I recently had the pleasure of being on the Stacking Benjamins podcast with the lovely Paula Pant of Afford Anything and of course Joe himself.
I’m a huge fan of Joe. He is, in many ways, sort of an unofficial life coach of mine. He’s hysterical, we get along really well, and I think by adding in Paula to that mix too, this is a pretty entertaining podcast episode!
In general, Joe always gives me great business advice, isn’t afraid to level with me, and totally understands my life since he is the parent of 19 year old twins. I just love chatting with him and feel honored to count him as a friend.
One of my favorite questions that Joe asked me was:
Q: “Cat, do you worry about your kids feeling the struggle until your husband is up and running in a practice?”
and my reply…
A: “Oh no. I’m actually excited, and I hope they do feel or at least see a little bit of a struggle because they could have been born as the child of a physician and an entrepreneur when our careers were off the ground and they could have had anything and everything or they can see the process and us working hard and us budgeting and teaching them about finance and sort of growing up in an environment where they can see the transition.”
Get more of these gems, hear about the ridiculously stupid jobs Paula and I did in college as well as our predictions on space travel in the future all on this episode. Click here to hear it – It’ll be the most recent episode entitled “Surviving College Without Debt” because you know, we talked about legit finance stuff too and not just college jobs and space travel.
Thanks Joe again for having me! 😉
Great point!! While I by no means want my kids to grow up in poverty, I do want them to SEE that hard work pays off. My husband and I are both self-employed and we work hard each and every day (just like you guys do!). Our kids will see us making sacrifices and (hopefully) they will see in the end that hard work and good money habits are how they want to live their lives, too! Thanks for the post!
That’s awesome – what a great example!
Good stuff, Cat. I’m listening now 🙂
Thank you Kara!
I love this Cat! What an amazing perspective you have and your kids are lucky. Without the struggle most kids don’t understand how to manage money and that dirty “b” word. 🙂
Haha are you referring to budget? 😉 Cause you know you and I both love that word!
Adding it to my queue! I really like what you said, and it’s so true. I saw my parents struggle and work hard my whole life, and I think it instilled a great work ethic in me. I never had anything handed to me and it was for the best. You learn a lot more that way, and you two will be great examples for the beans!
Thanks Erin – we def hope to be!
I heard the podcast this morning and you were awesome! I agree, that it’s important not for kids to really see a struggle, but for kids to see two hard working parents making their dreams come true and supporting a family along the way.
Aw thanks Shannon!
I would never want my son to experience serious struggles, but I do want him to know how to work and that work does pay off. I think we’ve accomplished that.
That’s awesome Kathy – it’s not easy to find the perfect balance!
That’s a fantastic point. We’re focused on getting out of debt while my daughter is young and she wont’ remember any of it, but I think there’s something to be said for her seeing the struggle! That’s not going to slow down our debt progress, by any means, but learning to live a frugal life, as well as the consequences of getting in over her head are something we want her to learn. And your twins will definitely learn what it means to work hard – and reap the rewards. Thanks for the perspective!
You make an excellent point about growing up and transitions to greater wealth. As my Mom has said regarding family friends, the difference between how the eldest grew up and hte youngest was really quite shocking. By the end, Dad was a CEO of a large public company, and there were ponies.
I will definitely take a listen to the podcast! I see our son also being treated much like your twins. I want him to understand what it means and takes to create a life for yourself and feel the sense of pride and accomplishment as a result.
It’s interesting because I consider myself, as the child of the baby boomers, part of the first generation where kids will probably (as a general rule) not do as well as their parents. It certainly does concern me that this could continue down to my children. I think you have to individually teach your kids and guide them to making sensible decisions. You can’t set their life for them but you can establish good foundations that hopefully they choose to build upon.