Summer Reading: Rich Kids
BY ABBY MCCLOSKEY
As promised, I read my first book on kids and money called Rich Kids – How to Raise Our Children to be Happy and Successful in Life, by Tom Corley. Corley previously wrote on the habits of both wealthy people and those living in poverty; he published his findings as “Rich Habits.” I was initially drawn to this book because I believe there is no trick, no secret way to wealth or happiness and that luck most often favors the prepared. I also liked the subtitle “happy and successful,” as I’d like my kids to be both.
While this book talks about finding passion, and being hardwired for success, I found the parts on habits, goal setting, and recognizing traits of success as things I can teach my kids TODAY.
Rich habits are not going to make you rich. Side note: the term “rich” can leave a bad feeling with some people. I read this book with the idea that I don’t care if my kids are rich. I want them to be happy, successful, fulfilled, and secure – whatever that means for them. The habits, if done consistently, will lead your kids to a more satisfying life, which often leads to financial success. Read educational books, exercise, don’t watch too much television, join a club that lets you network and meet new people, use your words carefully, and the most important habit: goalsetting. Set daily, weekly, monthly and annual goals. Set pie in the sky goals that you can break down into smaller ones. Incorporating habits like this in your life creates a sort of inertia that creates more good habits.
I have to admit, every successful person I know has the habits listed in the book, along with the mindset that we blaze our own path, create our own luck, and are responsible for many of our outcomes in life. People I know with poverty habits check all of those boxes that he lists as well.
In looking for things I can implement as my kids are small, Corely suggests that we take our pie in the sky wishes and do the initial work to see if they can become achievable goals. That initial work includes:
Making a wish (winning a bike race),
Defining the variables needed to make the wish a goal (practice and rest);
Daily activities (daily practice, trying more difficult bike trails to get better);
Can I actually perform the activities needed to reach the goal?
If you can do those 4 things, you have an attainable goal, not just a dream. This is something I can help my kids learn at an early age.
The book discussed three traits of successful people. Today, everything is instant, including expectations of success. The three traits are focus, persistence, and patience. I want my kids to understand that success of any kind requires these three traits. Most successful people have tried something 99 different ways before the magical 100th attempt that worked. In reality, there was nothing magical about it. It was a combination of focus, persistence, and patience.
As important as all of these things are, balance is a theme throughout the book as well. Work hard, play hard. If you spend Saturday studying or at the batting cage, spend Sunday with your family at the pool. Rewards for small victories are important, especially for kids.
Corely puts the success and failures of our kids on us, the parents or guardians. It is our job to teach kids how to create good habits, turn a dream into a goal, and understand that the path to success is not a flat road. While nothing he wrote was earth shattering (he even references some of the classics: Dale Carnegie, Norman Vincent Peale), it did drive home that it is rarely a fluke that people are successful. The drive usually comes from a parent or mentor guiding the child. If you have young kids, I recommend this book; if you do not have young kids, I also recommend it. If my kids were grown, it would be the push I needed to get out there and mentor young kids.