News Room
Two books for children on how to start handling money
BY STEVE ROSEN
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWS SERVICE
PUBLISHED JULY 29, 2001
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
KANSAS CITY
STAR
Richard Harris and Ed Douglas feel strongly that children need a jump-start
on how they handle
money-- and they are dedicated to doing
something
about it.
Each recently wrote a book to share his perspective about
money.
Harris' new book, If I Had
A Penny, teaches youngster
how to count money,
from a penny to a dollar.
It's the second book for the former schoolteacher, a father
of three who now
is an investment banker in Virginia
Beach, Va. The first book, Who Taught You
About
Money?,
was published in 1995 and is aimed at preteens. The book introduces
youngsters to Banker Sawbuck, who teaches
25
financial concepts, including
supply and demand, taxes,
and savings and investing - all in bite-size chapters.
Both of Harris' books are written in a Dr. Seuss-like rhyme.
For example,
the closing lines from Penny:
"When I get a dollar, I could take it to the store. But
probably when
I left there, I wouldn't have it anymore!
So when I get my dollar, I will save
it for tomorrow.
Then later
when I need it, I won't have to borrow!"
Harris decided to write after volunteering to teach classes
about money to
children starting in 1989. "I kept asking
the question, 'Who Taught You
About Money?'" he said.
"
The response was always the same. They learned
the
hard way. Like me, they never had any training."
A key concept to teach children, according to Harris, is the
notion of deferred
gratification - delaying a purchase, for
example, until it can be paid for
with cash rather than a
credit card.
Whereas Harris' books are light-hearted, Douglas' book is
heavy with information
and recommendations.
Making $1,000,000 with only $2,000 - Every Young Person
Can Do It draws on
the author's 27 years as a banker and
financial planner in Chillicothe, Mo.
Douglas' audience is
young adults ages 15-35, and parents and grandparents.
His basic philosophy about money is that people tend to
wait too long to start
saving. "It's not the amount of
money that's important," he said. "It's
the discipline, the
regularity."
Douglas, who also has three children, is a passionate
believer in the magic
of compounding, in which savers earn
over time, not only on their original
investment, but also
on the interest that builds up. Douglas also explains
the
benefits of funding Roth IRAs and investing in quality stock
mutual funds.
Both authors agree that youth today are more fiscally
savvy than they were
themselves as youngsters.
But
Harris laments: "It's confined to a fairly
small number
of
kids. Our task is still monumental."
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