A recent survey of young teenagers found that 56 % of them believed that they would become rich during their lifetimes. That’s not too surprising, but this is—the three ways they thought they’d become rich.
According to this survey, here are the top three ways teens thought they’d get rich:
First, by becoming a highly paid professional athlete. Second, by winning the lottery.
Third, by cashing in on a large lawsuit!
I couldn’t believe it! A majority of teens believe they will get rich by playing sports or playing the lottery or making someone pay in a lawsuit! They didn’t even consider the possibility of becoming financially well off through hard work and wise spending.
This demonstrates how important it is for parents and grandparents to train children to handle money God’s way. Proverbs 22:6 says, “Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Well, how do we train children to wisely handle money? We need to become MVP parents. That’s an acronym. The M stands for Model. The V for Verbal communication and the P stands for Practical Opportunities.
We need to be models of how to handle money because children soak up parental attitudes toward money like a sponge soaks up water. So, we must be good models ourselves. Then, we must, verbally tell our children why we handle money the way do. For instance, share with them that you are getting out of debt because Proverbs 22:7 says, “the borrower is servant to the lender,” and you want to be free. And finally, we should provide our kids practical opportunities to apply what they are learning.
Written by Howard Dayton
