If I Could Teach My Children Anything About Crypto, It Would Be This
Highlights magazine gets delivered to the house monthly because little man is six and learning how to read. Every single month the magazine shows up to the house like clockwork and he is so excited to get mail that’s just for him. It’s pretty freaking cute, if you want the truth.
Why is this important?
This month’s issue has a very brief explain of Bitcoin in the section about the evolution of money. It’s literally just a small paragraph and a couple of pictures but I WAS SO EXCITED TO SEE THIS!
He actually brought the magazine to me and showed me because he has watched me work before and knows how important cryptocurrency is to our family.
The wonderful thing is that this incident opened up a delightful conversation for us and inspired conversations between the adults in our household as well. And thoughtful, inspired conversations are the best sort of conversations!
So, this is what I would teach my children about cryptocurrency…
#1: Money and Investments Will Be Ever-changing
Nothing in life lasts forever and this is especially true about money and investments.
My grandparents paid for most of their goods or services using a barter system in the old country, my parents used cash, my generation started out using debit/credit cards, and my children will likely use digital currency to pay their bills or make purchases.
I can’t even begin to fathom what the next generation will come up with as technology progresses. But, my boys need to know to stay on their toes and be prepared for changes early in order to take advantage of them before it becomes more mainstream.
#2: Hodl your coins and forget about them
We have small accounts for both boys of coins that they have helped to choose based upon some research and limited guidance from us.
They have used part of their allowance every two weeks to buy the coins and we check them once a week to see how their little portfolios are doing.
We have a rule for them though: they are not allowed to sell their coins unless they want to take profits to invest in another coin that is down at the moment to increase their position.
This is where the hodl part comes in, they aren’t allowed to sell their entire position in any coin because research has shown that crypto investors that hodl their coins have done better in the long term than those that try to trade consistently.
If you want the truth, we treat investment management like a game for both boys because I am not sure that they quite grasp that they are playing with real money because they are so young.
#3: Keep Quiet
I have worked in finance and investing my entire life it seems and one thing that I have learned is to not tell anyone what you are actually doing or how much money/investments you actually possess because not everyone in life is a good person and could try to take advantage.
So, my boys know better than to tell anyone else what they are doing or how much they have invested.
They don’t tell anyone in their lives what the adults in the household have going on either.
Most of the people in our lives know that we have some minor investments in cryptocurrency but people that don’t know us would ever know because we don’t live lavishly.
These are basic lessons that I would teach them at this stage in their young lives. As they get older, we will teach them more and guide them in diversifying their portfolios but for now they have their little accounts so that is enough.
What would you teach children under 10 about cryptocurrency and how would you set up their portfolios? I would love to hear your thoughts!
If you found this informative then please leave some claps and share with your friends.
Thanks for reading!
Ivy
