Teaching Kids to Earn Money and Boosting Family Cash Flow on Financial Fitness Friday

Hey there, parents. Welcome back to Financial Fitness Friday. And today we're going to talk about how to respond to your kids when they beg for more or when they really want something that you also want them to have, but you're just not sure where the funds are going to come from. Today, I'm going to share some tips on talking to your kids about money when things are tight and some fun ideas for you and your child or team to boost your family's cash flow. Stay tuned. Hey there, parents. Thanks for listening to the No Problem Parenting podcast. Are you ready to become the confident leader your kids crave you to be? Are you losing your crap on your kids, yelling, giving in and exhausted at the end of every day? You can start building confidence in your parenting immediately, whether your child is a toddler or all grown up and still living in your house. Don't make this parenting gig harder than it needs to be. Register to become a no problem parent. It comes with an app so you can listen to the tips and tools,

just like you're listening to this podcast. Click the link in the show notes or go to no problem parents.com become a no problem parent today. All right, parents, welcome back. I'm Jackie Finneman, your host. And today we're talking all things money and how to respond to our kids when they're begging for more, but also keeping with our optimistic theme for 2024. I want to talk about being positive and empowering our kids when it comes to money, instead of always being like, oh, we can't afford it or quit asking. And I'm tired of you asking for things that, you know, I can't buy you. Instead, how about we start having the conversations right away about the real world options that are available for people to be able to earn more or make more money or bring in some extra cash flow. There are always options for bringing in more money. It's just dependent on whether or not you're willing to put in the extra work or sometimes the inconvenience.

I'll finish up with some resources and then 15 real world lessons, skills that kids learn when either they or you choose one of these three options. All right, let's get right into them. Option number one, freelancing or side gigs. So think about the skills that you and or your kiddos have, the interests that you have.

You can kind of sit down and even brainstorm some of the things that you like to do. Is there a way that you can turn your interests into a side gig or a freelancing opportunity? So whether that's writing or graphic design or tutoring, you know, there's a lot of platforms out there that connect freelancers with potential clients. And is it too early for our teens?

When our teens can tutor another student in school, is there an option for them to do that online and bring in some income? Maybe your kids enjoy making crafts or jewelry or repurposing furniture. Consider selling those items. There are so many options and you can teach your kids valuable skills in the process.

We're going to get into that in a little bit. And then think about is there a product that you or your family uses that you just absolutely love? Is there an option to become an advocate if it's a multi-level marketing company? Is there a way that you can get an affiliate link to promote the resources or the product that you're buying already that you absolutely love?

It's so fun to be able to share and make a little extra income off the products that you're already enjoying. And if nothing else, oftentimes you get those products at a reduced rate. And it's just super fun. If I love doTERRA, we're actually creating a new landing page on our website with the certain products that I love because it's like, why wouldn't I want to share those?

Beauty Counter, another one, love their face products, love their mission. You've heard that on a couple Sundays ago, we did a self-care Sunday and all the work that they are doing with the environmental working group and with legislature to get toxins out of the regular everyday products that we use, you know, toothpaste and hair care and laundry detergent and makeup and all the things. I also love Call Me Go. You guys have heard me talk about Call Me Go before. And Cutco, my son and I did a side hustle together this last summer with Cutco Kitchen Cutlery. It was amazing. We both learned a ton and we love the product. Like he and I are both hooked. Our whole family is.

My husband even loves cooking more because of the kitchen cutlery. So when you're starting your own side hustle, work with your financial advisor, talk to your tax accountant, be prepared, right? There are so many ways to make extra income just depending on how much time, effort you want to put in teaching and educating your kids. The next way to earn some extra dollars or some income or to teach your kids about it is declutter your house, your kid's room and sell the unwanted items. I know this sounds like a Captain Obvious, but how many of us actually do it? Take a look around your house. Chances are there are items that you no longer need that you're not going to use again.

Maybe you did some redecorating. Maybe your kids have grown out of some of their toys or clothes. decluttering not only helps just kind of clear out the extra chaos in your home, it can also be a source of extra income and a great way to start your kids off, especially if they're younger, they're little, to teaching them about money and saving. There's all kinds of online marketplaces or online garage sales. You can also have an in-person garage sale. Start collecting things throughout the winter months or the cooler months or when garage sales aren't really in season.

and have the kids learn about pricing them and, you know, looking things up and finding how much they should charge or how much is the shipping going to be if you're using an online platform. There are so many lessons learned from that and they can kind of start their own little side hustle or help you with yours and they can make a cut off of that. They can be your employee and you help me mark all the garage sale items or you help me set this up and you're going to get X amount of the sales. Get your kids involved and have them take a look at what they're no longer using or playing with that somebody else might enjoy. One of my new favorite online marketplaces is Mercari. So there'll be a link in the show notes for that. They make it super easy to sell your items and there's lots of other really high quality items on there from other sellers. So it's kind of a fun site to be at. All right, number three, consider some remote or part-time work.

