daniel Wrenne: And so probably gonna be that cultural pool, which I don’t want that to happen.
Will Rainey: Yeah, and it’s even more than that, if children see that you don’t talk about money. So children are gonna pick up, money exists, they’re gonna see it, but if parents don’t talk about it, the kids are gonna assume that by the parents not talking about it, it’s a bad subject.
Will Rainey: A bit like, kids know about swearing, but they know that they don’t see their parents swearing, hopefully. And they know that swearing is a bad thing cuz their parents don’t do it. And so if children think money’s a bad thing growing up, they’re gonna close down their mindset towards money.
Will Rainey: They’re not gonna ask questions about it. They’re not gonna try and be curious about it cuz they think it’s this bad topic that no one talks about. So the more that parents can be open and start having fun conversations and positive conversations about money from the youngest age, I think it’s gonna have such a positive impact on their outlook in terms of money and life as well.
Will Rainey: Yeah.
Daniel Wrenne: So I want to talk about your book. His book is called Grandpa’s Fortune Fables. Which I love a fable. Fun stories to teach your kids about money. So I wanna circle back to your book and talk through what that’s about and give you guys listening a feel for, the takeaways from that.
Daniel Wrenne: But before we get into that, how did you become a writer about money for kids?
Will Rainey: So my background is I was in investments. So I used to work for a large consultancy firm that advised very large institutions. So retirement schemes, insurance companies, and even some governments. So both in the UK and then I did move to Hong Kong. And had a regional role. So I worked across the whole of Asia talking to some of the largest investors in Asia.
Will Rainey: And I really enjoyed that. And then it was around 2017, I was actually talking to one of my clients about my two young daughters. And I can’t remember the conversation, but they just said to me, enjoy this time with your daughters, they only grow up once. Which is a very obvious statement, but had a really big impact on me cuz they were growing up so fast. And so, my wife and I decided that we’re gonna take some time off corporate work to spend more time with our kids.
Will Rainey: And so that’s what we did. So we put a bit of a plan in. And in 2019 we left Hong Kong and we moved to a really cool place called Hoy in Vietnam. It’s like one of the most beautiful places in the world, in my opinion. And so the kids were off to school. And so I wanted to have a project. And what I did realize is that when I left Hong Kong, even though I worked in the financial services industry, a lot of people said to me, how can you afford not to be working?
Will Rainey: And I thought it was quite strange cuz’ we’ve been advising institutions and I know some of my peers and some of my clients were earning very good money. I was surprised that none of them had felt that they could do the same as what we were doing. Then I reflected and thought, well, I think it’s because my parents were savers. And my wife’s parents were also savers.
Will Rainey: And so we became savers ourselves. So we had savings and investments that allowed us to have that opportunity. So, reflecting on that, I was like, I want my children to be able to have at least the opportunity to do what we are doing at that time. And take time off and spend time with their families, if they have families when they’re growing up.
Will Rainey: And so I started to teach my kids about money. So when they were going to bed, I’d make up a story to try and make money fun. And then I used to tell some of my friend, first of all, telling friends and family what I was doing and seeing if they would find that interesting. And they said yes. So I started to write a blog, which is on my website.
Will Rainey: And so every week I was like, I’m gonna write a different topic about money to help parents teach their kids. And it went really well. And after one of my early ones got picked up by the Financial Times in the UK, and started to get more and more followers. And after a period of time I just got really determined, right?
Will Rainey: Every single week I’m gonna write. And I tried to come up with different stories. And so in the blogs I had a number of these different stories about money. Which I had told my kids before going to bed. And some of them did really popular. And after a while someone was like, why don’t you make ’em into a book?
Will Rainey: And so I took a number of those small stories. Collected them together. Put them in a an order, which I thought would sort of progress families through the sort of financial journey. And put the characters in there to have a flow. And yeah, that’s where Grandpa’s Fortune Fables came from and I’ve just been doing.
Will Rainey: I never started with a passion of, I never left my last job saying I want to go and help kids. But now I’ve been doing it for over three years. It’s taken over. I’m so passionate about it. I understand how important it is to the financial future of kids. There’s so much to be done cuz it’s just not a topic that’s spoken about. And yet it can have such a big impact on lives.
