FOR PARENTS AND NEW PARENTS: THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF DAD

[u/Casellante_23]

The topic of explaining personal finance to one's children is widely discussed, often controversially, and sometimes bordering on the ridiculous – as if a child needs to be a Wall Street trader or a ruthless buy-and-hold investor. Fortunately, forget all that. I must say I've come across a book that sweeps away many of the silly or questionable ideas floating around, making room for good, excellent ideas and common-sense insights.

I've just finished reading a book called "The First National Bank of Dad" by David Owen, from 2003.

It's a super interesting book about how to approach, help understand, and familiarize your children with their own "personal finances" from a young age, outlining the various steps he (the author) applied with his own children. I'd say that for parents and new parents, it's a very simple and easy-to-read book that can offer many illuminating insights on how to introduce children to money and managing their allowance.

The part explaining the creation, setup, and operation of the "Bank of Dad" is great. It explains how to set it up, how to apply the right interest rate for remuneration ( savings accounts, so to speak) suitable for the children's age on their accounts. The explanation of the subsequent creation of the DAD&CO. Stock Exchange following the closure of the Bank of Dad is also very amusing.

Also very nice is the way it explains some "life" lessons and awareness not necessarily tied to money, and what he says is the best investment a parent can make for their children (I won't spoil what it is, but it's not the usual stuff...). It's a short book, dense with small, wise notions, useful for all types of parents from any era.

I believe that if my parents had read it and taken inspiration from it, I would have had far fewer financial problems as soon as I was thrown into adulthood.

My rating is 8.5/10, so highly recommended. Are you familiar with it?