Passive Income Earning Jobs

Last weekend, unofficially, the topic of discussion at home with my wife and a couple of friends were "The Career Path of Their Children". Even though that seemed a long long way to go for me, the entire group had actually created a strong mental picture of what they wanted their children to become in the future.

No doubt that nowadays parents are more liberal in letting their kids to choose the career of their choice and it seemed that these young parents are eager to give their opinions and ideas or simply said- 'brainwashing sessions' - before they allowed their children to have the final say. But what was most surprising to me was the fact that the list of jobs that came up. And guess what? At the top most was the most prestigious career (still) according to them - DOCTORS.
And what am I (and most pf bloggers) doing here talking about passive income and early retirement? We (includes this particular group of friends) talk and preach till our mouths go dry about having income without working and yet when coming to their children's career planning ( or financial planning) they do the total opposite. Who does not know the long working hours of a doctor and the stress that they have to undergo. A consultant gynaecologist that I know of has really made it BIG that he even has built his own hospital. But the sad part is that he still has to come work because patients come to him because of HIM and not because of his hospital. In fact he is almost reaching his seventies now and he is highly appreciated for his skills and expertise in his field.

It certainly is nice to be appreciated, but the sad part is you've got to work till you drop dead!On the other hand, people who have built their careers on jobs like financial planners or insurance agents or even Multi-Level-Marketing (MLM) agents get to enjoy their lives as well as earn a good income to sustain it. What is the point of having tonnes of money when you can't enjoy it? I would definitely not choose studying medicine for my kid if given a choice.

Am I right in my decision? Or am I making a mistake here? I would love to get a feedback from you guys..

Some Financial Mistakes You should Avoid As A Parent

It is easy to blame on other people's mistake. But this post is not about that. I love my parents and appreciate whatever sacrifices they have made to bring me up. And without any doubt, they love me too. Just that they loved me and my siblings too much that they unintentionally made some mistakes along the way.

For instance, they never allowed any one of us to work during the school holidays. Even until I was 17! The reason they had was if we earned our own income, we will be too comfortable with it that we would not concentrate on our studies anymore. The problem: we failed to understand the challenges of working life until very much later stages of our lives.

Another issue that I can clearly remember is that they never allowed us to spend our 'gift money' that we received during celebrations or birthdays from friends, relatives and even parents themselves as we like. We were told to put it into our savings. However, if we needed anything, we should ask our parents and if they were okay with it, they would get it for us. The problem: we failed to make our own choices and differentiate between the needs and wants.

They pampered us too much. They tried to provide us with all the comfort that they could. When my youngest brother got a job,my parents insisted that they should send and fetch him. Many times I've insisted that he should stand on his own feet and make use of public transport available, especially when he is 25!

Apart from that, my brother uses the car during the weekends just to go and meet friends and hang-out. I can see the problems arising:

• he doesn't learn budgeting, because he still gets free rides

• his time management skills are nil because he gets to tell parents when he is ready to leave and not the other way around

• once he is very comfortable with driving (parents-sponsored), it is difficult to use public transport.

How is he going to get by when he can't afford all these comforts with his small salary later on?

What Can You Teach A One Year Old About Finance?

For a one year old who can barely speak, how can I share with him the knowledge that I'm gaining slowly nowadays about the financial world? My first challenge would be to make him understand what I'm trying to tell him. Then, the next challenge would be to get a response from him. But still, I'm just so eager to transfer him all that I've learnt.

Ok, I have to start somewhere. Maybe not on the compounding interest mentioned by Frugal Dad in How to Teach Compounding Interest to Kids or even the difference in needs and wants as mentioned by JLP in his post : Using Mashed Potatoes To Teach Kids About Money. Those are great ideas, but I'll think I'll save it till my boy is a little older.

For a start, I've decided to teach him that he needs to save money. So, how do I do that? My little boy has a habit of digging into my shirt pocket every day when I return from work, usually throwing off my pen and petrol receipts in the process. So, this time, I had on purpose, some coins in my pocket. Everyday, without fail, we dig into my pocket and discover those coins. And what do we do with that? We head for the elephant-shaped 'piggy-bank' and drop the coins into it. Initially, I was putting in the money. As he grew to hold the coins properly in his fist, I have trained him to 'bank in his savings'.

What do you think he would have learnt in the process? I'm sure he doesn't know what is compounding interest or the difference between needs and wants. Heck, I doubt he even understands what money is at the moment. But I'm very pretty sure he knows that the shiny round thing from his dad's pocket must end up in his 'piggy-bank'. That's sufficient for now, I think, don't you agree?

We have been religiously doing this activity for about 3 weeks now. The only concern is I have to be very careful and pay full attention to him as kids tend to put anything they find into their mouth. Otherwise, I think I have put him on a head-start on financial education!




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