Will Rainey: So I’m now fully embedded into helping as many families as possible teach their kids about money.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah, I love it that you pursued a value oriented project. And those I think are the best. If we can afford to or have the resources to be able to make that choice. You did two value, I mean, first of all, it was due to the value of wanting to be with your children more.
Daniel Wrenne: And so it’s so interesting that the cultural pool is to like work really, really hard. Especially when the kids are really young. It’s like if you look at the average working hours, it’s high when they’re young and want to be with you. And then when you’re old and retired and have plenty of time, they’re all grown up and don’t have time for you, which is backwards.
Daniel Wrenne: It’s like you flip that on its head and originally pursued that value. So you’re living out your values. And then now you’re leaning into this passion project. And I’m not surprised it’s working out well because you know that’s the right way to follow things.
Will Rainey: Yeah.
Will Rainey: Just on that, I’ve heard someone give a statistic and I dunno how true it is, but it’s about 90% of the time that you spend with your children is before their age of 12. So 90% of the time that you spend with your kids is, they’re 12 or younger and…
Daniel Wrenne: In their entire life.
Will Rainey: Yeah. And that just, again, I don’t know if that number is true, but you can imagine that it could be cuz when they’re going to teenager, they’re off with more friends. And so yeah, once I heard that I was like, I’ve gotta make the most of the time when they are young to be with them.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. I don’t know how you had the courage to do that. Because I would guess that the peer groups and everybody was kinda like, what are you doing? Yeah. Was that correct?
Will Rainey: Yeah. No, but the biggest one was my wife. And I sort of first suggested it and she was like, but no one does this. This is not what people do.
Daniel Wrenne: What’s wrong with you?
Will Rainey: Yeah. We went through and it. So I say it was 2017 when the idea came up and it wasn’t until 2019. So it was two years of talking about it. And then the more we talked about it and the more we looked into the how possible it is and looked at our budgeting, to do that and the impact it could have on the our daughters.
Will Rainey: But the more and more we talked about it and the more and more excited we got. We wanted to put it in practice. And we always felt that we had good reputations in our jobs that if we did that and go back, we’ll have that security net. We did have savings and investments, so the risk of financial ruin was minimal.
Will Rainey: So we knew there would be some risks, but it’s been super worthwhile. And thoroughly enjoyed both the experience and the time with the kids.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah, at the end of the day, the question we should all ask is, why are we saving? What’s the purpose of our savings?
Daniel Wrenne: Hopefully you’re saving. But the question is, why are you saving? And a lot of people say, so I can retire. Well, what’s an ideal retirement look like? And why is that ideal? And you can peel back the layers and a lot of people will say, really what’s most important is my family and the time I spend with them.
Daniel Wrenne: So then it’s like maybe you could do that sooner than retirement.
Will Rainey: Yeah. Well, one of the topics is, and I’ve written about this one, it’s called Mini Retirements. And it’s rather than, especially for retirement ages, again longer and people are living longer, so our children might have to work until they’re in their seventies.
Will Rainey: It is fully possible. And so that can be quite daunting. And so my plan of view is I’d rather have sort of two or three years now. And even if I have to work two or three years I’d rather retire at 68, but have this time now. Cause I think I’d be much more valuable and memorable.
Daniel Wrenne: Right. You’re looking at it from the trade off standpoint. I think, the right way to look at it. And so all this is important stuff, but I want to also talk about the book and teaching kids about money cuz it’s one thing to talk money with adults.
Daniel Wrenne: And what’s interesting is your book is very similar to some of these adult targeted audience books about finance that I’ve read before. So maybe it’s not as different as you might think. What are your thoughts on that? We already talked about it before we started recording, but doesn’t it have a flavor of other types of finance books?
Will Rainey: No, huge. Hugely influenced by the richest man in Babylon, which I tried to read to my kids, but just cuz of the Babylonian language, it was a nightmare. Rich Dad, Poor Dad. Even the Psychology of Money. I felt they had a big impact on me. So even though I worked in financial services, I still found that I was hugely impacted by these books.
Will Rainey: And they changed how I managed my own money when I read them in my sort of late 20s early 30s. And so I always thought, oh, if I imagine if my children got those lessons. So I put some of those lessons, which I thought were really, important for kids to learn. But put them in a story format that children would enjoy.
