Wyatt Yates Host 00:00 Money doesn't have to be complicated. You can achieve financial independence. This podcast gets to the truth behind the money miss you hear from your grandma, your broke uncle, the latest social media influencers and the so-called money experts. Welcome to Money Myths with your host, wyatt Yates. 00:24 This week's myth is my kids are my financial priority. Now, this is a very common belief. You know. I've had a lot of clients that may think this. You may think this. 00:36 We can see why we would think this. Because you know we want the best for our kids. We want our kids to have it better than we did when we were a kid. So putting your kids as a priority financially, you know, makes sense in that aspect. It makes us feel better because you know we want the best for them. Heck, even the Bible says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children's children, which is in written in Prob verbs. So it's pretty easy to see why you know we may have this belief or people may structure their finances around this myth in because you know our kids are important to us. Why shouldn't they be a financial priority for us? And that's why this exists and this is a really common thing. 01:31 There's some fallacy with with this thought process as far as them being your financial priority, though, what this leads to, and what you'll see a lot of times, is that this belief or using your kids to justify you know, your financial habits or spending or spending money on certain things will, a lot of times, be that justification or rationalization that people will use to be able to feel better about spending money on something that they really can't afford. You use your kids as the reason why it's okay, which isn't right. It only leads to financial troubles. So the whole concept of I need, we need to buy this vehicle because it's safer or it will fit the kids better even though there's, you know, probably millions of people that have a worse vehicle with children and they get along just fine or it's that justification for why you need a different house, because we need more room, because we have our kids now and it's just not an adequate place for them to grow up, even though there's kids growing up in way smaller houses that still have a roof over their head that end up being just fine. So we use these as justifications for spending money we don't have, or maybe stretching our budget to accommodate things that we are really more wants than needs they're. They're not necessities but and they're fall more under the discretionary spending. 03:25 Another example of where you'll see this is with parents with spending money on their children's activities, whether that be sports or or you know, band or anything like that, any extra curricular activities that your child's involved in. Some parents will spend and insane amounts of money that they really don't have in sacrifice other financial goals of their own to be able to pay for these kids' activities, because these activities make their kid happy and, yes, we all want our kids to be happy but you can't do it at the expense of financial stability and your financial goals. There's other ways to do it. So if you find yourself happening to use your kids as a justification for why you're spending money on something it's probably not coming from the right place and not something that you really should be spending your money on, because you are using that to make yourself feel better about making the decision that you know you shouldn't be doing. So if you have to use your kids as a justification for an expense in your family budget, then you need to take a hard look at is it something that you really need, or are you just doing that so you feel better about the decision you're making. Another area where you'll see this is when it comes to saving money for your kid's college, which is a good thing to do. But if you are saving money for your kid's college and not saving for your own retirement, you got it messed up. So I mean, your kid may or may not want to go to college, but the chances are it's almost guaranteed that you will retire someday. So your retirement savings is a bigger priority over your kid's college. So if you have that backwards and you're saving for your kid's college but you're not contributing anything to retirement, you need to reevaluate what you're doing. 05:43 So your responsibility as a parent is to provide a safe place for your child to grow. That means a safe place physically, having a roof over their head, food on the table, water all the things to help them physically grow. You need to be providing and chances are everything that you're providing physically with housing and everything else especially if you're listening to this podcast is way better than a lot of kids have it and that are doing just fine. So that's your responsibility from your child in terms of physical needs a place to sleep with a roof over their head, food on the table to meet their physical needs, and you can most likely do that in a smaller house than you're currently at, or so don't use your child or your children as justification for why you need something this better house that is more of your want, and, yeah, it may be easier. But guess what? If you can't afford it, then you shouldn't be doing it. But that's your child's physical needs. 06:54 You're also responsible to help your children grow into productive members of society that are responsible, that are gonna help other people and that are gonna produce something of value in society when they leave your house. So all of that can be done without money. You don't need money to be able to develop your child in that aspect, to where they can be when they leave their productive member of society that's responsible, helps other people and can produce something of value, whether that be as an employee or with their own business or whatever they're doing. But that is the end goal with your child. They eventually leave your home and when they leave their home, you need to have them prepared to be able to go out in the world, and none of that involves money. 