I can only speak for my own unique experience, but I totally disagree with those who want to keep their children in the dark. I was a singleton in a hard-working but very poor family in my first years. A formative experience was seeing an old truck repossessed, and the failure of a small family business. My parents never hid any of this reality from me, even at age 4 or 5. Life was tough, we would be frugal, but we would make it. Gradually my parents did climb out of their hole, and then each received modest inheritances, mostly in the form of stocks and some bonds. They had learned from their parents frugality, patience, faith, and hope. From the beginning, I was invited to review with them their investments, and understand their rationale for what actions they took, good or bad in retrospect. Because they made few expensive mistakes, and quickly understood that fees and costs matter, they got rich slowly. Meanwhile, I was absorbing their lessons. They gave me a few thousand to invest, which I did invest after considerable study. I learned more from my mistakes than my successes, but it was a cheap education. My parents gradually needed more and more care because of emphysema, COPD, and heart disease, and I arranged my life to be able to help, at the drop of a hat. I was the junior partner in the family firm, and I damn sure was going to do whatever was necessary. Ultimately, of course, they both died, and they left me a modest inheritance but far more valuable a philosophy of money and investing--Jonathan before Jonathan--and I have thrived ever since. Because they had shared and explained everything from the earliest days, I learned about thrift, the amazing and frightening power of compounding, and how to maintain a calmness of mind, whatever the market did in the short term. When my father died, I felt fully competent to deal with what he left me, and the results suggest I was right. I am forever grateful for the trust and confidence my parents put in me, from young childhood, and I believe I repaid that well over their lifetimes. My message: be frank with you children. In my family it was literally unthinkable that my mother or father would be in the dark about family finances, and naturally I gradually became the junior partner, so to speak, in the family firm.
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I can only speak for my own unique experience, but I totally disagree with those who want to keep their children in the dark. I was a singleton in a hard-working but very poor family in my first years. A formative experience was seeing an old truck repossessed, and the failure of a small family business. My parents never hid any of this reality from me, even at age 4 or 5. Life was tough, we would be frugal, but we would make it. Gradually my parents did climb out of their hole, and then each received modest inheritances, mostly in the form of stocks and some bonds. They had learned from their parents frugality, patience, faith, and hope. From the beginning, I was invited to review with them their investments, and understand their rationale for what actions they took, good or bad in retrospect. Because they made few expensive mistakes, and quickly understood that fees and costs matter, they got rich slowly. Meanwhile, I was absorbing their lessons. They gave me a few thousand to invest, which I did invest after considerable study. I learned more from my mistakes than my successes, but it was a cheap education. My parents gradually needed more and more care because of emphysema, COPD, and heart disease, and I arranged my life to be able to help, at the drop of a hat. I was the junior partner in the family firm, and I damn sure was going to do whatever was necessary. Ultimately, of course, they both died, and they left me a modest inheritance but far more valuable a philosophy of money and investing--Jonathan before Jonathan--and I have thrived ever since. Because they had shared and explained everything from the earliest days, I learned about thrift, the amazing and frightening power of compounding, and how to maintain a calmness of mind, whatever the market did in the short term. When my father died, I felt fully competent to deal with what he left me, and the results suggest I was right. I am forever grateful for the trust and confidence my parents put in me, from young childhood, and I believe I repaid that well over their lifetimes. My message: be frank with you children. In my family it was literally unthinkable that my mother or father would be in the dark about family finances, and naturally I gradually became the junior partner, so to speak, in the family firm.
Post: Time to share our financial info with children?
Link to comment from June 13, 2026