Q1. Is educating your child about money/finance important you?
If not,
Q1-1. Is there any reason why?
If so,
Q1-2. On a range of 1 - 10 how important is it? Why do you place it there?
Q1-3. What do you consider is the most important aspect of educating your
children about finances/money?

Q1:
"Very much so."

Q1-2:
"Probably a 7. Because I think that this stage in life it is easier for them to understand
the basic concept, of i guess financial wisdom; so in a few years the number will decline
as they get closer and closer to being on their own. but at this point they can understand the money
that they have can be used to pruchase something but it can also be something that is saved.
Like I said the more that they grow and their wisdom and understanding of the value of a dollar
then my number will grow at that point, it is a 7 right now because of how I have to relate to them."

Q1-3:
"I think that the number one is modeling what it means to be health financially, um so my wife and I do it well.
Modeling what it means to be wise, also taking advantage of teaching opertunities for them; so oppertunities
where they have to chose between immediate gratification and possibly waiting and teaching them at that
point as well. Things like that."

Q1:
"Yes".

Q1-2:
"I would set at 8 because we live in the expensive state/community and kids need to go to college, so we talked about finances a lot which will come up. Also, we are very transparent about the family finances with them".

Q1-3:
"We try to work with them on how to live with a certain budget and be very clear/transparent with them about how life works in terms of how things are paid (such as bills and loans)".

Q1:
"yes."

Q1-2:
"ummm on an 8. We'll I think it's not on a daily,
maybe weekly conversation but it's not more
then that."

Q1-3:
"I think the spending and saving so how they spend
and look at prices of things, sort of more of the daily,
and that we don't really talk about investing."

Q1:
"yeah"

Q1-2:
“Like 7, It’s always good to know how to manage your money and it’s really hard to do when you’re older and haven’t learned how to do it. So if you start early its a lot easier.”

Q1-3:
“How to save money”

Q2. When is the first/last time you and your children talked about finances/money?
Q2-1. Why (what triggered the conversation)?

Q2:
"Yeah that probably was a long time ago I have been very transparent with my son from day one on all subject matters from finance to sexuality. So I believe as soon as he becomes comprehensive age I was instituted some of those messages in his head, because I myself have umm overcome debt and you know went through all those financial hardships that I don't want him to go through. So I'd say probably as soon as maybe age of 7 or 8 somewhere around that time is when I probably started talking to him about that. And I would think I, as a matter fact I know this as a fact that the latest time I spoke to him regarding this was um a few weeks ago as he is now a college student, and he's getting a tone of applications in the mail for credit cards and I hide them vigerously, um but I wanted to make sure that A he understands the value the he is receiving by having a scholar ship to go to University, um how important that is going to be long term for him not to have that student loan debt, as you guys probably know yourself. Um as well as he has a weekend job right now so I constantly keep encouraging him that you know the $150 - $200 that he makes every week from his job that he does on the weekends outside his classes how importnat it is to just save it, and apply it to the right things, like he already is going grocery shoping, he is becoming a little adult because he is living on campus, so I constatnly keep on encouring him, and I think a lot of that can be learned through encourgament not necissaraly through mandating or delegating or saying you should do this because I do this, but explainging why financial health is really not imporatnt right now but sets a tone for the remainder of your life."

Q2:
For All Children:
"First time was probaly jackson he's my oldest's
third birthday or so; it was triggered by him getting money
for his birthday from his grandmother and he wanted to buy
something and teaching him how much he can afford with
what he has; the last time was today with my 5 year old who
wanted to know why it wasn't possible for me to buy him a
bycicle right now bicycle."

Q2:
For Evan (21) - "The last time was actually 24 hours ago. We gives him an allocation each week—transter funds into his account—and he uses it as some miscellaneous expenses for a collage. And he wanted to increase the amount of it so we discussed (increasing of the allocation was the trigger of the whole conversation); usually, the conversation related to finances triggers by a request. The first time was when we went to shopping at Toys R Us; he wanted a certain kind of toy and we talked him how great toy to have, but we had a certain budget and it did not fit into the budget. And around that time, we had a rule; if he wants something, he has to sleep for 24 hours before making a decision. Even though he thought it was annoying, we tried to teach “Delayed Gratification” in terms of purchasing decisions."

For Ellen (17) - "She has a job now, and sures about how much is earned, what are the current paychecks, and what she is planning to spend; these triggered the last conversation. The first time was when she was 5-6th grade and similar to Evan; wanted something that is over budget."

Q2:
For Evan:(21) - "we'll I guess it might
have been around gosh I don't know
when we were out buying things, it's usually around
things they want and things they can afford to buy, and
more recently in about the last month,
it's been about things he has money for to purchase.
And him deciding on what things he want to purchase."

