Hi Everyone,
Before going to our next neuvola visit I figure that I'll take a little break from complaining in order to focus on something positive. A lot of what I've taken on and will be taking on in the future is documenting things that I perceive to be wrong. Still, the best way to elicit positive change is to focus on and accentuate the positive. I've been thinking a lot about things that would be good for Finland, and I think I might be on to something cool and new...
I owe a great deal of credit to a video by Stefan Lindfors for getting my train of thought started toward positive things. The aforementioned video sent my thoughts into an interesting direction: I want to inspire Finns to be the best that we can be. I want to inspire Finns to focus on the things we can do to take control of our own destinies and make the most of our lives. Rather than comparing our car to our neighbor's nicer car, and being happy if his car falls apart, we can focus on getting a suitable, nice car for ourselves.
If you have read any of my previous posts or even just the title of this blog, you may be wondering: "Why is this relevant at all to a cradle-to-grave nanny state?" The answer is quite simple: If we are constantly comparing ourselves to our friends and neighbors, we open ourselves to an authoritative system that is designed to guarantee an equal outcome for everyone. Rather than taking personal initiative to get what we want in life, we simply accept a fate nearly equal to that of everyone else around us. This means, that the best way to avoid succumbing to a nanny state is to proactively take personal responsibility for each area of our lives and teach our children to do the same.
Two Fridays ago, I was introduced to a new friend over lunch. We had a stimulating and imaginative time connecting and talking about many things. In my opinion, the most important thing that we talked about was parenting. We shared a bit about our childhoods and he told about his wonderful children, and the things that they can do. As an expectant father, it was great to get this man's support and advice. It was through him sharing a small, but immensely powerful parenting tactic with me, that I was inspired to even think of this cool and new idea.
My new friend told about a tactic which he and his wife use to teach responsibility to their children. They own a container of poker chips and the children can earn chips of different values by doing different prescribed things. They can spend their poker chips to earn time to use electronics among other rewards. This reminded me of a similar strategy that my own mother implemented in the lives of my brother and me. The system involved stickers, charts, cotton-balls and pretend money, but the underlying principle was the same: parents teach responsibility through a payment system, and children use the payment system to obtain things that they want.
I propose that a similar system be made readily available for children to learn even more than responsibility and the value of money. I believe that we can extend the idea to also teach the value of simultaneously investing in the future and being altruistic. I believe we can boil the idea down to teaching children three basic principles:
1. Personal responsibility.
2. Investing.
3. Caring for Others.
The basic idea is to start a savings account, and a trust or an investment account, both of which are co-owned by parent and child, the contents of which are given to the child at the age of 18. Children can earn up to a certain amount per week, as determined by the parents, based on how much their responsibilities are "worth." Then we, the parents then teach the children: "50%, or 1/2 of this amount is going into your investment account. We can watch it grow together! 10% of this amount we can decide together how you are going to help others with it. This leaves you with 40%."
Parents can sign up children of any age. I personally believe that this should begin at as early of an age as possible. For some this might be six or eight years old, for others it might be only three or four. Even if your child is older than this, it is still not too late to start teaching these important values!
My wife and I are thinking, that we'll stick with poker chips or monopoly money until our children are six. At this point we'll likely start our children with up to 20€/week (depending upon performance of required tasks, behavior, and attitude), up to 10€ of which we will invest, 2€ (or more) of which we will donate, and up to 8€ of which our child gets to keep and use as he sees fit. We will then increase the maximum available amount by 5€/year until they are 12 and receiving 50€/week, investing 25€, and donating 5€. Keeping this process going until they are 16, and averaging an approximate 7% return, our child would have 14.670,00€ when he turns 18. This is enough to invest in starting up his own business, paying a down payment on a house, or many other things. When our child is ready for it, we can discuss the pros and cons of any of these strategies.
I haven't yet figured out the logistics of implementing this idea, but figured on putting this out on the internet in hopes of inspiring others to work together to establish a group dedicated to doing this and educating others. Perhaps some might be willing to donate legal advice or money for administration; furthermore, businesses, insurance companies, investment banks, credit unions, purveyors of investment vehicles etc. might be willing to sponsor the administrative and education aspects of this idea. Together, we can help a new generation adopt a "can-do attitude," and teach them personal responsibility, investing, and caring for others.
Yours,
Matt!
All images used are solely for nonprofit educational use.
