As we struggle to engage our young people in even discussing their financial future, we discover that 9% of American teenagers have traded in cryptocurrency. Not a high percentage, but a lot of actual teenagers.
As you know, I have been talking to teenagers a lot about money over these past few months. I have watched as their eyes glazed over when I discussed investment, saving accounts and pensions. One mention of Bitcoin though and they are all sitting up, not just listening but bandying around words like mining, double spending, hash rate, cryptography, block chains, kraken and private keys, growing increasingly animated the more confused I looked.
They were in their element, reveling in my naivety as they regaled me with stories of the 16-year-old from Ohio who made millions from his bar mitzvah money and his parents didn’t have a clue. Then it hit me; my middle-aged, alarmed and confused face was one of the main reasons younger people are excited about Bitcoin. Basically, it’s not what their elders were telling them to do but also:
- They know more about it than old people; instilling a sense of confidence and excitement;
- They know the terminology because they hear and use it regularly;
- They can research it and invest in it without being criticised or ‘nagged’;
- The success stories are visible and they are exposed to them daily;
- It feeds into the get rich/famous/powerful quick culture discussed here (*insert link to it’s not about money).
So, what do we do with this information? Well, read my last five blogs for a start; if you don’t have time here’s a quick recap:-
Talk to children about money from a very young age, so they become familiar with the terminology but also experience the benefits of earning, saving and investing.
Listen to what is important to our young people and use that as a tool to motivate them; not dismissing it as unrealistic or unimportant… you want status, how can we achieve that? Discuss your own successes and what it gave you personally as well as financially.
Most importantly, get into their online world. Many parents are afraid of encouraging their children’s online habits as they fear the isolation and alienation it can seem to bring, so we only discuss it in negative terms to set limits or highlight the dangers. This means we lose the opportunity to have meaningful discussions about what they are experiencing there.
Find out about what they do online, show interest in learning more about it with an open mind. This 16-year-old made millions on Bitcoin? “Wow, that’s fantastic let’s find out more about it… oh, it wasn’t quite a million… oh, he can’t use the money … oh, so he can’t even use the original amount he put in … oh, that’s a shame … ooh, let’s see how much he would have had five years on if he put it in different places” is a far more effective discussion than “Don’t be ridiculous, it’s all a scam” to which they can confidently say (to me, anyway!), “You just don’t understand it!’” – and they’d be right!