There are more opportunities than ever for part-time or flexible employment. You might be thinking, oh my gosh, I already have a full-time job. I can't possibly fit anything else in. Guess what? You probably could. Even if you only had two extra hours a week or four extra hours a week, there are lots of remote options out there based on how many hours you want to work a week. Or if you just want like a specific part-time kind of gig, if you are a stay at home mom and you've chosen to put your career on hold so that you can stay home and raise your kiddos, but you want to keep your resume sharp and kind of keep your foot in the door a little bit, feed your interests and bring some extra cash in. Take a look at bus stop mamas. They have job connections, flexible job options in person and remote. There are some of us that want to do a part-time gig, but we want to get out of the house because we're just always cooped up. We're always in the house. Check out busstopmamas.com and sign up to receive their job postings. I'll just send them to you each week in an email until you have found the right fit for you. All right. So there's your three ideas for how you can bring in some extra income, teach your kids to bring in some extra income,

do it together as a family or individually when you do any one of those three things. Here are 15 lessons, skills, benefits of teaching your kids how to earn their own money. Number one, you're teaching entrepreneurial skills. Children can learn the basics of what it means to start a company, including identifying opportunities, creating a product or a service, and managing a small business. Tailor this dependent on your child's age, but yes, you can teach them as young as four.

You know, remember the lemonade stands? Remember paper routes? You know, we can teach our kids super young, not only how to bring that money in and then what to do with that money. And we're going to continue to bring guests on and share information about how you can teach your kiddos the value of money and money management. Okay, number two, financial literacy. Your kids are going to learn a very practical understanding of budgeting and income and expenses and savings.

Your kids are going to learn about profit and revenue and the importance of financial planning and what all those words mean. Talk about building a vocabulary. Number three, they're going to learn time management, balancing school and work and other responsibilities, which is teaching our kids, but our whole family about prioritization and making sure that we're being intentional, creating good boundaries and following through with the things that we've said we were going to do.

So super great for time management. Number four, of course, it's teaching responsibility and accountability. So being accountable for delivering a product or a service, showing up on time, all of that's teaching responsibility. And if you're doing a project together as a family, you're learning that being accountable to each other directly impacts the success of the side hustle and how much cash flow you're able to bring in.

All right, number five, problem solving skills, facing challenges and solving problems, maybe shipping cost more than you were budgeting in, or maybe you had a disgruntled customer or an order didn't go right or something like that. These are great problem solving skills for kids to work through when they're in the comfort of your own home. And you can share with them how to respond in those kind of uncomfortable situations with customers, which leads us to number six, communication skills, learning about how to interact with customers or vendors, teaching them how to articulate their ideas or negotiate a problem or provide good customer service. You One of the best things that my son learned last summer doing that Cutco gig was picking up the phone and calling people.

Now, I'm not a super big fan of cold calling. I don't like the salesy kind of pitches and approaches, but there were so much to be gained by him even learning how to have the confidence and not take personally if somebody said, no, I don't want to buy that. Or they'd had a previous poor experience with a telemarketer or a multi-level marketing kind of person. And it taught him that the person isn't rejecting him.

They're rejecting the product. They're just not into it. And it's like, no sweat off your back. You don't have to put any of your own emotion into somebody saying no. So super great for communication skills and how to present yourself. There's so much more I could talk about just from that one experience, but we're going to run out of time. So number seven, marketing and promotion. So learning how to market and promote a product or a service. It's teaching the valuable skills of advertising, branding and reaching a target audience who's interested in what I have to sell or the service I can provide. Number eight, it teaches adaptability, learning to adjust, how to be patient, or how to make a decision really quickly and have to punt in the moment. All of these things are super beneficial for our kids and teens. Number nine is teamwork and collaboration. Obviously,

if you're doing a family side hustle, there's a lot of collaboration that's involved in that. Kids can learn the importance of teamwork, communication, and leveraging other people's strengths. So what am I not so great at that's frustrating for me, but what is my brother or my sister or my mom or my dad really good at that they can take that role on? Again, it was super fun for my son and I. There were certain things I was better at with organization and he lacked in that area or just didn't have the interest. And then there were things like remembering what the best knife was for cutting this vegetable or meat, which he like remembered all of it. And so when I would have a question, I could call him or I could ask him a question later. And he remembered so much more about the actual products than I did. So leveraging each other's strengths was a super great lesson for both of us. All right. And then number 10, one of my favorites is confidence building. Of course, you all know that I love helping parents become the confident leaders.

