How Much Money Do Kids Need to Feel Rich? You May Be Surprised.
Don’t be fooled by the lists that they’ve got: Kids just need Lego blocks — and candy and attention, honestly — to feel like they’re wealthy.
When asked, “How much money do you need to be rich?” in a revealing new Yahoo Personal Finance and Yahoo Parenting exclusive video, the young children, polled in New York City’s Times Square, report that even relatively modest sums of money would make them feel set for life.
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“Five dollars,” is the grand total that one tot requires, showing a smidge more financial savvy than the little girl who insists that “six monies” is all she needs, so she can buy sweets. And while other kids toss out fantastical sums, including a “trillion” from a young girl who hopes she’ll never have to work, there are some seriously thoughtful responses that can teach parents a thing or two about having gratitude for whatever sum they may be sitting on. One serious boy replies that to feel rich he’d only need $100 “because many people in the world don’t even have that much.”
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With a majority of Americans anxious over the amount in their bank accounts — 72 percent of adults report feeling stressed about money, according to a 2014 American Psychological Association survey — that little thought offers a big reminder that feeling “rich” is about so much more than a bank account balance.
“Kids, frankly, don’t need a whole heck of a lot to feel wealthy,” the Money Coach founder and financial expert Lynnette Khalfani-Cox tells Yahoo Parenting. “Parents who are constantly buying things for their children, over-the-top toys, gifts, and $5,000 gaming sets and electronics” are missing the point, she says. They should instead take notice of that wise little man’s reminder and the lesson it offers.
The idea of being able to “widen our perspective and learn to feel grateful for the things we have and the things we take for granted,” Cox says, will benefit adults and children alike. And it’s a parent’s job to impart that idea. “We have to define what wealth and riches mean for our family,” she says. “We can show kids that you can be rich by the life that you live — being happy, healthy and fulfilled — not just by growing the zeroes in your bank account.”
The kids in this video show a refreshing lack of “accumulitis,” as Jayne Pearl, coauthor of Kids, Wealth, and Consequences calls it. And she finds it encouraging, noting, “It’s a really good opportunity for parents to think about exploring what ‘rich’ is to their kids.”
Too often, moms and dads shy away from financial talk with their little ones, Pearl tells Yahoo Parenting. “But you don’t have to have an MBA to teach kids about money, just get real with them.” If asked the dreaded, “How much do you make?” question, simply answer with the same perspective that you should strive to teach. “The correct answer is always that, ‘We’re wealthier than some other people, and other people are wealthier than us,” says Pearl. “’We’re lucky to have what we have.’”
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