Episode 034 – How to Financially Educate Your Children and Help them Reach FI 👨👩👧👦 | Brad from ChooseFI
Welcome to another episode with the one and only Brad from the ChooseFI Podcast! In this awesome episode we talk about Brad’s upbringing without financial education, strategies he’s using to educate his two daughters and whether he wants his children to reach FI.
We also talk about:
- Geoarbitrage by moving within the US
- Educating people towards FI
- The ChooseFI Podcast and its local meetup groups
- Compound interest and the power of saving
- Money as a normal conversation topic in the family
- Using ‘buckets’ as an educational tool!
Don’t forget to subscribe our podcast on Itunes, Android or Spotify. Direct download here.
🧘🏻♂️🏄♀️🍹💸😎 Want to stay in the sun and surf with the brightest minds of the FI Europe tribe? Check our FI Europe Retreat 2019!
The importance of family in developing financial awareness
Brad reached financial independence 5 years ago. We discuss the role his parents played in developing his financial awareness; although they were able to provide everything he needed, they didn’t necessarily financially educate him. Brad is taking a completely different approach with his two daughters, ensuring that they are always aware of the money aspect of their lives but without micro-managing them. He tells us the strategies he uses to teach them about money management (it involves buckets 👀).
Including education into the financial independence movement
In the US (and pretty much everywhere in the world) there’s no education on basic everyday financial management, let alone financial independence. Most people follow the predefined path from college to the job world without developing the ability to manage their finances, while student loan debt can literally become killer and undermine any attempt to achieve independence at all. For this reason, Brad has started a not-for-profit foundation through the ChooseFI network: to him, financial independence is a life optimisation technique so you that once you’ve got the money side of things under control, you have the mental space to focus on what truly matters (e.g. living a good life).
Saving systematically can lead to mind blowing results
Brad sees saving as the cornerstone of achieving financial independence. He has saved systematically from the age of 22 to 35, and for him none of it was sacrifice. To him it’s not deprivation, it’s just a matter of careful management and strategic planning (moving from New York to Virginia being the main example). Saving doesn’t mean not spending: spending money is a part of life – saving is about having priorities and knowing what it is you value most. As Brad says, you can never go wrong if you’re constantly saving a significant part of your income. 💸
Curious about news and big ideas from the financial independence community? Check our newsletter!
Want to stay in the sun and surf with the brightest minds of the FI Europe tribe? Check our FI Europe Retreat 2019!