Getting the kids into stacking...

Anyone else here got kids?

As a stacker myself, knowing and understanding the fundamentals well, I am taking a very active role in educating my own two kids about precious metals, the nature of money and other basic economic foundations that most university grads are not even taught.

In doing this, my kids have gotten a very clear understanding of the difference between fiat currency and real money and they even refer to each as such.

Apart from being immensley proud of the fact I've got kids who stack who are not even in highschool, I am wondering how many other parents out there have pulled the kids into stacking and educating them about it.


I was actually pretty shocked how quickly my kids have tumbled to the idea of owning their own silver. In their school they're the only stackers there and have their own niche as the 'silver and gold kids' in their peer group (which they're very happy about!).

Kids brought home school reports yesterday and were rewarded with a few ounces of silver each.

You know your kids are stackers when they accept the silver and look at it like it's a bag of lollies with extra sugar

My eldest has a birthday coming up soon and her grandmother (knowing they're silver stackers) actually hauled out a gift for her in the form of a near mint condition 1938 Crown!

I was like daaaamn!

 

Our little one is about to go to school next year and my wife is somewhat concerned that I've taught him to say bronze and nickel for our fiat coinage...

Calling them gold and silver coins doesn't matter until you have actual gold and silver coins you want to differentiate from them.

 

Not really GP. They're not owning hundreds of ounces, just a handful which represents gifts or savings with pocket money.

The kids they go to school with tote latpops, Ipods and other high tech trinkets at standard. I don't think we're in any danger of having the house rolled anytime soon.

They're proud of the fact they're stackers and they take pride in educating the other kids around them. You know what kids are like...

 

with my youngest & Pm's.

Do not want her going to school saying "Daddy got Gold & Silver.

With my eldest & PM's.

She knows how to keep her mouth shut.

 

Okay, I think we're missing the point of the thread here & getting a little off track?

 

But but but...........

I know the gist is that our children know the difference between fiat & PM's.

Economics 101

 

I keep cupronickel coins for the kids to do exercises with.

We count in 5s and 10s etc. Good for finger skills to put them into a money box etc. We weigh them using a unit counter scale to do simple maths.

Not with the silver.

 

Not really.

If you're going to teach your kids how to stack, you need to teach them how to STFU about it as well.

Stacking has a whole heap of security issues that goes with it and keeping your stack safe is just as important as having a stack in the first place. Its not such a bad thing either, since you get to teach them about how REAL security works at the same time. REAL security encourages you to question everything you do and look for flaws in why it wouldn't work, why it wouldn't achieve what you're trying to do, etc. instead of just trusting the nice men and women in uniform to look after you and keep your best interests at heart.

Teaching kids to think for themselves and be security conscious is actually a pretty good thing.

 

Yes, this is an important element in teaching kids about stacking, and while it may not have been where you expected the thread to go, its certainly not off topic.

In the not too distant future, the little bits of silver and gold, today worth far less than the gadgets floating around, may well be worth far more.

Security doesn't have to dominate education about stacking, but it is a part of it.

...

Your wealth. Your responsibility.

 

No worries. Thanks for the input gents.

 

Bid AD.......i agree with you...completely. AUSPM - there are two realities in this equation in IMHO. I take your point that - yes its a good thing to start educating our kids about PM, the value of REAL money versus the Fiat paper. It has to go hand in hand IMHO with teaching kids how to STFU about it as well. Children (depending on their age) dont know things like consequences of their actions. One word said to one person - whom passes it onto another person is enough to bring terrible consequences. It can happen - and looking at the not too distant past - it has happened many times. One just needs to look at the example of children - unbeknowingly talking about their parents (in the presence of "friends") in war time germany or post war communist Russia and Poland to know that small talk or the inadvertent mention of insiginificant "family life" was enough to put people in jail, have them deported to Gulags and quite often - never to be seen again. So i would suggest in most humble terms - there is an even greater responsibility educating your kids about the security of personal information around gold and silver. Anyway......also having 2 young kids ..............................that is a constant challenge in its own way....hahahaha.....but i love it

 

I know some here only see PMs as the way to go so cut me a little slack!

With our kids we have tried to encourage a "rounded" view of money and finances (including but not exclusively PMs). For example we have always put aside the government family assistance (or whatever it's called) that most people get that is about $20 per child since they were born. When they turn 4 we then set out a program of "giving" them 10 $1 coins which they must do the following with:

- $1 goes into charity - their choice of what charity but it must be the first thing they take out.