07:47 So when you make your kids your financial priority, it's meaning you're, you're putting your finances towards your children and things that impact, you know, your children, or using your children as a justification for spending instead of following good, sound financial principles with your personal finances. So when you use your kids as justification for expenses or for how you're spending your money or for making yourself feel better about your financial decisions, you are not putting your financial goals in the right priority or in the right order. So, like the whole that whole Proverbs 13-22, where it says a good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Well, if you make your kids a financial priority, you are guaranteeing yourself that you will not be leaving an inheritance for your children's children because you're going to be spending money instead of saving and investing and making sure you're making sound and wise financial decisions. So your retirement, your saving and investing, is priority. After once you've covered the whole roof over our heads and a safe place for your child to grow, your next priorities are your retirement, saving and investing and getting that home paid off. If you own your own home and have a mortgage, you're getting that home paid off because those types of financial decisions are going to lead to financial prosperity for you. Your investments will grow and you will eventually have wealth that you can leave your children and they can leave their children, and on down the line. 09:50 But you can't let this thought process or this myth tie into a reason for you to justify things that you really, deep down, know our wants and not needs, and that's where this comes from. So, for the action step this week, I want you to look at what you're spending your money on, on your kids. So, if you have kids, look at what you're spending money on in relation to your kids. Is it really a need or a want? Can you really cut where you're spending money or using your kids as justification for certain expenses? We all do it I mean, I still do this where there'll be moments of weaknesses, where you'll use your kids because you want something. You want your kids to have it better than you did, so you'll use them as a reason to justify spending more money than what you really should or really. No, you need to on a certain thing. 10:53 So look at where you're spending your money or using your kids as a justification for a line item in your budget, and I want you just to think through is this really a need, a want? Am I just using my kids as a justification so I feel better about this financial decision. Really think through why you're doing it, cause chances are you know it's wrong, but it's that internal battle we all have where we want our wants versus our needs and trying to rationalize a want into a need. I mean it's something you're gonna fight, ongoing through the end of time. So look through what you're spending your money on or using your kids as a justification in your budget to spend more money on a line item and really think through why you're doing that. I mean, just start identifying it. First step is identifying when you're letting this myth kind of crop into your decision making or your money spending habits. So that's your action step for this week is so it starts that internal thought process of where you're just identifying when this is cropping up and why you're doing it. 12:20 So that ends our month of September where we covered kids and college and anything money related topics related to kids. We covered a variety of things as far as college choice and how you can go to college without student loans was a big focus this month and just understanding how you as a parent can save your kids college, and then, with today's episode covering what really is your priority as a parent in terms of raising your children. They're not your financial priority. How you develop them is your priority, not necessarily what you provide financially for them. After you've covered the basics of housing and food and shelter and having a safe place for them to grow, your financial priorities are very limited. So that was our focus for the month of September. So go back. We had our Friday financial tip, friday emails, we had our blog post and we've had these podcast episodes. So feel free, go back, re-listen to them, look at, listen to the action steps and put those into place, and you can get further exposed to those, and hearing those or reading those for a second time will help just kind of get those cemented into your mind and just start thinking about them. 13:55 Now, for the month of October, we're gonna be covering building wealth, investing and retirement. So you know what do you need to save for retirement, what are your options when it comes to saving for retirement. You know how much money are you going to need in retirement. You know, is it too late for you? Or you know what should you be doing in terms of building wealth. How do you build wealth so you have money to retire, to pass it along to your kids, and how do you do it and what are your options there. So that's what we're gonna be covering in the month of October, so stay tuned for those. 14:40 If you aren't signed up for our email list, hop on our website at reggithinancialcom to where you can sign up on our email list so you get those Friday financial tip emails. 14:51 Also, follow us on our social media channels and check us out at ruggedfinancial.com. So thanks for listening and stay tuned for a lot of great topics that we're gonna be covering over this next month. Thanks, want to achieve financial independence? Go ruggedfinancial.comwhere where you can download my free PDF of the 12 Things to Do to Win With Money, and you can also sign up for my weekly money tips emails, where I cover the same tips and tricks and advice I walk all my clients through so you can begin your journey to financial independence. Thank you for watching and listening to this episode of the Money Myths Podcast. Please do me a favor and, if you found this episode interesting, subscribe to the podcast so you can make sure you get all the future episodes. Also, leave a rating and review so you can help us grow this podcast so we can leave more people to financial independence. And lastly, please take a screenshot of the episode, share it on your social media channels and tag us using at ruggedfinancial. We will see you later.