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A financial planner with Sagemark Consulting, Harris is
also the author of two children's books that explore basic
money concepts in a light-hearted, easy-to-understand
way.

"I've taken what is perceived to be a fairly difficult subject
area and broken it down to where kids can understand it,"
said the 56-year-old former schoolteacher.

Harris' first book, "Who Taught You About Money?," was
published in 1994. He recently completed his second book,
" If I Had a Penny," which was illustrated by his son,
R. Craig Harris, 24.

"Who Taught You About Money?" introduces children to
supply and demand, taxes, investing and saving through
the eyes of the main character, Banker Sawbuck. While
the first book is more suited for older children,
"If I Had a Penny" targets first- and second-graders.

Both books are written in rhyme and read like lyrics of a
song: "If I had a penny, you know what I would do?
I'd hide it in a safe place until I had two."

"Rhyme makes it fun," Richard Harris said. "And the
illustrations help get the message across."

Dan Roundtree read and re-read Harris's first book to his
3-year-old son at bedtime.

"One of the hardest things as a parent is knowing when
to start bringing up the concept of money," said Roundtree. "Rhyming is a clever way to take a serious subject and
make it not so serious."

The book introduced his children to the notion that money
isn't given away, but that they have to work to earn it,
he said.

Harris decided to write the books after years of teaching
financial planning in area high schools and working with
clients on the verge of retirement.

"The question kept coming up, 'Who taught you everything
about money?'," he said. "The response was always the
same, 'I learned it the hard way.'"

In creating the first book, Harris listed a financial term for
every letter of the alphabet. He then circled the ones he
thought he could write about and developed the text
around the terms.

His son, Craig, and Old Dominion University graduate with
a degree in art animation, drew the characters for the
second book.

The cartoon-like children happily drop pennies in a piggy
bank and later stop by the local bank to make a deposit.
Craig Harris sketched the drawings in his Middle Plantation
home kitchen.

"They're nice visuals for little kids to get the concept of
saving and spending money," said Karen McDonald, owner
of Once Upon A Time Children's 'N Things. The store carries
the books.

"I don't think that any age is too early to start learning
about money," Richard Harris said. "If you're teaching kids
to count from one to 100, why not teach them how to
count from a penny to a dollar?"