For Ellen:(17) - "I'm not really sure it might have been around
the same age or you know when they were certinly when
they were in elementy school. Um yeah. It was
probably around the same thing, something they want,
and something ither we couldn't afford or soemthing we were
thinking about buying or something like that."
"We'll now that she has her own job so she's
been talking about things that she wants to buy
and how she is going to spend her money, so
we've been talking about her spending her money
and maybe saving some of that for maybe college for
insidentals and things like that."

Q2:
“probably this morning we are saving up for a trip to Disney land, and for the first time about a year ago it was also for this Disney land trip when he was five years old.”

Q3. Have your children learned about finances/money?
If not,
Q3-1. Is there any reason why?
If so,
Q3-2. Who teaches your children about finances/money?
If the interviewee,
Q3-2-1. What made you decide to teach your children about it?
Q3-2-2. Where do you go to teach them?
Q3-2-3. How do you teach them? What methods are you using?
If not the interviewee,
Q3-2-4. Why not let others do the teaching for you?
Q3-2-5. What keeps you from teaching your children about financing?

Q3-2-1:
"I think again because I have experianced financial hardships myself, as a parent I want to make sure he learns from my mistakes and not makes his own mistakes, and because I myself was not educated about finances, and I had to learn it from my own mistakes. I want to make sure the experiance that I went through, and the knowldege that I didn't receive, that he had a better start for his adult life.

Q3-2-2:
"When I have experianced financial hardship myself, Um and having no prior experiance on how to overcome it, I had to do a lot of educating myself, so I used resoruces like credit karama.com, as well as general online education that I could get to understand what it takes to have a good credit score, what a good credit score means, Uh what does it mean to have stability and uh financial health, so really I speak to him from experiences, I would even take it a step further through my own education I became an um, I don't want to toot my own horn but somewhat of an expert in this, and I have helped multiple friends over come debt, uh from again from what I learned from my own experiacne, so I ummm put that towards my son in the same way as do towards others as much as I can, but probably with more pasion towards him because he is my child."

Q3-2-3:
"Yeah I think that being really stright forward and really being explicit as far as to what the concequences are of poor financial decisions, and how much time it takes to over come them, for example if you are over thrity days late paying your credit card bill, it stays on your record for seven years, seven years is a VERY LONG TIME, and it really puts a ding in your record. There is a 30 day late, a 60 day late, and a 90 day late they are all significante, but they all put a ding on your credit report for seven years, so um communicating that and being straight forward about that and also, um recomending positive behavior to take in regards to hey maybe you do want this brand new iPhone but guess what your old one is only a year old so you can probably still go with that, so disaplining yourself and I think at times it is even hard for even myself because I work hard so i feel also that I should be able to splurge a little bit, but I think it's understanding, what is the right chanels to spend your money on v.s. where its right to save, and I think also for myself now that I am older I am understanding the power of investmetns so the more that I am going to learn about that, the more I'm going to educate my son on the same subjects."

Q3:
"To some extent I would say yes, I think that they
understand the value of a dollar, and not only the
value of a dollar I think they understand that you
need to be wise with your spending because
instant gratification leads to being broke,
if not later in life going into debt. Yeah I think they
grasp the basic concept, I'm just not sure they
understand the entire breath of waht it means to
be financially wise."

Q3-2-1:
"Looking at myself and the fact that I was not taught about it
and the struggles that I had when I became an adult because
of that, and poor choices I decided to teach them at a young age
so that hopefully not only what they've learned from my mistakes,
they would never have to make those same mistakes as well."

Q3-2-2:
"no we don't go anywhere specificly, most conversations take,
place around the kitchen table."

Q3-2-3:
"Umm basically my method is them bringing all their accumulated money
rather it be cash or coin to the table, then tell me what they need, then we
open the computer or I'll use my phone and we'll look up what it is that they want
what the cost is, and then we'll begin to calculate what they have versus what they want,
then I tell them basically I tell them you can get this thing that cost this ammount,
you might be able to find something similar that not the same exact brand but it cost less,
or you may be able to wait and then after christmas or after your birthday you'll have enough,
plus more and you can get what ever you want and still have money left over."

Q3-2-1:
"A major driver is looking ahead towards college expenses and making clear about the fact that a certain funds are set aside for a specific usage/purpose and based on that, we explains our children why it cannot be used for that or that".

Q3-2-2:
"Random conversation as things come up".

Q3-2-3:
"Usually, it is just a casual conversation explaining how the world works".

Q3:
"I think that probably if mostly from us if they have."