- $5 goes into long term investments - this can be anything that interests them but obviously under the guidance and encouragement of Mum and Dad. This is where we "direct" them towards PMs, certain shares that they show interest in at different times (typical conversation with my then 6 year old when we banked his savings was along the lines of what does the bank do with his money and at the end of the conversation he wanted to buy bank shares), high interest bank accounts, small business ideas etc. We also match their $5 with the other $10 that is left over from the original government payment.

- $2 goes to saving for something special (toy, spending money for trip somewhere etc)

- $2 goes towards savings for presents for others

- $1 for spending on whatever they want.

Each coin is put in it's own pot so they can see it accumulating and "jingle" it.

This has caused many "interesting" conversations with both our kids and other parents. Our kids will often ask about different creative ways to use their money - some good and some not so good, but at least we can then talk about why you might use money for somethings and not others. It has also make me realise I need to listen to my kids - when my 9 year old wanted to spend his invesment money on lollies I immediately jumped on him and explained that was not what it was for. Eventually when I took a pause and allowed him to talk he told me he was buying them to sell to his mates on the school camp as there was no lolly shop where they were going and he would have a "captive audience".

He made a killing I might add!

malachii

 

Eventually when I took a pause and allowed him to talk he told me he was buying them to sell to his mates on the school camp as there was no lolly shop where they were going and he would have a "captive audience".

He made a killing I might add!

malachii


OH MY...now that is gold...gotta love a scalper..

 

Way to go, this is what I have been thinking about a lot lately too.

A financial education head start like this is one of the most important lessons you can teach a child. There are others of course but finance is such a huge part of our daily struggle. I certainly don't want my boy having to do the same things I have to do to turn a buck.

Like myself, if you were not taught this by your parents you generally had to learn by trial and error and in my case lose and waste a heap of $$ learning the hard lessons.

My boy will understand true value, appreciating assets vs depreciating consumer goods, inflation and banking / financial systems, pm, shares etc.

Getting kids into stacking is a fantastic idea. I have already got about 60 odd fake silver coins, very good copies of all the famous ones. Not exactly sure what they are made of but at least we can pretend they are the real deal and he can take them to school to show the other kids.

There will be no mention of the real thing for a very long time though.

 

I agree with all said as well. My littliest one as an interest my middle one is getting there after he brought a Kilo back at $752 and now what it is, he didn't listen though when it went back to $697 he had the money to get one but got scared that he had lost $55 on his first one. I even gave him a guarantee that if he wanted to sell and the price was less than he paid I will buy it of him at the price he paid so no loss. Anyway he didn't buy one and spent the money on something else. He now would have made nearly $500 in less than a year. BTW he has learned his lesson and is putting some away for the next purchase

My eldest is too busy partying bless her sole but she does understand but just too broke to buy anymore she only has a small presence with a few ounces.

The youngest is going to be the real winner she knows and wants silver and gold all the time. She is also very aware of not discussing Dads Coins etc... With her friends. What was interesting is someone came to school and brought a Year Set for news, she came back and told me all about it. She has Gold Silver and growing.

I totally agree with malachii about educating, and giving we make sure that each year every one of them has either donated some money or a present or their time in some way to someone else. They need to be aware that helping other people that are not as well off as you is very important.

Hopefully it all pans out right and they have a great future, I certainly hope so for my sake as they will be looking after me when I can't so I don't want to send them broke LOL

 

You should have taught him a lesson about tax and taken 1/3rd of his profits..

 

hi,

kind of off topic a little, however, i am blessed with a 4yo, 2yo and 3wk old (if it were a parenting forum it would be DD etc... well i have DD x 3 ).. and have had similar concerns, ie wanting to get them to appreciate PMs, start off their stack, however also keeping it off their 'show and tell at school' radar...

thanks for the input...

the off topic bit is this, how do you guys store your PMs? I have only been in for a very short time, however, when I (mentally) convert my PMs to cash (can't get used to term fiat..) I think it should be in a safe... not just, more or less, sitting around the house...

what safe brands would you recommend, what thickness of plating etc... any reputable www that a safe can be sourced from (I am in Syd)?

if it has been discussed in the past, please show link.. (have been trawling old posts.. how I found this old thread).


many thanks,

rml978

 

Mate, you better teach your kids to shut up about your family silver stacking little secrets. The last thing you want is for your boys and girls to broadcast to the world that Daddy have some X amount of Gold and Silver bullion locked in a safe at home....!

You really don't want people to know what you got at home. Once the words got out you never know who are listening...