Will Rainey: So you have the most obvious one from the Rich Man and Babylon is save one out of every 10, that you receive. And that’s one of the key messages. So in the book what I call the Free Rules of Wealth, and one of those, the first one is save 1 out of every 10. But to make it fun for kids, I didn’t just say save 1 out of every 10.
Will Rainey: I put the whole book into a language of getting children’s think of money like seeds. And so they can give those seeds away. Or what they can do is think about planting those seeds. And as soon as you say that kids are curious about what planting money means. And that’s when you get into the conversation about saving and investing. And so you say to ’em, every time you get some seeds, make sure you save one of those seeds and plant it and let it grow.
Will Rainey: And essentially that’s your three rules? Well, one is save 1 out of every 10. Second is plant it, which is save it or put it in a savings account or better still invest it. And the third is be patient. So let that tree grow. So it’s an easy way for them to visualize money and imagine this financial forests growing.
Will Rainey: So the story of Grandpa growing his forest, in these and learning all these different lessons as he goes through has been easy for kids. So enjoy and learn at the same time.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. So, I would love it if we could talk about the first couple of chapters. We were talking before we started recording and the first few chapters in reading them, like the way the book is set up is you have these lessons learned at the end of each chapter, which I think is really good cuz you can boil down the point. And then a little exercise you can do that’s super simple.
Daniel Wrenne: But as I was reading through the first few chapters, I came up with like 25 lessons and takeaways. But maybe we could talk through those first couple chapters to give people an idea.
Will Rainey: Yeah. So what I wanted is these characters, because I feel that as children are learning about different characters, they can then say, oh, I wanna be like that character.
Will Rainey: And some of these characters, they’re not gonna see in real life. So it starts off with this young girl called, Gail, who’s the granddaughter of one of the main characters, Grandpa, who’s the books named after. And then she meets this bully character called Boris. And so Boris is causing trouble.
Will Rainey: And so what she does is instead of just avoiding Boris, she tries to say, well, I’m gonna try and help Boris. And teach him some. And Boris realizes that Gail has a very wealthy grandfather.
Will Rainey: And his bits like, oh, you just, you are lucky. You’ve got this all the money in the world. You’ve got given it on a silver platter. But she says, no, actually that’s not the case. My family, whilst they have money, they actually try and teach me about money. So all the money I have is, I’ve over earned it and looked after it myself. But I’ve been very lucky that I’ve been taught those lessons. So again, trying to, hopefully kids can see that it’s more about being taught about money rather than just given money.
Will Rainey: And it’s really interesting for Boris cuz he comes from a family that doesn’t look after their money very well and he thinks that they don’t have any money. And so what I really wanted to do is have these two characters, which come from different families. And the key one for Boris is that Gail says if you learn some lessons, you can become wealthy.
Will Rainey: And his mindset was, no, I never become wealthy cause I’m from a poor family. But she’s like, Nope, everyone can. And I think that’s really, really powerful, especially for some families that don’t have a lot of money. But if children can believe that they can become wealthy in the future, they’ll start to have that mindset and look for ways in which they can earn more money or look after their money and grow.
Will Rainey: So I think that was really one of the key points of the first chapter is to try and have that open mindset that if they take the time to learn about money, then that money can come to them over time.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. And Gail, she’s like the geeky, non flashy, nerdy kid that’s also I guess seemed like you were portraying her as very true to herself and almost respected because of it.
Daniel Wrenne: So she’s like a geek but cool kid thing.
Will Rainey: Yeah, exactly. Well, cuz one of the key pieces that I want children to learn is not to keep up with the Joneses. And so this is not just to compare yourself to everyone else. I wanted this strong character who was like, I’m different. I’m a bit of a geek. But I don’t care, this is me. And so she’s hopefully someone that children will read and like this character and say, well, if Gail can be different and not care and she’s still pretty cool character.
Will Rainey: But she try doesn’t just have to conform to people would normally call caught being cool. Hopefully that’ll entice other children if they’re a bit different to embrace it rather than just to conform.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. So she eventually catches his attention with the potential to learn. How to do money and become wealthy himself. But it’s interesting how you use this language. He’s using the word rich and she’s using the word wealthy. I’m guessing you did that intentionally.
Will Rainey: Yes. And one of the chapters in the book later is all about the difference between being rich and really wealthy.