Q3-2-1:
"We'll certinly when they were getting an allowance,
or if they are making their own money and we'll we set
up checking accounts for them and having a debit card.
so we really started talking about it then, some people
have asked, they don't write checks so they've read
places where it says bring in a check and they don't know,
so we've talked about those things too."

Q3-2-2:
"No we don't, yeah it's just a sper the momment thing."

Q3-2-3:
"Not really a method it's mostly just a conversation."

Q3:
“yeah he has”

Q3-2:
“probably me or my mom.”

Q3-2-1:
“I always saved up money as a kid and after I was able to buy a iPod it was the best feeling, and I have just been trying to save up money since I was little and thats something I should probably get him doing to.”

Q3-2-2:
“probably just whenever it gets brought up he has a piggy bank and an allowance and when we go and count it up thats when we talk about it.”

Q3-2-3:
“It’s pretty basic right now he’s learning addition and subtraction in school right now so we practice that and add it up”

Q3-2-4:
“I spend most of my time with my son and he’s with my mom once and a while and he doesn’t have the opportunity to talk about it with anyone else unless he’s learning it in school.”

Q3-2-5:
“I’m not quite sure what he’s ready to learn yet, so I don’t know its just going with the stages and it’ll end up becoming more complicated as he gets older.”

Q4. What do you think your child already knows about financing?

Q4:
"Thats a great question, um I think he knows that you can get into a lot of trouble, k, and you can Um there are some consequences to this, I don't think he explicitly knows those things that can get him in to that, but I think he is pretty cautious about that, um in general what can, he's just cautious in regards to credit, um as it's like a big word, I don't think he knows exactly what that means, but um thats ummm how do I put this, repeat that question again for me."

Q4(repeat):
"So again I think he knows the bigger picture in regards to specifics, I think he trusts me to ask for advice, which is a huge acomplismnet to me as a parent, but I don't know um that at this point he is in a place that he can make all his financial decisions without consulting someone who is knowlegable on the subject such as myself because I am his mom he can trust me, or any other person he would trust in that matter."

Q4:
"I think that they know money does not
grow on trees, I think that they know money
is something earned not stricktly given.
And they understand that this is going to sound strange
to say it this way but that money is something
that can bring temprary pleasure or enjoyment
if used wisely."

Q4:
"Not about stock market or how to invest, however, they know that we have a budget, make a budget, and set money aside for saving".

Q4:
"I think they know, I feel like they know
the value of a dollar they understand
you know when things aren't worth what
they say they cost, so if there's umm
but in very different areas so Ellen might
know more about it in terms of cloths, or
Evan with tools, and software, and hardware,
things like that. They understand when
things are worth what they're worth.
They've learned that."

Q4:
“Um I don’t know he knows how to save up money he knows to count it and decide what to spend it on and when to spend it on but beyond those two basic concepts not too much.”

Q5. Where do you go to find information about financing (in general)?
Q5-1. Why do you trust specific sources for financial information?
Q5-2. Why do you not trust others?

Q5-1:
"Yeah thats a great question I think that defanitly, Credit Karma has been a big thing for me, When I got mysefl into financial truble, I went through credit counsoling which is a non profit organization tha was called credit counsoling something they're here in SF. Through them they gave me some education some basic level education but its mostly like a catch all solution, so as I set really specific goals for myself to get myself out of that situation, I started looking deeper into avalible tools out there, that could help me manage my month to month and Credit Karma was one of them and I also had a friend who worked there and recomended it highly and I think having a really high visability into your spending and into how your credit moves up and down depending on what you're doing gave me confidence that any aditional content that they do have logs and aditional educational content on their site, that they were authentic. I think in adition to that, just going through the credit reports that are issued through experian, um and other credit burous, because they are government organizations, and because that is the true credit report that is being reviewd by credit granters out there so that if you buy a house or a car your credit report gets reviewed so thats one of them, theres three major credit beuros, that I think not only looking at them but thouroughly understanding it and top to bottom helped me really see how things move and how things chagne and what really impacts your credit, and any aditional content I can't think of a specific site but I think that going for soruces that seem to me are trust worthy just based off my experiance, I would go with that and seeing consistancy of information among different soruces, made it seem like its real because it is the same thing that multiple different soruces are reporting.

Q5-2:
"I think honestly what I don't trust is a word of mouth. I think I trust some people, but I think there are so many different people with so many different experiacnes, and everybody got their own differnt stories so i alwasy go for more credible written sources. I can't think of any specific source that is offical that I don't particularly trust. But when it comes to friends giving you advice or when you go on forums and somebody posts a questions and there is like one million answers you're going to have to take it with a grain of salt."

