Finessing Financial Fitness

Raising Financially Savvy Kids

Finessing Financial Fitness Raising Financially Fit Kids by Joline Godfrey, Ten Speed Press, January 2004, $17.95, 256 pages.

Make More Than Your Parents by Mike Bundlie, Kevin O'Donnell and Bart A. DiLiddo, Ph.D., Health Communications, Inc., September 2003, $12.95,168 pages.

Imagine a world in which children comparison shop before spending their allowances on their favorite band's latest CD, or where they choose to save those allowances and not buy the CD in the first place. Sound more like fantasy than reality? Not to Joline Godfrey, author of Raising Financially Fit Kids. Though her previous books, including Twenty $ecrets: The DollarDiva's Guide to Life, were written for adults, Godfrey is well-qualified to reach out to a younger audience. Founder and CEO of Independent Means, Inc., Godfrey is known for innovative youth programs, including financial camps that teach investing and entrepreneurial skills to the younger generation.

Godfrey acknowledges that instilling financial savvy in children isn't always easy. She offers reassurance to parents who might be afraid they can't teach their children effectively because they feel like financial novices themselves. Financial education is a developmental process that should be started as early as possible, she says, with a goal of raising children to become financially independent and functional adults.

"Raising Financially Fit Kids is not just about money," writes Godfrey. "It is aimed at helping you launch great kids: independent, balanced, able to exercise good judgment, practice responsible habits and live independent lives as contributing members of both family and community."

So how do parents accomplish this task? In "Part One: Getting Started," Godfrey prepares parents for the task ahead. "Part Two: The Financial Apprenticeship" contains the nuts and bolts of the teaching process, including Godfrey's Life/Money Maps. "Part Three: Side Trips" detours from the basics into other important topics, including gender-related issues, philanthropy and the challenge of dealing with adult children who won't leave home. Godfrey also identifies important money skills children should be taught beyond her main 10, including gratitude and matters of etiquette. She ends her book with a section devoted to answering the most frequently asked questions she...