I’m very focused on teaching my kids as much about finances and making money, and have been teaching them the financial knowledge that I know over they years.

On a whim of the moment, I decided to get my son a financial checkup to see how he has progressed.  The following are the questions and results that he answered (his answers are in blue).

Getting Rich Questions:

1.) How did the rich get all of their money?

By having businesses and investments.

2.) Do you think you’ll be rich some day?

No, not really, just regular.

3.) Do you want to be rich?

Kind of.

4.) Do you think that rich people are rich because their family have been rich by making investments and owning businesses way back when?

No, some but not most

5.) What would it take from someone exactly like you to get rich someday?

Hard work, lots of hard work

6.) Do you think that everybody that is rich has a college degree?

Most, but not all.

7.) Do all rich people have fancy cars and houses?

No, not all of them.

Conclusion:

First, let me say that my son’s responses impressed me.  I know that I’ve worked with him, but still some of his answers surprised me.

I’m a little concerned about his answer on question #2 “Do you think you’ll be rich some day?“.  When he said that he doesn’t expect to be rich some day.  From a probability perspective, he’s right, only a few actually ever become rich.  But if you don’t try, your chances of becoming rich or well off decrease dramatically.  By having knowledge on finances, you increase your odds of being rich just be being in the known.  I know plenty of people who have made more money that I have but don’t have anywhere near the net worth that I have.  So, question #2 is a takeaway action for me to work on.

Second, I’ll have to boost his confidence that he can be rich based on his answer to question number 3 “Do you want to be rich?“, I didn’t think it was possible either until I started reading financial books.  Perhaps I can give him a leg up on this.  That way he can start earlier.

Overall, I think I’m doing a good job with his financial education, I’m very please with the results of this little checkup!  I’ll be doing future checkup and quizzes in the future just to get a reading on how I’m doing with my the financial teaching efforts.

MR