One of the most important moments that children can be taught financial literacy or anything at all is when they crave the knowledge themselves. These moments are referred to as teachable moments and they come up every day. That is one of the reasons why it is advisable that we have time for our children as it is easier to reach them when we know what they think about, how they feel and the questions they have about life. Asides making out time to deliberately teach our children what we believe they need to know, we also need to create time to feel how well they have digested all the information and what they are willing to do with it.

Ever since I knew this I always listened to my children’s conversation even when they are not talking to me. I want to know what they know and believe. I want to know their pains and joy. I want to know who they are and what they are aspiring to become. As soon as I sense an opportunity to say something, I chip in my counsel or direction depending on what the topic is about. On one of those occasions during the summer holiday, I was driving down the road when my older son told his brother “I wonder why these men won’t just go to the ATM to get money instead of begging. Don’t they know many people won’t give them enough money?” Hmnnnnn! He said this when we passed a set of beggars at a traffic light point.

Those statements are loaded with all sorts of information for me to further explain more about earning money, saving or money in bank and giving.

My son needs to understand that no one gets money when he or she hasn’t given out value in anyway. The beggar cannot have money in his account except he does something else that fetches him money. I once heard of a beggar who invested the money he got from alms in building a house; therefore asides from the alms he gets daily he also earns passive income from rent. Some beggars also give out change to people and make some margin on it. Apart from these scenarios of beggars who have added some intelligence to begging, there is no how a beggar can have money in the bank if all he does is beg and spend on his daily living. I had to explain the fact that everyone needs to find something to do without giving excuses for their shortcomings. Everyone has one skill or the other that can be put to use. If we all sit back and complain and decide not to work then the whole world will be in trouble.

I also went ahead to explain to him that some people need help because of some medical conditions or life situations that they found themselves in. I told him that God expects people who have to give them so that everyone can be happy. It is not for us to judge why or how they got themselves into it because time and chance happens to us all. No one planned to be born poor, therefore if you are born rich or become rich in life then it is your duty to help the poor. That pleases God and has a lot of reward coming with it, including the ability to make more money.

Another thing I also reiterated was the fact that they both (referring to my children now) need to be worthy stewards of their resources as it is God’s but it was just channeled through them. Every time you have money, think “What would God have me do?” and that should be your next line of action. God will not have us spend without thinking or planning properly, He doesn’t want us to be careless and He doesn’t want us to think short-term or about ourselves only. He also doesn’t want us to waste our gifts and talents; rather he expects us to improve on them. I reminded them about Usain Bolt who uses the skill he has, running, to make a name and a fortune for himself. No gift should be overlooked.

That ended the class for the day but I am sure they got a better understanding of money much more than I would have done in a classroom setting. Albert Einstein said “If you can’t explain it to a 6 year old then you don’t know it”. Get all the knowledge you need to explain money matters to your children and don’t waste any more of those teachable moments.

How have you been able to maximise teachable moments? Let’s hear your experience.

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– Gbonjubola Sanni