About my aunt’s ‘magic wallet’

We should teach kids early about financial wellness

Photo by Fabian Blank on Unsplash

Growing up, I was raised by my aunt who is an accountant by training. Although she didn’t really get to practice commercially, her skills benefit our family greatly. We may not have been well-off, but, thanks to Auntie’s expert money management skills, all three of us somehow managed to make it through college and keep up with daily living expenses, as well as weather a few unexpected expenses brought about by illness and such.

My siblings and I like joking that, if auntie were a superhero, her powers would be budgeting-related, because she can stretch any small amount of money to fit a specified time and serve a specified number of people. We have always been in awe of the fact that whenever she needed to take money out of her wallet, there is always money to take out, and most of the time, it is just the right amount.

While an adult like me would already know that there’s nothing quite ‘magical’ about that — she’s got fantastic budgeting skills, and that was it — it certainly got me thinking: A kid would definitely view that as some sort of ‘superpower’ or ‘magic’.

This week, as my aunt marked her 52nd birthday, I decided to write a short children’s story about an auntie with a magic wallet that always had money. It is in Filipino, because I imagine it could be a jump-off point for Filipino parents who want to broach the topic of budgeting and financial wellness with their young children.

ang magic pitaka ni auntie - Medium

If you enjoyed that, please tell your friends and your titas! Better yet, use it on your kids and tell me what you think. If it’s useful, I might translate it to English. And maybe I might have someone illustrate it. :)

Here’s one more useful article I found online about teaching kids about money. Maybe you’ll find it useful too.

The 5 Most Important Money Lessons To Teach Your Kids