Will Rainey: And it’s one of the bits that I talk about in my blogs quite a lot as well. Cuz it’s all about mindset. And it’s one of the reasons that I wanted to have the book because two of the main characters, in some of the later chapters, one is Grandpa and one is this other character called Richie Racoon.
Will Rainey: And so Richie Raccoon is what I call Rich. He has money. He has some, well in the book, it’s gold. And he has a bit of flashy. And everyone wants to be like Richie cuz he has the nice house, the nice clothes, and eats the nicest foods. So everyone sees that in the real world. So that’s what people see on social media, et cetera.
Will Rainey: But what people don’t see is these other characters who are wealthy. Which means people who are looking after their money. They’re have nice things, but they’re things that they really appreciate themselves. They’re not buying them because they’re trying to impress others. They might have some nice clothes or they might, whatever they value, they still have, but they’re doing it for themselves.
Will Rainey: They’re not putting it onto social media to show off. They’re just buying it for their own happiness. And so this is what Grandpa is. He does not start with much money, but he looks after what he has. And soon enough he has enough. And actually what happens, he ends up looking after Richie Raccoon who hasn’t looked after his money, and when things go bad, he looses his money.
Will Rainey: And luckily Grandpa helps him and teaches some lessons to change the ways in which he thinks about money. So I think that’s important. So it’s given these, not just teaching them about rich versus wealthy, but given these characters and so hope pretty much every child I’ve spoken to about the book, they’ve all said they want to be like Grandpa and be wealthy, not rich, like Richie Raccoon. Which I think is really important cuz they’re not gonna see wealthy out and about in the world. So hopefully this fictional character will stick in their minds as they grow up.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. It’s like the guy going for the flash and all the nice things ends up. Well, you never know what’s happening behind, behind the scenes and I love it. That’s such a good example of what’s super common is like they probably maybe don’t even have their ducks in a row behind the scenes. And maybe even more importantly, they’re not like material stuff maybe doesn’t usually, I don’t think, gives you the best value, bang for your buck or happiness, bang for your buck.
Daniel Wrenne: So that’s sprinkling that sort of thing in there. There’s so many different things like you’re sprinkling in here, which is always I think a sign of a good book.
Daniel Wrenne: So then the second chapter, you go into this lesson, which you also have these things not to do. Which is also a good way to do stories is here’s what to do and here’s what not to do.
Daniel Wrenne: Maybe we can talk about the get rich quick schemes..
Will Rainey: Yeah. So, yeah, so in the second chapter. So sorry, at the end of the first chapter, Gail was saying to her friend Boris, I’m gonna teach you what my Grandpa taught me. And he learned all these lessons on this far away island board, Pucha Pucha. And so the second chapter is all about the first story of her grandpa.
Will Rainey: Who when he was a young boy, he didn’t have much money come from a poor family. And he saw a news article saying that gold has been found on this far away island. And so he says, right, I’m gonna leave his job. In a sort of newspaper delivery company. Finds a boat with his uncle who tells some awful jokes.
Will Rainey: He gets to this island of Pucha Pucha. And when he gets there, there’s this man called Sam. And Sam tells him like, you’re gonna be rich. There’s loads of gold on this island. Go and find it. And it wasn’t just grandpa who turned up. It was many people on these big boats turning up, all desperate to go and find gold. And what happened was that he said, right before you go digging for gold, make sure you go to my shop and buy your shovel so you can go and dig up.
Will Rainey: And so everyone went to his shop. Bought their shovels. Went to the island. And unfortunately, after days and days, none of them managed to find any gold. Even though Sam kept telling him that house over there was bought by someone who found gold on this island.
Will Rainey: That house could be yours next day. But the key to the story was that Sam was making money cuz everyone kept coming to his island. And buying his shovels. And he became very, very wealthy. And the house, the big house that he was showing everyone was actually his house that he’d bought from all the money from the shovels.
Will Rainey: And so the key one is if it’s something sounds too good to be true, no doubt it is.
Will Rainey: So that chapter is actually based on a real life story. So it’s based on the gold rush in the 1800s in America. One of the richest people from the whole of the Gold Rush was this man who didn’t find any gold, but he told everyone that it was gold to be found and he sold them.
