- Hardcover: 208 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster (1 Jan 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743204808
- ISBN-13: 978-0743204804
- Product Dimensions: 22.8 x 14.3 x 2.3 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 3,497,251 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| ||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Most parents do more harm than good when they try to teach their children about money. They make saving seem like a punishment, and force their children to view reckless spending as their only rational choice. To most kids, a savings account is just a black hole that swallows birthday checks. David Owen, a New Yorker staff writer and the father of two children, has devised a revolutionary new way to teach kids about money. In The First National Bank of Dad, he explains how he helped his own son and daughter become eager savers and rational spenders. He started by setting up a bank of his own at home and offering his young children an attractively high rate of return on any amount they chose to save. "If you hang on to some of your wealth instead of spending it immediately," he told them, "in a little while, you'll be able to double or even triple your allowance." A few years later, he started his own stock market and money-market fund for them. Most children already have a pretty good idea of how money works, Owen believes; that's why they are seldom interested in punitive savings schemes mandated by their parents. The first step in making children financially responsible, he writes, is to take advantage of human nature rather than ignoring it or futilely trying to change it. "My children are often quite irresponsible with my money, and why shouldn't they be?" he writes. "But they are extremely careful with their own." The First National Bank of Dad also explains how to give children real experience with all kinds of investments, how to foster their charitable instincts, how to make them more helpful around the house, how to set their allowances, and how to help them acquire a sense of value that goes far beyond money. He also describes at length what he feels is the best investment any parent can make for a child -- an idea that will surprise most readers.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
First Sentence
WHEN OUR SON WAS BORN, my wife and I needed a baby blanket for his crib. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
WHEN OUR SON WAS BORN, my wife and I needed a baby blanket for his crib. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
Customer Reviews
There are no customer reviews yet on Amazon.co.uk.
5 star
4 star
3 star
2 star
1 star
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
9 reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
Much More Than Just a "Bank Book"
5 Mar 2003
Format:Hardcover
David Owen's book should be must reading for all parents with children under age 12. In the first part of the book he describes the success he has had with his own children in establishing a "bank" for them that is both understandable and lucrative. Later he gives excellent advice on providing allowances for youngsters and what they might do with some of the cash including the risks of getting caught up in bubbles nearly as scary as the great internet dot.bomb or dot.con fiasco of 2000: namely, beanie babies. Valuable lessons for children.
Also, the simple language used to describe stocks and bonds could be very useful for young, inquiring minds. Almost surprisingly at the end he segues into the benefits of reading aloud for impressionable minds, and again makes good solid sense. In sum a great book for parents to own and read and even for grandparents to buy for them.
Also, the simple language used to describe stocks and bonds could be very useful for young, inquiring minds. Almost surprisingly at the end he segues into the benefits of reading aloud for impressionable minds, and again makes good solid sense. In sum a great book for parents to own and read and even for grandparents to buy for them.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
David Owen is Money in the Bank
3 May 2004
In tackling a home improvement project involving joint compound and plaster buttons, I kept two books near at hand. One was "HomeOwner's Manual" by the This Old House crew, and the second was "The Walls Around Us" by David Owen. Owen's calming, sensible, everyman approach to shouldering new handyman projects helped steer me through an unfamiliar, mundane project. At some point during the countless hours of smoothing, sanding, and painting, my inattentive mind began to wonder what else Owen had written besides the occasional New Yorker story that subscribers see.
"The First National Bank of Dad" was the answer, and upon reading its subtitle 'The Best Way to Teach Kids about Money' I scooped up a copy. Having two little spenders of my own, I knew I needed this new advice manual from a man who has been there before me. FNBD did not let me down. David Owen writes with a straightforward, humorous, easy-going style that spews common sense and good ideas. His Bank of Dad idea is genius, but only because it flips upside-down the usual parenting mantras of command and control. Put your kids in charge of their money urges Owen, and watch them learn how to spend and save. Stop running Aunt Millie's birthday presents down to the local bank, which to your kids is a "black hole that swallows birthday checks." Instead, Owen puts his kids entirely (almost) in charge of their money, and with his home-based Bank of Dad gives them the opportunity to learn about the power of compound interest. Using a home computer and a slightly more influential rate of interest, he quickly captures his kids' attention.
It's a terrific idea, one I've already adopted, and my kids are unexpectedly as thrilled as his. Owen has more. He teaches his kids free market economics via eBay, creates his own successful Stock Exchange of Dad, and expostulates on the value of part-time employment for kids. His recommendations are surprisingly fresh, honest and logical. Chapter Seven offers perhaps the best observations about life and I could think of many adults I know who would benefit from reading this alone. Chapter Eight is an epistle to the value of reading. By "learning how to purse a subject until their curiosity is satisfied," Owen observes, "later in life they will be able to use that same ability to teach themselves about the bond market." And anything else.
FNBD is an investment of under six hours reading time. It is already paying dividends in my home.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Good advice on how to teach kids a valuable lesson.
5 Mar 2003
Format:Hardcover
I read this book in one afternoon. It is a relatively quick and easy read. David Owen does a good job of supplying advice and a lesson in money management with a little humor. My son is 6 years old and I just started giving him an allowance so he can buy things and stop pestering me. It turns out that this is exactly what Mr. Owen recommends in his book.
This book was enjoyable and informative; I recommend it to anyone with young children.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Economics
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Management
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Personal Finance > Money Management
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Professional Finance
- Books > Health, Family & Lifestyle > Families & Parents > Raising Children
- Books > Science & Nature > Education
- Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Government & Politics
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
