Some of the best lessons we learn about life are from our parents. From philosophical diatribes on just what it means to be a ‘good’ person to more physical pursuits like learning how to ride a bike. But the thing is, the transfer of knowledge is not always just one way. There are plenty of lessons that we learn from our kids in return – mostly around the best way to clear up messes and stains.
However, the child-led teaching doesn’t just stop there. You might be surprised what your little ones might be able to teach you about even more complex subjects: like how you could better manage your mortgage repayments.
From the mouths of babes
Children, at first glance, might seem to have no self-control whatsoever. The moment you give them a sweet or something equally delicious, it has disappeared in a flash.
But the thing is, adults often aren’t much better, and it isn’t surprising. Credit cards can seem like free money to some, and without adequate understanding and management of your debt, that ‘free’ money can quickly come back to bite you. It’s all really about delaying that gratification, saving up for the thing that you want, whether that’s a first home loan deposit or a new holiday, instead of putting yourself in an unnecessarily painful debt rut.
This delayed gratification is something that your child might be exceptionally good at. The famous (in some circles) Stanford Marshmallow Experiment put a particularly difficult conundrum in front of a group of children in the form of a marshmallow. The kids in question could either eat the sweet treat immediately, or leave it for 15 minutes and get double the amount. The similarities between it and saving are obvious!
The skills of adults
While lots of the children involved in these experiments weren’t much good at keeping their hands off the proffered marshmallows, the same can be said of many Australian adults. The latest Australian financial attitudes tracker from the Australian Securities and Investments Commission revealed that almost 1 in 5 people in our country failed to save any money at all over the course of six months.
That is a huge number of people failing to do something that even many kids know is a good idea, albeit through the medium of marshmallows. Of course, children don’t have the added expenses that come as a part of being an adult, but the fact remains that there are some kids out there that are real experts with their money when compared to some older Australians.
So how can you take better control of your money? Start by talking to us and compare your current home loan interest rate against the competition – you might be missing out on a seriously good deal.