Years ago, during my first trip to Hawaii, I had an experience that completely changed the way I think about financial education.
It was 2011, and for whatever reason, I woke up before sunrise one morning and decided to walk down to the beach.
If you've ever watched the sun come up over the ocean, you know there's a period before the sun appears where the sky seems to put on its own show. Shades of deep purple, bright pink, orange, and gold all blend together before the day officially begins.
I was standing there enjoying the view when I heard a small voice nearby.
What happened next distracted me from the sunrise entirely.
A little boy, probably six or seven years old, was walking with his mother and asked a question that seemed completely out of place for a child his age.
"Mother, what does delay the merger mean?"
I remember turning my head immediately.
Not because children aren't curious.
But because I wasn't expecting such a young child to be asking about mergers before sunrise on a Hawaiian beach.
His mother didn't simply answer the question. She started asking him questions back.
"What do you think a merger is?"
"Why do you think a merger could be delayed?"
"Who do you think is involved?"
As they continued walking, the conversation unfolded. The little boy started connecting the dots.
Two companies.
One company buying another.
Business decisions.
Timing.
People making choices.
I remember standing there absolutely fascinated.
Not because he knew the answer.
But because he was even asking the question.
It Wasn't About Intelligence
The thing that struck me wasn't that this child was unusually smart.
It was that he had obviously been exposed to different conversations than many children.
Somewhere along the way, he had heard adults discussing business.
Maybe he heard a parent on the phone.
Maybe he overheard a conversation at dinner.
Maybe he sat quietly while adults talked and simply listened.
Whatever the source, he had been exposed to language that most children would never hear.
And because he had heard it enough, he wasn't intimidated by it.
He was curious about it.
There's a huge difference.
Exposure Creates Confidence
I often think about that little boy when I talk to clients about including children in financial conversations.
Not because children need to understand everything being discussed.
They won't.
Honestly, most adults don't fully understand everything the first time they hear it.
The value is in the exposure.
Children absorb far more than we realize.
They listen.
They observe.
They connect dots.
They learn how adults think.
And over time, concepts that seem intimidating to others begin to feel familiar.
The same way children naturally learn language.
Financial Literacy Is a Language
Think about how children learn to speak.
Nobody sits down with a two-year-old and hands them a grammar textbook.
They learn by hearing conversations.
They learn by being around people who speak the language.
Financial literacy works much the same way.
When children regularly hear conversations about:
- Saving
- Investing
- Entrepreneurship
- Insurance
- Taxes
- Real estate
- Giving
- Goal-setting
those topics become normal.
Not scary.
Not intimidating.
Not something reserved for "smart people."
Just normal.
They're learning a financial language long before they realize they're learning it.
My Childhood Looked Different
As I listened to that little boy in Hawaii, I couldn't help thinking about my own upbringing.
I wasn't hearing conversations about mergers.
I wasn't hearing discussions about stock options or business acquisitions.
I wasn't listening to conversations about portfolio construction or estate planning.
Many of us weren't.
And that's okay.
It doesn't mean our families failed us.
It simply means they couldn't teach what they hadn't been exposed to themselves.
But that's exactly why I think it's important to change the conversation for the next generation.
Let Them Sit In The Room
One of the things I often encourage clients to do is simply let the children stay in the room.
Let them hear the questions.
Let them hear the planning process.
Let them hear discussions about goals, opportunities, risks, and values.
No, they won't understand every term.
No, they won't remember every detail.
But they will remember that these conversations happened.
And eventually, those conversations become familiarity.
Familiarity becomes confidence.
Confidence becomes action.
And action changes lives.
A Different Kind of Legacy
When most people think about legacy, they think about what they'll leave behind financially.
The inheritance.
The investments.
The house.
The assets.
Those things matter.
But I think there's another form of wealth that's often overlooked.
The conversations.
The exposure.
The confidence.
The ability to walk into a room and not feel intimidated by concepts because you've been hearing them your entire life.
That little boy may never remember that morning on the beach.
But I have a feeling he'll grow up feeling comfortable around business conversations, financial discussions, and investing concepts because they were never hidden from him.
He was allowed to hear them.
And sometimes that's where wealth begins.
Not with money.
But with exposure.