Adam Stramwasser, author of A Kids Book About Money, talks about how money is a tool that we use throughout the world and how we can make choices to use it wisely.
Adam Stramwasser, author of A Kids Book About Money, talks about how money is a tool that we use throughout the world and how we can make choices to use it wisely.
A Kids Book About Money (view book)
Full Book Description:
Money is one of those things that EVERYONE has to deal with in their life, but not many of us learned much about it. There may be no topic more important for grownups to teach kids about than money. This book is a perfect way to introduce the topic to kids. It covers what money is, how to earn it, and how to use it wisely.
About the Author:
Adam Stramwasser is a financial coach, educator, and life hacker. He’s originally from Venezuela and has been helping people and organizations be more efficient with money for over a decade. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Michelle.
*If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: The Podcast
S1 E021, Ben Talks About White Privilege
[INTRODUCTION]
Matthew: What is money? [record scratch]
Wait… no… I don’t mean it that way. I know what money is. That stuff I use to buy other stuff. But what I mean is… how do you explain what exactly money is?
Krystina: Money is the substance you use to buy things.
Demetria: Money is stuff you buy stuff with.
Adam: Wow. What a hard question, Matthew. Money has been a thing for, for thousands of years. It's simply a tool. It's a tool that helps us get things; things we either need or we want.
And if we look at it in simple terms, I think it's the best way to understanding is that money is just a tool. Money is not an objective. Money is not something out of the ordinary. It is simply a tool that can help us get what we need or want.
[MEET OUR GUEST]
Matthew: Welcome to A Kids Book About: The Podcast! I’m Matthew. I’m a teacher, a librarian, and I’m your host. The voices you heard at the top of our show were from Krystina, Demetria, and Adam
Each week we talk about the big things going on in your world with a different author from our A Kids Book About series.
Adam: Hi, my name is Adam and I'm a husband, a father, the founder of Fintelhub, a movement that empowers the Hispanic community through financial education. And I am the author of A Kids Book About Money.
Matthew: You use money. You spend money. You want money. But do you understand how money gets its value or how that value can be expressed through spending or saving or giving?
That is what is on the playbill for today! Because understanding how money works can help you use money more wisely. Would you agree, Adam?
Adam: Yeah, yeah. A hundred percent. Each country has their own dynamic and the way the value of money moves in China or in Venezuela, where I'm from, compared to the US, is completely different. And it depends on the strength of the economy of every country. And it depends on the decisions, the rational decisions made by each country.
Matthew: Economy! That’s a word I bet most people have a hard time explaining. Do you know what an economy is? Do you have a grownup nearby that can try to explain what an economy is? You are welcome to pause and investigate. I will tell you that I do not have a good explanation for “economy”. That is, until Adam explained it to me this way:
Adam: Yeah, that's an incredible word, really. Economy is the representation of the value that every individual adds to society.
So you've for example, Matthew, you're hosting this podcast. Okay. And me? I teach about finance. Each one of us adds value somehow to the system where we live in and the economy is the aggregate of all the values that we add and the representation of how we're all productive in this world.
Matthew: We all contribute to how businesses and companies work and thrive by spending our money in those businesses, or by using the resources made by companies, or by working to provide a service to others. And all of that has value! The aggregate (which is another way of saying the collection or combination) of all of that is what we call the economy. An economy isn’t something you can touch and feel, but it is something you can notice.
And I bet a lot of you did notice recently throughout the global pandemic caused by COVID-19. The pandemic forced many people out of work. It caused many businesses to close. People could not or were not able to work or shop or do many other things as easily as they did before, and so that affected not only our economy, but the economies of countries all around the world.
Adam: So the US has been forever one of the most stable countries in the world. So the value of the US dollars has been pretty much stable. But if you compare it to countries that have been maybe a little bit more unpredictable or countries that have gone through wars or through economic crisis, through difficult situations, their value of their money tends to be much weaker and tends to go like a rollercoaster, Matthew. It goes up and down without much a way to predict what's going to happen.
Matthew: The value of money in countries with a healthy economy is more stable, which means that it is worth the same from one day to the next. You have a dollar and you can use it to buy one pack of gum when you go to the store.
The value of money in countries with a weaker economy fluctuates or is more unstable, which means that the price is not steady. You’ve still got that dollar, but now you can’t buy the pack of gum because the price rose to two dollars. Or five dollars. You are suddenly not able to buy as much today with the money you could have before the change in the economy.
Imagine how difficult it might be to be able to pay for things like rent on an apartment or a mortgage payment on a house, a weekly grocery bill, the cost of filling your car’s gas tank, if suddenly the money you had saved isn’t worth as much as you thought it was.
Countries that don’t have as strong an economy are the result of so many of their citizens not being able to work, to earn and to spend money, or to make purchases at the same rate as other, more stable countries.