Will Rainey: Yep. Hyped it up and then sold them shovels. Sold them accommodations. Sold them food and water. And the more people he told to come, the more money he actually made. And he became an extremely rich person. He didn’t become wealthy cuz he lost all the money shortly after.
Daniel Wrenne: That’s such a good example.
Daniel Wrenne: I didn’t know. And it’s so interesting that it’s based on a true story. And I’m sure there’s a million of those stories. It’s a common scenario, unfortunately. But that’s how Boris is leaning. It seems like in that first chapter he’s like she catches, or cuz he’s saying the word rich.
Daniel Wrenne: He’s like, yeah, okay, you can teach me to be rich. Let’s do this. And so I think going into this thinking this might be a way for him to get rich quick ish.
Daniel Wrenne: But then she throws it on him like first lesson by the way it ain’t gonna happen quick. Like get rich quick is actually a sign of this is you need to turn the other direction.
Will Rainey: Exactly, and that’s one of the most important lessons with money. And I’ve got another chapter later on, which is all about patience. And in my mind, patience is the superpower of the wealthy and the more that parents can teach their kids about being patient, especially in the world that we live in today with instant gratification, the ability to buy anything that we want with a click of a button and not even really know that a transaction’s going.
Will Rainey: We see so much of other people to compare ourselves. And we see everyone else with all this nice stuff. We just want it. And so the more that we can teach our children to be patient with their money, still enjoy their money, but with some of it be patient. Then that’s gotta be such an advantage when they’re growing up.
Daniel Wrenne: So I was reading your blog as well. There’s a ton of just good stories. So your blog is more geared towards parents reading, wanting to learn more about how to teach their children. And it’s BlueTreeSavings.com. And so you got all kinds of blog posts about, written towards parents like us, and helping, and a lot of people listening to help them.
Daniel Wrenne: And the book is more for the children or the parents to read to the kids. But the blog is filled with a ton of good stories too. I had written down a bunch of ’em that I love, but I’m curious what are your favorite stories? Or maybe what were your kids’ favorite stories?
Daniel Wrenne: Cuz this is also really interesting that you actually did this first. Yeah. I think that’s the best way to do this. You started this whole thing with your children.
Will Rainey: Yes. Yeah, that’s what I’ve really loved about this whole adventure that we’ve been going on. My kids are part of my business state.
Will Rainey: I’ve come up with stories and some of them they just fall asleep. So I know that’s not a good story. And other times I’ll have my story I can tell they just get really excited and they’re asking lots of questions. And they’re coming up with ways to improve it in terms of the types of characters that I’m using.
Will Rainey: And so some of the stories that they really love. So one’s in the book, which is, called The Trip to the Village, which is about this Richie Racoon character wanting to go and plant his own forest. But every time he gets some seeds from Grandpa, he goes through the village and never comes out of the village with any seeds to plant.
Will Rainey: And so and they enjoy the fact. Every time he goes in, he gets sort of not tricked, but coerced into giving some of his seeds away. Cause it’s always a good deal going on. So that’s one of the ones that he acts. But there’s some others that I’ve written after I’ve written the book, which they really enjoy.
Will Rainey: So two of them, one is called the Dragon that pooped too much. And they just really enjoyed, mostly cause it’s about dragons and poop. But it’s about actually buying their first car and seems a bit of a weird bit given a title, but it’s all about these two characters and they’re turning 18 and they’re gonna have their first dragons. Which they get to, it’s like, driving a car. And one of them wants the biggest flashiest dragon that you could find, and the other one wants a bit more modest. And so they go through why they want that and how excited they are about having these dragons. But clearly the one that has the fancy dragon loves it to start with.
Will Rainey: But once it’s flying around and he gets home, he has people knock on his door complaining about how much poop this big dragon has done, which is all about expenses. So essentially the bigger the flashier of the car, the more expenses, which is the poop. And they have to clear that up. And so that’s just stuck with them.
Will Rainey: And that was really fun to write. And even though they’re years away from owning their first car, I think they, the message of the more you spend and the bigger fancier the car, the more expenses come with that and the more poop in their mind they’ve got.
Will Rainey: And then the other story, which they really enjoyed what’s called, the Invisible Slime Story.
Will Rainey: And so this was done in almost like a calendar style. So, I can’t remember what the name of the book they were reading some books at the time and it was Oh, Docs Diaries.
