The First National Bank of Dad: A Foolproof Method for Teaching Your Kids the Value of Money

The author's most illuminating insight is this: Children's perception of time is radically different from adults', and thus, their "time preference" is different. When you're eight years old, a year represents 1/8 of your life. Holding on to $20 to earn $0.60 in interest (if you're lucky) is completely undesirable, and parents who force their children to do so are imparting bad money values. In doing this, what they're teaching is that money received should be spent as quickly as possible, before parents can expropriate the cash and put it into "savings" -- a black hole in the eyes of youngsters.What the author did was create savings accounts for his children that conformed to their perceptions of time. Instead of offering 2-3% a year in interest, he offered 5% PER MONTH interest. This made saving more attractive and taught spending restraint. Additionally, the author and his wife gradually gave more and more financial responsibility to their children as they grew older. One example stands out: While on vacation, the author watched another child beg and plead and throw a fit until his father agreed to buy a $5 tomahawk at a souvenir shop -- the cheap tomahawk was broken before the pair even made it to their car. The author's child, by contrast, since he was spending his own money, and since he had an incentive to save rather than consume, bought a $0.30 item (after negotiating with the shopkeeper). People, including children, make much wiser decisions when they're spending their OWN money.Additionally, the author talks about how he established a virtual stock exchange (using real money) when his children were interested in stocks. And finally, the book closes with more general (and good) parenting advice, suggesting that parents read even more to their children than they already do now.I agree wholeheartedly with everything in this book, and intend to implement these ideas with my daughter, who is 19 months at the time I'm writing this review. The book's only weakness is its rudimentary explanation of stocks, mutual funds, and other financial instruments. This is unnecessary since the majority of the audience already understands these concepts, while those who don't need more information than the author is able to provide. No matter, I still strongly recommend this book and endorse the concepts championed by the author.

I found this book about six or seven years ago and have bought multiple copies. The concepts the authors talk about in this book are simple but not necessarily intuitive if you are coming up with methods yourself. I have younger sons and I use some of these techniques to teach my boys about the value of money and saving. Great read, easy, and I continuously recommend this to friends with young kids. I normally "lend" them mine with the understanding that I need to get another to have on hand.

Great practical tips on how to make kids understand the value of money.

I am always skeptical about parenting advice, yet I keep reading it. Owen breaks down a plan to teach fiscal responsibility in a simple way peppered with humor and illustrative stories. After using some of his methods, my son is 7 years old and is now an active saver. He is responsible for his money and makes careful decisions with his spending (I don't always agree with those decisions but they are careful). Now that my son has mastered responsible spending and saving, I look forward to guiding him towards frugal investments

The first few chapters were helpful in setting up my bank of mom. I would have liked more direction on how to set up Excel or another program to do the interest calculations. The last chapters are on investing which is too much for my young kids , but might be an idea for later.

Practical, quick read for parents. We started implementing the Bank of Dad idea immediately and our kids ages 6 and 9 are so excited to save money and earn interest. Wouldn't have predicted it and I love it!

David Owen does a good job keeping his material fun and playful while talking about what could be a very dry subject. Really enjoyed the book and have started following some of its advice.

Listen - if you have no good financial habits, then this has something. But reading this, he begins with BRIBE your kids essentially. Gets quite dated pretty fast after that in his methods. And in no way substantiates the subtitle - FOOL PROOF. This really lacks substance as the impact on kids, and what they do thereafter. If not, I just simply disagree and think there is better offerings out there. For how this book is promoted - it's simply 'a' persons opinion and choices and not much more.

Great book for parents to prepare their kids for the reality of the economical aspects of life.