Adam: Exactly. Maybe these are countries that have lots of their citizens without jobs. Maybe these are countries that are going through difficult times that we said before through wars or through economic crisis, that cannot add to their country, that that cannot add value because they're out of jobs or they're they're out of opportunities or maybe they don't have the technological advances that we have that allows them to be more productive.
Everything, you know, will play a role in an economy. And that's why the more advanced, sophisticated, and the more productive we can be as a group of people that form an economy, the stronger the economy will be. And the higher quality of life they're individuals in that economy will have.
Matthew: As Adam said, strong economies are often found in countries where they’re making great technological advances, which means they’re making the new tech tools and phones and vehicles and video game consoles and medical equipment that the rest of the world wants and needs and values. Technological is a word that comes from “technology”.
Adam: Money is something that only works when we have what we call a market, right? When we have many people involved in the exchange of this tool that we're talking about. So the, the different people that participate in this system of exchanging this tool called money, okay, that creates what we call a market.
The value of money will change over time, depending on how many people are looking to get more money or are not interested anymore in that type of money. So it depends on the participation of every individual that forms that market.
So it depends on all of us, really.
Matthew: If people all around the world want to purchase the things that you’re creating, that helps to give your money or your product more value. And if people aren’t, then the opposite can happen.
It’s all connected, from the things we make and where those things are made to the things we want and where those things come from. Like one big ecosystem. And that money you’re saving in your bank or spending at a store or giving to someone you think might need it more than you, that’s all part of this ecosystem, too!
And that is exactly what we’re talking about, right after we return from this quick break.
[BREAK]
Matthew: Welcome back to A Kids Book About: The Podcast. On today’s episode we’re talking about money with A Kids Book About author with Adam Stramwasser.
Adam: A Kids Book About, for me started from being part of a we're part of a group of, youth speakers called Top Youth Speakers. And my wife and I speak to schools, youth organizations, to even companies. We speak around, you know, subjects of empowerment and motivation.
And when we had the opportunity to, to meet Jelani, to meet the founder of A Kids Book About and learn their beautiful project of having all these super important topics being written for the kids in ways that are, you know, direct and true and important and not underestimating the intelligence of children. I was bought at that moment. Like I was in at that moment. I knew that I had to be involved with that project. I knew that I wanted to take my knowledge from not only from speaking, but take it into, writing this very special book to empower kids to learn the best ways to use their tool.
Matthew: Using his experiences to empower kids. I like that! Adam fits right in here at A Kids Book About.
So, everybody, now that we’ve spent a little time talking about money from a number of different angles, tell me: How does having money or not having money make you feel?
Demetria: Happy, cause then you can buy lots and lots of stuff.
Krystina: Sometimes money makes me feel anxious because I don’t want people spending too much on me.
Adam: Ooh. I love that question. I love that question because as I said, money is a tool, so money really shouldn't make you feel anything. It’s what you do with money, okay, what, what would maybe make you feel stuff.
If you have money and you use it for a good thing, you, for sure, you're going to feel good.
Now, if you have money and you use it for the wrong things, even if you have a lot of money, you may even not feel that good.
So having money or not having money really shouldn't have to do with feeling good or not feeling good people that have. Very little money. You know, people that don't have maybe a lot of money or people that are, that can be perfectly happy because they know how to live with that amount of money in.
They know that they can be happy with that. I've I've known and I've, and I've coached and I've, um, advised several people that have millions of dollars Matthew and. Don't feel good about their, you know, about what they do about their lives. They're not completely happy with millions of dollars and I've known people that have only a few bucks and that are completely happy with life.
So it really is about ourselves. Um, I think the most important part is to evaluate ourselves and evaluate how we want to live life. And what we can do and the best that we can do with the amount of money that we have. I think that we can all can get more money. I think that we all have a huge potential to get more money, but the most important question is: What do we want to do with that extra money?
Matthew: Adam talks about the three main ways we can use money. Remember, money is a tool. It’s something you use to help bring about a change.
Adam: You should have like three buckets to live life responsibly and to live in a way that you can have the tranquility, the calm that you're doing, the right stuff with your money.
If you have money and you set some of that money in a bucket called “saving”, you know, that you're taking care of your future desires or your future needs, uh, You know, that you're taking care of your future, uh, versions of yourselves. So you know that maybe in the future, you want to buy Maybe our car in the future, you want to be able to say, Hey, when I turn 18, I want to have a car. And, and, and that's totally valid. So that's why you have to have a bucket for things that you want in the future. And that's why, um, you use the bucket of savings. You need to save money today. And tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow, in order to be able to use that money in the future.