Will Rainey: It’s a very famous book. And so it does it in Monday, this happened. Tuesday this happened. And so this was a story around this boy came to a new town and he realized that everyone was wearing the nicest clothes and had the nicest things. And they were teasing him for not having the nice pieces. But then he went into this store and the store lady said, oh, you can have these clothes, you can just pay me back later.
Will Rainey: And so here’s nice. But when he put the clothes on, they were really heavy and he didn’t realize why. And then got friendly with these children. They stopped teasing him and he felt very happy. But then he had to keep buying more clothes to keep up and not just wear the same. But every time he went back to the store, she said, yep, that’s fine.
Will Rainey: Just pay me back later. But again, the clothes were happy. But this old lady had these massive glasses on. But then one day she went to the back of the store and left her glasses. So the boy put the glasses on. What he realized is that when he looked around, everyone was covered in slime. And you could only see the slime when you put these glasses on and the slime.
Will Rainey: And he was like, oh, this, my clothes are disgusting. They’re all covered in slime. And he looked around the shopping mall and everyone’s clothes were covered in slime. And he was like, oh, I don’t want these clothes anymore. I like my old clothes.
Will Rainey: And really it helped teach them that most people are using debt, which is the slime. And most people are comparing themselves without really knowing what’s really their clothes are covered in slime.
Will Rainey: And so again, the kids loved that cause it was quite an interesting story with the slime and the glasses and the characters, but it really stuck with them. And I know it’s a good story or it’s been a memorable story when they reference it in everyday life. So when they see it on social media, they might say, oh, I wonder if they’ve got some slime on those clothes.
Will Rainey: And so that’s when I know that a story is not just entertaining, but also the lesson has stuck with them.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah, that’s always a good sign of a story is you remember it. And stories are easier to remember naturally, especially if you enjoy this story.
Daniel Wrenne: And I tell my kids two stories every night. They’ll remember it. And I don’t, cuz I go off the cuff with them. I just make up something and every once in a while they’ll refer to it later. I’m like, I don’t remember anything about it. I mean, I remember that it was a story, but I can’t remember the context of it.
Daniel Wrenne: And I was half asleep and kind going off the cuff. But they, it stuck with them. So you’re doing this much more intentionally and sprinkling in all these lessons and that’s why this is fantastic. I mean it’s such a creative way to do things.
Will Rainey: The other piece that I use, so rather than just fictional stories, I like to use some real life examples.
Will Rainey: So a lot of my blogs, I also use companies like McDonald’s or Starbucks or even MC Hammer in there just to really bring home some of the messages. And especially like McDonald’s, not that I want to try and encourage people to go to McDonald’s or endorse McDonald’s in any way, but it’s just, cuz it’s kind an easy topic.
Will Rainey: But topic like how does McDonald’s make money? It’s not just from selling burgers. And it just gets them curious about different topics. And they’ve been the one, some of the most popular for the parents. And so many of comments I get is I never knew that myself.
Will Rainey: And that’s what I really enjoy as well. So it’s a bit of a Trojan horse. Some of my blogs is whilst I’m saying you can teach your kids this, I know that a lot of parents didn’t know a lot of these topics.
Will Rainey: Some of them just interest type McDonald’s ones, but there’s others such as I did one on about NFTs when that was blowing up earlier this year. And a lot of parents were like, oh, I’m so glad you wrote this in a format that’s good enough to be or easy enough to teach kids just because I didn’t know anything about it.
Will Rainey: So my knowledge is the same as a child. So that really helped them. So some of those blogs were really popular cryptocurrency and even the greater full fear in which is underlying both of those topics. A lot of parents said they enjoyed.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah, as soon as I finished the read I was like, I didn’t actually realize that’s how his story played out.
Daniel Wrenne: But it’s an interesting, basically, everybody knows, most people know MC Hammer did really well. And then did really bad and went bankrupt. But he’s turned the corner and came back the other direction. And you described it as more of like he’s attaining wealth now and was before he was just rich.
Will Rainey: Exactly. Yeah. And yeah, Richie Raccoon character in the book is essentially, he’s the same. Followed the same journey as MC Hammer. He had lots of money but then lost it, but then learned how to look after it. Now is much happier, more secure than ever.
