Book review, How to Make Your Kid a Money Genius

Author: Beth Kobliner

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Copyright date: 2017

Find it at your local library: WorldCat

• Content: Easy to implement, actionable items to teach kids a fundamental understanding of money management from the ages of 3 - 23, no matter how comfortable/knowledgeable the parent is about personal finance.

• Style: Writing style feels like you are going to a small seminar with a really personable speaker. She explains the content in a conversational tone with a few jokes and many anecdotes sprinkled throughout, while maintaining an air of authority with her professional, sometimes teacherly (in the best way), manner of writing.

• Intended Market: Parents who want their children to have a full and healthy grasp of how to best handle money and what its value really is - - not to put money on a pedestal but also not downplaying its importance in our lives. 

  • Unintended market: adults who want to learn proper money management and want a covert way to learn themselves.

Overall: A fantastic guide for parents - whether they feel they are money experts or novices - as the book is well organized; gives simple, age-appropriate lessons to convey; and lays out in easy to understand terms exactly what you can do as a parent to teach your children about money. I don’t know if it will make your kid a “money genius” but if you implement all the lessons given, I would say you’ve done an excellent job teaching them how to properly view and handle money in their life - whether or not they take the lessons to heart is something else (lead a horse to water and all).

Also a wonderful starting place for those who don’t want anyone to know they never got the money lessons they should have growing up and/or want to get an understanding of it from the ground up.

Review: Parents have an unending supply of books promising to provide the answers for their daily worries. From the big things - am I raising a moral/smart/happy/friendly/kind/etc. child? To the mundane of getting them to school with homework complete, clean clothes, and a healthy lunch. In general, there are plenty of books to help you raise “better” kids. Like, way too many. Some written by people who know what they’re talking about. Some written by people with no credentials or authority whatsoever (Can we say “anti-vaxers,” children?). 

Into this dubious stew of advice steps Beth Kobliner, a veteran personal finance writer with one book and many published works in reputable outlets (WSJ, NY Times, CNN, NPR, even Sesame Street to name a few). Ms. Kobliner has a knack for conveying complex ideas simply while not talking down to the reader. My first concern, the authority of the author is immediately assuaged reading the back of the book. 

There’s a bulleted list of what the reader will learn, short resume of the author, and four blurbs on the back. This tells me she has published previously in many reputable news outlets, published a NY Times bestseller on personal finance, and served on President Obama’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans. The fact that this is published by Simon & Schuster shows the material has been reviewed by many eyes looking for grammatical errors and typos, but more importantly, ensures the content is accurate and she is making no unsubstantiated claims - to the best of their ability.

When it comes to credentials, it’s good to look for an author who has a long history working in the field, has the respect of her peers, has formally studied the subject, and/or has personal experience that gives them a unique perspective. From what I know, Ms. Kobliner does not have a formal education in personal finance. I do not know of her working one-on-one or teaching classes with people looking for help with their own finances, rather she has worked for many years as a personal finance journalist. Having a formal education and close work with those looking to improve their finances would improve her creditials, but Ms. Kobliner gets gold stars for respect of peers, years working in the field, and personal experience (she has children of her own)- which is more authority than the majority of published personal finance authors you’ll find in the library.

**LONGER THAN I MEANT TO INFORMATION LITERACY RANT LESSON AHEAD**

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When I say, “the respect of her peers,” in this situation, that means organizations who know personal finance journalism, like the outlets listed, will pay her money to write for them because they know she is a good writer with well-founded content. Basically, they know she write things people want to read, will pay for, and can trust. It also means people are willing to put their reputation on the line by saying nice things about this book. Would you put your name on a book like “Climate Change is a Hoax!” or “101 Ways to Commit Arson”? Probably not. The four people giving her blurbs are rock stars in the fields of education, raising kids, and/or behavioral economics. 

First and foremost is Alan Krueger. “Hmm… why does that name sound familiar?” you say? He served in President Obama’s cabinet as the Chair of the Council of Economic Advisors, he’s won all the awards, was prolific in his research - especially the effect of education on earnings, was a Princeton professor, and just passed away a few months ago, decades too early. 

