Train your kids to become millionaires

• Wouldn't you love, as a parent, to see daily that a good foundation for your child's future financial success is being built?

• How satisfying would it be for your children to go through life with good financial stability, without being too swayed by the financial climate?
• Wouldn't it feel like a genuine family atmosphere to gather together in love, without money discussions having to be taboo to discuss?

We all know how children are - they want this or that, and their desires for exploration are continuous and require a lot of resources. Although their requests are small at a young age, they do increase as they grow older - such as wanting a new car instead of just a toy car or a to move to a new apartment instead of a play house - and unless good financial foundations have been instilled, then you may see yourself unconsciously 'giving in' to their requests more often than you'd like.

A good place to start is by doing something honorable for them, an action with advantages that minimise the temporary disadvantages of less cash at hand:  start investing regularly into their accounts - this way you are likely to be cultivating the seeds of success within them, and you will be the role model for this important yet basic habit for financial success. The following also has the advantage of no taxes if invested in a tax wrapper account.
If you have a newly born child then you can use the Junior ISA, or if your child was born before 1 Jan 2011 then you can use a Child Trust Fund (CTF). Make the most of these along with cash gifts to reduce or eliminate any tax burdens.
Interestingly, if you would like to see your kid a Millionaire when they are adults, then try to save $240/month from when they are first born until they are 18.

Savings and budgeting must start from a young age and its importance communicated to your offspring regularly over a period of time until it becomes a part of them.
Show them how far money can truly stretch. Teach them that is it not the wisest choice to choose an item based on the first price they see and by 'shopping around' they can often find much better deals, therefore getting 'more' for their money as they can then save the remainder or use it to buy more things.

Speaking of any extra cash, if it cannot be invested intelligently, then teach them to put it in the savings jar. Allow them to use a predetermined percentage of the total sum in the jar at the end of, say, the year as a reward for their perseverance and wisdom for sticking to good money principles.

Whenever they ask for an item that they are capable of working for then analyze ways, with them, in which they can earn the amount required using their own skills and talents. Provide money only if their request is important and clearly affects their quality of life, or 'loan' them money if what they want is under time constraints (such as a 'sale'), asking them to repay - starting interest-free - at a later day. Monitor what they are doing to make the repayments and structure the agreements and dates as close to a real loan as is possible.

Young Entrepreneurs to learn from and emulate

STUDYING YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS 

• What are the general characteristics of young entrepreneurs?
• Are Young Entrepreneurs a product of environment or do they 'have it in them'?
• Do YOU have it within yourself to become a successful entrepreneur?

You can have a better idea for answers to these questions by reading ahead...


Some of the characteristics that allow these young entrepreneurs to become successful is their often burning desire to change an aspect of the status-quo that they feel is in dire need of change, or dismissing it entirely.

Personal traits that help them to actually change the old rules is their ability to think big whilst balancing their visions with practical plans. This allows them to progressively act on their environments  for these changes to become a reality.
These entrepreneurs also need to know how to deal with and monitor risk intelligently through documents like a risk management plan.
Dealing with uncertainty and being resilient when an idea fails, and persevering to take it 'out there' if there is a chance of success, is essential considering that most first-time ventures are not instantly viable on the market.

Some of the successful young entrepreneurs come from third world nations - i.e. China, India  - so their will to see a change may be motivated by their current country's social, political or economic conditions. With their western viewpoints and young mindsets they are far less 'inhibited'  to act than the social conditioning that is holding back the older generations.


However, all is not roses with being an entrepreneur at heart. There are some arguably negative character traits such as being impulsive and working long hours doing tasks such as evaluating the viability of a venture, committing accurate market research and promoting their ideas through the online, seeking prospective customers from their networks and pitching to investors or organizations who may fund them.
Even if they appear extremely introverted when working on tasks, they are often very self-confident in presenting their ideas and are generally extroverted (and are willing to push themselves to be) when it comes to networking needs to grow their business

It is understandable if the above may have changed your mind about your 'flair' at being an entrepreneur, but you do not need to be an entrepreneur - a risk-taker who starts a venture - to work in an entrepreneurial business that provides new ideas; you can have the same drive as the creator by being part of the first fresh start-up recruits, putting forward your valuable contributions and seeing the business grow because you were there. 

Entrepreneurship is especially motivated in America and the UK, where 'Entrepreneurship days' across junior and middle schools also help to spread the fact that this is an option for anyone with the drive to be their own boss and who has a business mindset.
Furthermore, organisations such as the YEC, Junior Achievement and YSN, are now creating  social environments and societies where these young people can share ideas, get emotional support and even discover sources of funding through their networks.

Another point that I'd like to make is that, contrary to popular belief, these entrepreneurs are not uneducated but often hail from the top academic institutions such as Harvard, Oxford, MIT etc.