Would you rather talk to your kids about sex or money?

I’ve noticed that given a choice, parents prefer to talk about neither sex nor money.  There are a lot of reasons for each but one of the reasons we have a hard time talking about money is that we have some nagging thoughts.  Sometimes we don’t teach them about money seems hypocritical when we aren’t doing the best with our money.  Most of us also have some emotion around money and many times money talks had to do with not having it or feeling fearful about it.  It also is hard to know when to start.  Early money talks in our family had to do with keeping our girls from putting it in their mouths.

Talking and teaching about money isn’t easy, but raising money-smart kids is one of the best things we can do.

I’ve been looking forward to the upcoming release of “Smart Money, Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money” by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze (his middle daughter).  In fact, I’ve pre-ordered twice because one copy won’t be enough.

The reason I’m so excited about this book is that like all things Ramsey, it provides a template or road map for not only teaching knowledge but also changing the behavior around money decisions.  I know my kids need to learn to spend, save and give but it has been a struggle in our home to develop those behaviors.

My wife and I both have our MBA degrees and a pretty extensive understanding of accounting, finance and economics, but our knowledge didn’t change our behavior enough to protect us from our own decisions about money.  We knew the right things to do, but we needed help from Dave Ramsey to get to the point that our behavior changed.

As parents we need to not only teach our kids about money, we need to develop their money muscles and behaviors that will help them with their money.

I was thrilled early this month when I was selected to be a part of the social media team that is helping get the word out about this book.  I’m not getting paid for this, but I did get an electronic copy for free already and it is awesome.

I’ll be sharing more about the book in the weeks to come, but want to share two impressions of the book that I think make it even better than I anticipated.

First, the book is written in short sections with Rachel sharing her thoughts and Dave sharing his.  They even have different fonts!  I first found it a bit jarring but really grew to like it and before the first chapter was done, I was hooked.  Rachel’s teaches ideas and shares her perspective on what it is like to grow up under these rules.  Dave shares his perspective, the years of experience and what it was like for a parent to learn along with his kids.  The stories have depth and connectivity that wouldn’t be possible without both views.  It really makes the concepts come to life and be much more life-like because it comes from the perspectives of a kid, grown kid, and parent.

Second, the books are about real life, not perfectionism.  Many parenting books make parents feel even more guilty or wound up.  This book gives grace to both kids and parents.  It is about setting a shared goal and working toward that goal, not creating robots.  Our kids, just like us, relate to money in different ways and have natural tendencies toward spending or saving.  This book not only helps our spenders save more, it helps our savers spend more.