Q5:
"Umm haha I.. I don't go anywhere I don't
nessisarily seek out information about financing
to be honest with you."
Q5-1:
"There's no reason it's not a matter of lack of trust
it's just not something that I think about seeking out
daily or weekly."

Q5:
"Usually, it is from life experiences; Julian reads some blog postings of someone who has a specific point of view about savings and budgeting. My mother was grown up from a very poor community and frugal, therefore, generationally, I learned by modeled behaviors. Also, sometimes, TV, newspaper, magazine (occasionally bought money-related magazine)".

Q5-1:
"Not rely on a specific source".

Q5:
"Just online, or occasionally I would
go to my banks website but usually just
online at different places.

Q5-1:
"I don't do it as much anymore but I
used to read MONEY online, and then
the financial times, or wallstreet journal,
bigger broader concepts if I want to look at personal
savings or how I spend money, theres
this one guys website I go to, to read his blog,
abotu saving and getting out of debt,
and how people have learned to over come things.

Q5:
“I’ve taken a couple finance classes at my school.”


Q5-1:
“No I don’t really trust one source over another I mostly just trust my school.”

Q5-2:
“ I don’t have a problem with other sources, I’m sure as he gets older I’m going to have to look at more sources to learn what I need to teach him”

Q6. Do your children search online or ask others for this kind of information?
If so,
Q6-1. How often are your kids searching for this kind of information?
If rarely how come?
Q6-2. How often do you yourself search online for this kind of information?
If rarely how come?
If not,
Q6-3. Would you be willing to aid them in gathering this information?
Q6-4. How would you go about it?

Q6:
"I would say probably not just because knowing his age, thats probably not in his top tens of concerns at this point providing that the only bills he pays himself are his day to day spending, and his food, and stuff like that and his living, and school expensis are payed by me or his scholarship. So I don't think he has done that. If he has it probably would have been for something really specific like how to get a credit card, or how to get a loan, but I don't think he really inquires about a general how to be financially responsible I think that he'll rely on me for that."

Q6-3/4:
"I think that for what I know from a personal experience, he didn't feel like I was credible, I probably would to and try to find some other sources to back up what I'm saying, but I would probably defanilty speak for my own experiacne."

Q6:
"Uh not to my knowledge no,"
Q6-3:
"absolutely."
Q6-4:
"Umm probably do a google search see
if I can find any information that is relevent
to what it is that they're asking. Then go from that point."

Q6:
"Maybe not because they get money from us".

Q6-4:
"Yes. I compared the colleges regarding expenses with Edden and went to some workshops about financing colleges as well."

Q6:
"I don't know i'm not sure they might
but I don't know."

Q6-3:
"yeah!."
Q6-4:
"I'd send them websites or send them
articles, or different things like that,
particularly if there is videos about
something they'd like that."

Q6:
“No he goes on the internet to watch Minecraft videos.”
Q6-3:
“Probably I’m sure we could find some information on youtube but I doubt he’ll ask about that yet.”

Q6-4:
“Youtube videos”

Q7. What motivates/worries you as a parent when it comes to teaching your
children about finances/money?

Q7:
"So I think again that because I am a child of, I am an immagrent, and my family moved here to the united states when I was 13; so my parents were in their early 50's. So it was really challenging for them to adapt to american culture, and at the same time really dig deeper, because that is the time at the age of 13 that you really should start being really serious with your children about adulthood so I think my parents didn't really do a good job in that regard, I mean they were great parents, but they didn't really focus in those aspets because they didn't really know themselves, so I wanted to make sure that I did not make the same mistake. You know I didn't want him to get into student debts so I was very ambitious in helping him get financial assistance to go to college. I also didn't want him to go and sign up for the first credit card application that came in the mail, because I made that mistake, and you know I blew $1,000, and it grew itno 2K and 3K, and eventually it was the beggining of what turned out to be $25K debt. I wanted to make sure that he, is aware of the consequences, and that he has that enittial foundation and education of what good credit health is and how to maintian that and how to avoid very obvious pitfalls."

Q7:
"Um like I said motivate is just preperation for
the future. Worry there's not really a worry
because of the age of my children I'm still at a point where
I still have pretty good controle over what happens with them
financialy what they choose to do, so I don't really
have a worry about anything.

Q7:
"I want them to be able to live with their means and make informed decisions about purchases. Worries could be how to finance a college".

Q7:
"We'll I want them to be able to take care
of themselves to pay their rent buy
their groceries to understand that the
money they have is there for them to
help them do all of that, and to have fun.
What worries me is that things are
really expensive, and just so understanding
you know what they earn and how they
can make that dollar streatch."
"I worry that I don't, what I understand
about investing is limited and that
they could proabably learn more from
someone else than what I can provide."