Next is Cass Sunstein, a Harvard professor who - among a tremendously impressive list of works, accolades, and positions - wrote the incredible and influential book “Nudge,” with Richard Thaler, one of the fathers of the field of behavioral economics. It outlines how minute changes to situations, environment, or workflows create massive changes to people’s actions. Then there’s Arne Duncan, former US Secretary of Education and CEO of Chicago Public Schools. He’s spent decades working to make education more effective for kids of all backgrounds.

Lastly is Amy Chua, a Yale Law School professor who, in non-law/academic circles is known for her book “Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother” - a bestseller on child-rearing. I honestly have no idea as to the quality of her parenting advice, I just know her book was a big deal a few years ago. What her blurb provides is a recognizable name in the parenting self-help sphere. Her name helps to balance out the types of authority already established by the other blurbs from those in the academic and governmental spheres (despite her being an academic with links to the government). 

Ms. Kobliner has been in the field for decades, published in many reputable journals, written another book published by a major publishing house, and has all these people who are experts on the topics of education, behavioral economics, and raising kids thinking this is a good book. All these factors lead me to believe the information inside is quality. 

However, we can’t just trust what’s on the back of the book. They only put good things there. To the internet we go to learn more about her! Within the first moments of searching I learn her husband happens to be a billionaire hedge fund manager. As much as it grates me as a feminist to question the quality and validity of a woman’s work because of who her husband is, I would be remiss and naive if I did not take this into consideration. 

All these accomplishments and kind words from such high-ranking people in the field are much easier to get if you’re in the extremely rare position of being able to sway a hedge fund manager to do things like: take on another client, donate hundreds of millions of dollars to charity, or any thousands of things he has the power to do that even multimillionaires couldn’t dream of. If I was, let’s say PBS, and wanted someone to teach Americans about money, all other things being equal, I’d strengthen my relationship with someone who could fund the next twenty years of the “NewsHour.” (But no amount of money will replace Cokie Roberts who passed away recently. She brought me much bad news and some good. Either way, it was nice to hear it from her.) I’m using PBS as an example, from what I know of the organization it has some of the most stringent rules on information quality and actually would never bring someone in who was unqualified. Unfortunately for Ms. Kobliner, when you have that much money, absolutely everyone who wants anything to do with you could have ulterior motives. 

I can’t say whether or not she’d have the same caliber of blurb authors if her husband didn’t figuratively own the eastern seaboard. Having taken some time for consideration and evaluated the material myself, what I can say is the book content is excellent, so the blurbs are not unearned and are truly what the blurb writers believe. It is unlikely she could have gotten this far if her work wasn’t able to stand on its own, favors only go so far. 

I will tamp down my own petty jealousy at not having immediate access to that kind of start up fund money for my business or resources to make vast and meaningful change in this upside-down world and move along.

**END OF TOO LONG INFORMATION LITERACY RANT LESSON**

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The chapters of this book are organized by intended lesson. Before she gets into actionable steps for raising a money-smart kid, she has “14 Rules for Talking to Your Kids About Money.” These include effective educational methods like using stories, making the lesson age appropriate, have every adult in the child’s life a part of their money teachers, and not shying away from using numbers. Like a parent gently explaining that the dog does not want to be cuddled so tightly and maybe you should let it go (that’s not just my childhood, right?), she tells the reader some rules that may make one uncomfortable, like: don’t lie about your money history, recognize you may not have a healthy relationship with money yourself, and keep money fights behind closed doors. (Okay, fine, I’ll let the dog go now…)

After these short few pages, she jumps into the lessons. Here are the aspects of money management she teaches, by chapter: 

• The importance of savings and how to save money

• Working

• Debt

• Spending wisely

• Insurance

• Investing

• Giving

• College

Each chapter is anywhere from twenty to thirty pages, with large type and lots of sidebars so they’re quick to get through. They all follow the same format, overview of chapter, then one to four easy to implement lessons for each of the following groups:

• Preschooler

• Gradeschooler

• junior highschooler

• Highschooler

• College student

• Young adult

Because the format encompasses twenty years of your child’s life, this is a good book to keep around for continual reference and to pass along to friends once you’ve incorporated all the age-appropriate lessons into your daily dealings with your kids. Just make sure to get it back as every few years the lessons change. Or check it out from the public library since I’ll bet (and hope) she’s going to be putting out updated versions of this title and you don’t want to have to re-purchase it.