I say our kids crave us to be the more confident we are, the more confident our kids become. And successfully managing a side hustle or starting a little side gig and selling products or having a garage sale or a lemonade stand is super great in building up kids' confidence and their self-esteem. And of course, they're going to have those times when things don't go so well. So their self-esteem maybe or their confidence is going to get a hit and get Nick. But seeing the results of all their efforts and getting that first sale and second sale and reaching their targets is a great confidence booster and super empowering for kids. And of course, makes us feel extra good too, which is icing on the cake. All right, number 11 is networking. This goes along a little bit with the communication stuff, but learning to engage with their local community or their online platform.

It helps kids build, number one, a network, but also to learn the importance of connections and how their connections can open doors to new opportunities for them. All right. And the number 12, it teaches delayed gratification. We have done other episodes about the importance of delayed gratification and, you know, building a side hustle or starting selling a product.

It takes time. It takes effort and it takes persistence because you don't always get those wins right away. And when you don't get the wins right away, it teaches us to recover, right, with our self-esteem and our confidence from that. But it also teaches us the concept of the rewards come with sustained effort, with consistency, but they don't always come right away.

So they learn patience and a lot about delayed gratification. All right, number 13 is understanding risks and rewards. It's an opportunity to teach our kids about risks, assessing the risk. What is a risk? What is a potential risk? How can they make informed decisions and understand that the success often comes with taking some risks and having some challenges along the way?

All right, number 14 again goes along with communication, but customer service. So providing really good customer service is crucial for any business. Giving kids the skills to learn how to listen to their customer needs and address customer concerns and deliver a really good experience for the customer is super key. And we can be teaching that in play as young as three, you know, two, three and four years old when we're playing restaurant or grocery store with our kids when they're little. And then all the way through to their teenage years when we're teaching them about how to respond to a disgruntled or upset customer. And again, not putting in all of that extra emotion into or becoming defensive or resistant with the customer while setting good boundaries so that the customer doesn't walk all over you at the same time. Super great lesson.

All right, number 15. This is the last one for today. Pride comes with ownership and with being the founder of something, the inventor of something, the creator of something. So while the earning and the money part is so great, it's also the emotional and the personal connection that the person has with all they've accomplished in developing their business or their side hustle and its success. So I think it's a great thing to be teaching our kids. And many of you have heard me say before that I don't often tell my son that I'm proud of him. I say things like, I'm happy for you. I prefer that his pride comes from the inside out so that he doesn't feel that his job is to make dad or I happy or to please us. That it really needs to come from the inside out.

our pride is just icing on the cake. So of course we're proud of our son and the accomplishments and the things that he does, but we don't lead with that. We would prefer for him to have that pride and that success and that feeling of accomplishment come from the inside out. All right, you guys, there are 15 real world lessons when a child learns to earn how to earn their own money, whether it's through a side hustle, selling a product, having a garage sale or a lemonade stand, or it's getting an in-person or remote part-time job.

Remember at No Problem Parenting, we only give problems as much attention as they deserve and then we keep removing all problems. It says right in the definition of the word problem. All problems are meant to be dealt with and overcome. So there is a solution for any challenge that you have right now where you're not succeeding in your financial goals or you're needing some extra income.

It's not always easy, but there is a way. Have fun with this as a family, modeling how to do this rather than just lecturing about money, approaching the conversation about money and earning money with openness and emphasizing teamwork and focusing on solutions. Turn your money problems into no problem. Take charge of your finances so that the messages around money that you ingrain in your kids are ones of abundance rather than scarcity.

And I've shared links in the show notes for some of the products, some of my favorite products, also some resources that I mentioned earlier in the show that I have found helpful. Share with me what are you and your kids doing to make a little bit of extra cash or if you have a child that started their own business, let us know about it. We'd love to learn from you and to support you in your business. So that's it for today. You guys tune in next Friday for more financial fitness tips. All right, that's it for today's episode of the No Problem Parenting Podcast. Hey, thanks guys for tuning in. If you found value in today's episode, click the subscribe button and share it with other parents who might need a little boost.

Stay connected on our socials by following at No Problem Parents for more parenting tips and get your free download of the 60 ways to respond to your kids without losing your cool. Go to noproblemparents.com. Until next time, remember your confidence comes from embracing both successes and setbacks. So take a deep breath, embrace the chaos, and remember you got this.