Q7:
“I feel like it sounds bad but his dad is really bad with managing money so I want to make sure he’s getting good information and from people that actually know what they’re doing. That’s both the motivator and the worry. His dad worries me about finance information and also motivates me to make sure he gets the best information he can.”

Q8. What information do you wish you had when it comes to teaching your
children about financing?

Q8:
"I wish my parents would've taught me. I wish I would've been more aware of this myself, so that at this point in my life I could've had a better financial stability, you know I feel like i'm doing pretty well but I could probably be doing better at this time. And I think the sooner I would've learned it myself the more I would know by now. I've mentioned to you before I'm 40 years old and I've spent all my life up until now, maintaining healthy financial history, but my next decade is what I want to spend on growing my wealth. I want to invest and I want to sell stock, and mutual funds, you see right now when I hear those things I'm kind of like welll I don't really understand what those things mean but then again I was the same when when the whole conversation about credit not being in debt came around, so I wish I would've known this earlier, so I could've started teaching him about this earlier so I guess that would be my answer."

Q8:
"umm I think that if I had information that
was age appropriate some kind of tool of that
nature. Where it's not just basically a sper the
momment conversation, but there's something
where there's an actual plan um something that,
helps you to have dialogue but dialoge at an
age appropraite level."

Q8:
"I could not answer when children asked me about what is the estimated cost per year of collages and what is the average debt that people graduate from the campus, so went to the internet and looked into it".

Q8:
"Umm ... I don't know maybe some
more practical tools, to teach them
I mean they handel their money in
such a different way than how I grew
up I had checks and cash, before
debit cards and then debit cards and
now they do so much stuff over their phone.
I don't , I'm not as fassel with those
tools as much as they are so maybe just
some practical tools to help us have the
conversation."

Q8:
“Um I’d like to know what he’d be able to understand like developmentally at what age, because i’m not sure whats appropriate to be teaching him yet.”

Q9. What would you need to feel that your child is financially prepared for the
Future?

Q9:
"I guess I would like to see him, put some of the knowledge I gave him to work, I would like to see, maybe him get a credit card, and you know not get into debt. He does have a student bank account, so it's linked to mine so I kind of see, I don't by any chance by any means micro manage it, but I do see by his spendings that he is responsible so having that transparency helps. If he advances further than I had the opertunity to and maybe buys his first home by the age of 30, wrather than me being 40 and still not owning a home I think that, that would defanilty mean that I've done something right."

Q9:
"Time #1, like I said because of their age
it's hard to tell right now so time, and then
multiple observations of wise financial decisions
and then something I'm not even sure what
it would look like some form of a tool or
umm resoruce that help to mesure if they are
where they need to be with their age for
financial wisdom, some form of mile marker
saying that they should be doing this by
this age and that they should be doing this by
this age, just to know that they are on the correct
path."

Q9:
"I guess its just what I would need is
what I hear from them when they're
talking about how they spend their
money and so for example knowing
that they could compare pricing, like I
said earlier the value of something, that
way when they go out in the world
they're not going to get cheated somehow."

Q9:
“Umm if he had some sort of college fund or something.”


Q10. If you had a magic wand, what would you wish for to help you educate your child
about personal finance?

Q10:
"I wish that schools would teach children about finance. Theres so much enfasis on your algebra and biology, and all those other classes, and that there is not rally anyone who teaches you about good credit and how to pay your bills, my parents didn't teach me, school didn't teach me, Hey I ended up in debt and ended up teaching mysefl, I think that all of this could've been prevented if schools starting with probably 6th grade all the way up through highschool would have some kind of manditory financial education."

Q10:
"Okay so more money, no umm just kidding,
I think more wisdom, I don't think that I would
need more money to help I think that I would
need to be wiser with what I say it and how I
say it and how I direct my kids, um to be
able to insure that I am helping them down
the right path. So I would say more wisdom for
myself and wisdom could come from ither personal
experiance on my own some resource that helps me
be connected with other parents that are in the same
life pattern as I am, with their children as well,
and then also some form of resource for my kids to be able to
communicate with other kids their age aboout this very topic."

Q10:
"I would say some trusted blogs, podcasts and the most ideal will be a youtube channel where someone specifically talks about finances for people at their age".

Q10:
"If I had the ability to have a small investment
for each of them, that they could umm
invest and try and play with it a little bit
and try in the market, and so they could
see how it works when they invest in
different things, but thats a whole other
area in finance but that would be interesting
to see."

Q10:
“Oh um I have no idea, umm yeah I don’t know.”