How I Taught My Daughters to Practice Safe Debt & Money Management

My oldest daughter got her first credit card this past weekend, and she didn’t need me!

As dads, it’s our responsibility to make sure that we prepare our kids for the real world. To that end, understanding how money and debt work should be one of the top priorities.

Telling them to practice safe sex is critical- but so is practicing safe debt.

Education of Money

The process of educating my girls on money has been a lifelong endeavor.

I had them both read Rich Dad- Poor Dad. Then we had conversations to unpack the principles laid out in the book. I bought the game “Cash Flow for Kids” in 2011 to make learning fun and engaging. It’s like Monopoly but with more practical applications to the real world. They outgrew that version, so I got them the adult version in 2012.

The game introduced concepts and jargon that allowed us to have deep conversations about money through the years.

How Credit Scores Can Help or Haunt Your Lives

Until recently, I’ve had some terrible credit throughout my life.

This gave me the horror stories I needed to educate them on the real-life implications of poor money management. Both my girls know the rules of the money game and how credit scores are calculated.

One Last Lesson on Credit

Typically parents have to co-sign for their kid’s first car or apartment because they have no credit history.

I discovered a better approach to help them. Just add your underage kids as users to your credit cards. As long as you maintain good credit, they will also have good credit. Ironic how this mirrors the rest of parenting.

My daughter’s first score was 750+. This is why she didn’t need me to co-sign.

Now I hope she practices safe, smart debt.

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