5 Tips to Launch Financial Grownups

 

Launching Financial Grownups: Live Your Richest Life by Helping Your (Almost) Adult Kids Become Everyday Money Smart it out! Bobbi shares some background and reveals the key takeaways from the book. 

Tips to Launch financial Grownups

  1. Make it about them- not you

  2. Listen to them if you want them to listen to you

  3. Don’t be the solution- help them find solutions

  4. Be clear with your expectations and also the support to get there

  5. When it comes to investing- focus on risk tolerance 

 
 

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Full Transcript:

Grownups! If you are listening to this on Tuesday March 22, 2022 this is a day I have been working towards literally for years. My new book: Launching Financial Grownups: Live your richest life by helping your (almost) adult kids become everyday Money Smart is officially out!

In this episode I am going to be sharing my top tips to launch financial grownups but first: 

I know we have been getting some new listeners so I want to bring you up to speed with a little background on me and what we talk about here on the podcast. 

I was for many years a business journalist- I covered mainly stock market news and economics - I interviewed CEO’s and talked a lot about what the fed was doing. I started at CNBC out of college, went on to CNN, PBS and finally Reuters were I spent more than a decade as a global business news tv reporter and anchor. I also was able to write a column on personal finance that was syndicated which was so much fun. But a few years ago I decided to switch gears- and become an author. My first book was How to Be a Financial Grownup. I interviewed what I would call the celebrities of the business world- people like Kevin O’Leary from Shark Tank, Tony Robbins, Designer Cynthia Rowley and I even got some money tips from Drew Barrymore who is actually quite the business woman.

After the book I decided that even though I knew a lot about money I wanted to really be confident when people asked me stuff so I went and became a Certified Financial Planner, also known as a CFP®. Let me tell you, it’s a lot of studying and work, and then at the end of it all you take this super hard test that almost half the people taking it fail. To this day, I consider passing the CFP exam to be my biggest academic and career accomplishment- even more than the books or my college degree from the University of Pennsylvania (Go Quakers) 

So fast forward: Books take time and Launching Financial Grownups was no exception. It was inspired by my own experiences- and challenges.  And full disclosure- stuff still comes up today that it not easy - not at all- with launching my own (almost) adults. 

Like they say on the bachelor- it’s a journey. Oh- yes- I got back into the bachelor over the pandemic. I’m team Gabby all the way. But we digress.

So it’s a whole book but here are a few highlights just to get the conversation going about what it means to launch financial grownups. 

Tip # 1. Make it about them- not you

You have your dreams for them- we all do. And you know what’s best for them. But these are not little kids- your children are adults and you need step away from the mirror and stop seeing their life as a reflection of you. Stand beside them and look through the window and see the possibilities that they are seeing from the their perspective. 

Tip #2: Listen to them if you want them to listen to you. So someone recently asked me about a script to get their kids to listen. Ok. Consider a script with lots of white space and room for improv. This is something Tori Dunlap of Her First 100k talks bout in my book- we as parents need to make sure we are actively listening and hearing and processing what our almost adults are sharing with us. If we tune them out- how are we surprised that they tune US out. Right?

Tip #3: Don’t be the solution - instead help them find solutions. Let’s say your almost adult comes to you and needs money for a project that is super important to them. You could write them a check- and some of us might even dig into our savings because we really want to be there for our kids. Instead- maybe brain storm with them to help them find other ways to fund the project- maybe a go fund me type page, maybe a side hustle, maybe look for grants from non profits or the government. 

Tip #4 Keep your expectations high but also realistic- and make sure they know you have the confidence to believe in them that they can do it. Don’t offer help your (almost) adults without them asking though. Wait for it. The ask may not come and that is good for them. It may be hard if you feel you aren’t needed. But that’s on us as parents. We want to feel needed- and we are- but how we are needed changes. 

Tip #5: When it comes to investing- don’t judge specific investments. Focus on broader skills and strategies. For example, teach them about diversification. If they want to invest in NFT’s who are we to say that’s not going to pay off- we may even have some ourselves. But make sure it is the right percentage of their assets. Same goes for making sure they are tuned in to their personal risk tolerance. And because time is on their side, they can afford to take more risk than us. Let them know that- oh- and no “I told you so’s” if their investments don’t pan out. 

For more I hope all of you pick up a copy of Launching Financial Grownups- it is on sale now. And then tell me your tips on Launching Financial Grownups- on instagram I am at bobbirebell1 on twitter at bobbirebell. 

I also would love to share more about the book with you, your company, or your school or non profit so be in touch- go to my website and click on the work with bobbi tab at the top right to be in touch. 

And as always show notes and full transcripts are available on my website bobbirebell.com where you can sign up for the newsletter where I curate media that can help us all live our best grownup lives. 

Thanks to all of you for your kind notes and all the likes- and for being financial grownups. 

 
Advice, Authors, Financial Grownup, Money, Personal FinanceBobbi Rebell KaufmanLaunching Financial Grownups, Author