Daniel Wrenne: Another one I would recommend all you guys listening there. There’s one about teaching your kids. The importance of teaching your children how to sell or what selling is and sprinkling that in. I think that’s a fantastic topic. And it wasn’t really on my radar to think about, but I realize it’s such an important skill. And we don’t tend to naturally, I guess talk about.
Will Rainey: No. Well, the whole concept of entrepreneurship when I was growing up, it was just never raised. My parents worked for companies. My friends’ parents worked for companies. It was just never taught at school. So as always go to school, get good grades. Go and work for a company. Work for them for 40 years. And then retire.
Will Rainey: Whereas once I read, rich Dad Poor Dad and the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris, that’s when I started to go, oh, actually that sounds like saying I could do. And I wish I had thought about that when I was younger and I didn’t have all my defendants. To take those risks would’ve been much easier.
Will Rainey: And so I wanted my kids to understand that it’s an option. It doesn’t mean they have to become entrepreneurs, but I think some children are just naturally gonna be really good at being entrepreneurs. I think they’re gonna enjoy it without giving them the exposure or knowledge about it being an option.
Will Rainey: I think there’s gonna be a lot of potential wasted talent going through. But part of entrepreneurship is all about selling and the ability to sell your ideas, your products, whatever it may be, even to team members. And so it’s something that I never thought about when I was going through my career.
Will Rainey: But as soon as I started doing my blog and started Blue Tree Savings, I knew right I need to learn more about selling. And it’s been a fascinating journey. So I’m hoping my kids are gonna pick up some of the tips from a younger age and try a few businesses out themselves. And without any risks or consequences, but hopefully just lots of mistakes and learning lessons as they go through that.
Will Rainey: So when they’ve become adults, they have that bank of ideas and experience, mistakes behind them.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. It’s a great foundation. So the book, once again, the book is we’ll link to this in the show notes, but it’s Grandpa’s Fortune Fables. Fun stories to teach kids about money.
Daniel Wrenne: And then podcast is bluetreesavings.com. And as I was saying like that if you’re trying to learn yourself as parents, I would check out the blog for sure. And the book is a great one to either read to your kids or have them read depending on their age. And I think everyone, I don’t know if you’re listening and myself included, and you haven’t really spent much intentional time talking to your kids about money, you should jump on this like immediately.
Daniel Wrenne: Like there’s no reason not to. Because and I’m sure all of you agreed like money is an important thing to teach your children. So this is a great way to get that conversation going and start to insert those ideas into our head or their head.
Daniel Wrenne: And really do what we’ve been talking about. So Will, as we wrap up, I wanted to throw out, any other suggestions you would have for parents or like ways to dig in and get started. And I know we’ve already thrown out your book and your blog are fantastic.
Will Rainey: Yeah. So keep on is just to start asking your kids some questions about money that kids are so curious about it. If you give them the forum to speak about it and ask questions about it. And don’t be afraid to say that you don’t know the answer. Now, let’s go and find out together. And having those conversations.
Will Rainey: I’ve just done some workshops with kids and families and schools. And every time I’ve been to a school, the amount of questions I always run outta time cuz the kids are just asking question after question. They do love that. And so the best bit of feedback about the book has been when parents have read it with their children and then said to me, we’ve had some amazing conversations afterwards and I didn’t realize that they didn’t know I’d go to work to earn money, which we will probably take for granted.
Will Rainey: Or they don’t know what money comes from. They just think there’s a magic hole in the wall that gives them an endless supply of money. And so giving them an opportunity. So yeah, if people are listening to this, just start a conversation about money. Like why does mom and dad go to work? Where do you think money comes from?
Will Rainey: What do you wanna spend money on, et cetera. And you’ll get some fascinating insights to what your children already know about money, and what they want to learn about money as well.
Daniel Wrenne: Yeah. Yeah. Great stuff. Will I appreciate it. And I’m sure as you continue to write, I would suspect you’ll probably have a second book and a third book and that’s the cool thing about blogging, is it gets you in this routine of writing and putting stuff out there and keep up the good work on that.
Will Rainey: Thank you very much. And yeah, thank again for having me on the show and giving this important topic. Some air time to people cause it’s just not top of mind sadly for many families.
Will Rainey: And hopefully, that will change after this. Yep.
Will Rainey: Awesome. Thank you.
