Help your daughter get smart about money

Money is a man thing, and cooking is a woman thing’. Most people are brought up with this stupid belief. It is not as though they are told explicitly, it's done subtly. About time to change this attitude.

The son is taught banking in class 9, the girl is taught how to buy vegetables. Such stereotyping is bad, but it does exist.

Please teach your children the following money skills:

Delayed gratification

Let your kids wait and earn whatever they want. This is not to say that they should do nothing instinctively, but it is worth teaching them the value of patience and waiting.

Shopping/Bargaining can be fun

If he/she understands costing, then teaching things like value, price, satisfaction, of the things we buy and the services we use are very useful.

Remember they use it back on you and ask you to justify all your expenses. Be ready for that too.

Most of life's learnings are 'caught' rather than 'taught'. Enjoy your role of living a teacher's life.

Power of starting early, and compounding

In class 8 this can be a great exercise and fantastic story telling opportunity. Do it. It will allow them to know that compounding should not be interrupted.

There is nothing better than Ramayana and Mahabharata by C Rajagopalachari to teach them about greed, deserving heirs, how undeserving heirs lose everything, lust (for power, kingdom, etc.) has to be tempered and not yielded to, etc. etc. Once they read the story discussing parts of it can be a very useful exercise in long flights where phones and ipods are switched off. :-)

Make your own choice

Right from a dress being bought in class 3, to a career teach her the process of decision making. On how to have a great database of choice, price, usage, etc.

Once she knows the process she will make the best choice of career, spouse, friends, etc.

Rest assured, the probability of your kids going wrong is exactly the same as that of you making that mistake. Stop pretending that age improves the odds, it does not.

Let her read Anglophiles like Nehru and Jinnah, but Patel, Gandhiji, C Rajagopalachari, Rajendra Prasad, S Radhakrishnan bring far more variety.

Make no mistake -- Discovery of India, and Letters from a Father to a Daughter -- both by Nehru are awesome books for kids. Your kids need variety.

Make them read, read, read -- Kindle is an awesome gift. Read without guilt.

Teach her that experiences are far more valuable than things. A trip to Jaipur is worth far more than a new Rs 25,000 phone for example.

Many more things -- but your daughter should know that whatever the world does to her, she will be safe in your arms. And you will love her, feed her and indulge her immaterial of what choices (mistakes) that she makes.