Then you have the second bucket it's called “spending”. Spending is what you use your money today for. And that also needs to be aligned with your values, Matthew. If you spend all of your money on stuff, you, you really don't need. And stuff you maybe even don’t want for yourself, but you buy it maybe to impress friends or maybe because you think you should have that where maybe in the deep down, you really don't need that. You know, that's, that's the way you, um, That's the way you spend the money. And if you spend it on stuff that are not aligned to your values, to your real needs and wants, um, then money is not going to be good. You're not going to feel good about having that money and using that money. So you, we, we gotta be very intelligent and very smart in the ways that we save money and in the way that we spend money in very important.
Matthew, the third bucket is “giving”. Giving it's a beautiful, it's one of the most beautiful things about money and it's the power that we have to spread our generosity, to spread our love, to spread our, our values and our interests in, in a way that can help other people, other causes in a way that can really make an impact in this world beyond our needs or wants.
And that, I think Matthew, is the, it's my favorite part about the idea of having money, of working for that extra money. It's it's knowing that I'm going to be able to, to, to share it in a way that it can have a higher impact than just my needs or wants.
[LISTENER QUESTION]
Matthew: Here’s Krystina, one of our listeners, with a perfect follow-up question.
Krystina: What does investing money mean?
Adam: Investing is really placing your money. It's really assigning your money to a vision, to something that you believe that can become something greater than the money that you have. It's it's believing in projects that it can turn into something bigger. It's believing in causes that can turn into greater impact.
So you can invest in, in, in, in people that have businesses that can maybe give you more money in return for the money that you initially invested in. Maybe it can be investing in the healing of the world, through an environmental impact. It can make maybe, you know, investing in projects that can make the world a much better. So you get in return, maybe not money, but maybe a better world. Investing can be many things. If you, if you use it wisely, if you know what you're doing, if you, if investing is assigned is aligned to your values.
So when it comes to investing, Matthew, I think the most important part is to be very informed about, about why you're investing in. And it has to be very aligned to your values. You have to know why you are investing that money and you have to have the vision to what you want your money to become with that investment.
Matthew: Have you ever heard of the website Kickstarter? It’s a place where people can post the projects they’re working on and request that others support or invest in their project so that it can be made. It’s a pretty amazing place to witness people creating pretty amazing things. I’ve invested in board games, video games, book stores, and graphic novels, not to buy a product, but rather to help that product be created and made available to people all over the world. Investing can be a pretty cool thing!
And with that, I want to pass things back over to Adam for one final thought on money. Because how we believe in money and what we do with money comes down to us and it comes down to you!
Adam: it's a fascinating question, Matthew. And I think that, um, when we're very true to ourselves, when we really explore our, our, you know, deep inside of us, our real need and a real, uh, an a real wants, um, we can know how to best use our money. And we can know that we can and also use the money for the benefit of something greater or beyond our needs and wants.
And that goes back again to the part of giving, right? To the bucket of giving. That goes back again to, um, what do we want to do too with our, with our research, with our money, um, beyond the things that we want for ourselves.
And, and understanding that there are other people that may have different needs, other people that are struggling somehow. And have a need for shelter, a need for food, a need for different types of services. And you know, maybe they're not in a position right now to pay for that need. They're not in that country, maybe that, that, that, that allows them to gain access to that need. And when we are true to ourselves and when we connect to our values and, and the things that we really want out of this world to, to, you know, to be, to, to live in a kinder in a, in a, in a, in a morph, in a fair world, um, we can use our money and we can use our. Our way of managing our money to also assign it, to help others in need.
So we can know Matthew that, okay, we have enough with this and we want to set aside this amount of money to help, you know, that group of kids that don't have any food today on the table, or that don't have, um, yeah access to water or that, you know, don't have a way to go to school maybe.
Money can definitely get us either into trouble or into, um, A V it can lead us to trouble, or it can lead us to a very happy and fulfilled life. And the best way that money can lead us into a very happy and fulfilled. Is to always live very true to ourselves and is to always, always connect to the most human, um, and, and, and beautiful emotions that we have and connect to the real values that make us who we are and not who we expect other people or we were, or we, uh, think other people expect us of us or we, uh, feel that will make us belong better.
No. Let's just always stick to our values. That's always stick to the way we would like to live this life and use that money accordingly to that.
[CLOSING]
Matthew: Thank you to Adam Stramwasser, author of A Kids Book About the Money, for joining us today. And thank you to Krystina and to Demetria for adding your voices to the show.
If you want to be on a future episode of A Kids Book About: The Podcast or if you have a question you’d like us to consider, have a grownup email us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com and we’ll send you the details.
A Kids Book About: the Podcast is written, edited, and produced by me, Matthew Winner, with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
Follow the show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever podcasts are found, and if you liked this episode, consider sharing it with a friend, teacher, or grownup.
Join us next week for a conversation about Bravery with Rick DeLucca, author and illustrator of A Little Book About Bravery.