One of the strengths of the book is how well she builds lessons over the child’s life. Small kids are taught very general, and fundamental ideas. As they age, the concepts become more complex and the child learns to make harder choices that are ultimately far better in the long run. Here is an example progression of lessons from her chapter on spending, each designed to help kids learn how to spend money in a healthy manner:

• Preschooler: Use “gimmie” moments in the grocery store to teach the difference between needs and wants. When walking down the aisle, ask each other “need or want?” Needs go in the cart, wants, with a few exceptions, stay on the shelf.

• Elementary school: When possible, let your child make the tough needs versus wants spending decisions. Her example is for a child who was desperate for the hottest pair of sneakers to be given a gift card to a sporting store for exactly the cost of these expensive kicks (isn’t that what the kiddos say these days?). By giving the child agency to decide where the  money goes, the responsibility of whether it was a good or bad purchase is solely on the child. 

  Putting the onus on the child not only teaches them the value of money, but it also relieves parents from having to be the good/bad guy. WIN.

• Junior high: Whenever you’re out and your child asks you to purchase an impulse buy, agree only on the condition the child pays you back from their own money when you return home. This not only makes them reevaluate how much that item is worth to them, it is also a great transition step from being dependent to becoming independent.

• High school: If your child wants to spend their money on one big thing, remind them of all the smaller things they could buy for the same amount. If it’s their money, not something you think is “inappropriate or just a mistake,” and they are dead set on buying it, let them get it. If it turns out to be a good purchase, they’ve learned the value of money. If it turns out to be a bad purchase, they know themselves better and will avoid this pitfall later on when it will be a much more expensive lesson. (p. 110)

• College: This is probably the first time they’ll experience both how much less and how much more they have than others. It’s important they learn to be sensitive to others’ budgets and speak up when they can’t afford something. These are skills they’ll use to keep friends and stay out of debt the rest of their lives.

• Young adult: Don’t jump head-long into an “adult” life by buying things because they seem like a grown-up purchase. That’s a great way to lose all the money you’re hopefully earning in your first “real” job. 

Side note: I remember my old roommate George buying a new car as soon as he landed his first job out of college. That was in 2004. It was probably a $15,000 car. I don’t remember why he HAD to have it, as he already had an, admittedly beat-up, car that worked just fine. Looking back all I can think is that if he had invested that instead, he’d now have about $50,000. If he left it there, he would have $325,000 by the time he retired. And this amount isn’t even including the increase in his insurance premium he must have had to make as a man ($) in his early twenties ($$) with a new car ($$$). #OnlyBuyUsedCars

A strong bonus with this title is that anyone scared of money management, jargon, or finances in general or anyone who feels they can never learn proper money management would do well to read this book. The content is always directly linked with money’s role in your life, making money management far simpler to understand and less intimidating to approach.

Parents who aren’t currently good with money will learn from the ground up how to be good with money. They will have a strong incentive - wanting their child to be as successful as possible - to implementing positive financial behaviors themselves. If they don’t know what positive financial behaviors are, they will learn through this book. Since the book is relatively free of jargon or explains concepts in a manner a child can understand, it won’t scare away those who don’t know the terms yet. 

Because of its simplicity and forthright action steps, I strongly recommend this book to parents who want to raise children with a healthy relationship to, and understanding of, money. It may also be a great starting point for those who think of themselves as so “bad” with money that they would never pick up a financial book which was written for them.

Cheers, 

Ms. Moody