Meaningful Returns

Nate Moore (producer of Captain America: Civil War and the forthcoming Black Panther) spent a good bit of his childhood in a small town movie theater and the comic book store a couple miles away.

But the Kings of Leon (an internationally acclaimed rock & roll band) were forbidden from listening to secular music as kids and spent all their time traveling to tent revivals with their Pentecostal minister father until he divorced their mother and the whole bit sort of blew up.

Childhood matters A GREAT DEAL. The things kids experience either drive them hard toward like-experiences (as in the case of Nate Moore), or they drive them hard away from like-experiences (as in the Kings of Leon). But the formative years are never benign.

My question is, what would your kids say about the way you spend money, save money, give money?

This isn’t an exact science, and it’s impossible to guarantee parenting outcomes. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worthwhile. We need to think first about the ideals we hope to instill in our kids, and then take an honest look at what we’re actually instilling, and then figure out how to decrease the distance between the two. And if you’re looking for a resource, I’ve found Ron Lieber’s The Opposite of Spoiled: How to Raise Kids Who Are Grounded, Generous, and Smart About Money to be by far the best I’ve come across.