Barefoot Investor Scott Pape on how to teach your kids about money, hard work

Money guru Scott Pape says teaching kids from a young age to work hard is essential to avoid every parent’s worst nightmare.

Barefoot Investor Scott Pape has revealed how he makes his older kids dig their own toilet while camping as a life lesson on the value of money and convenience.

The father of four says teaching kids from a young age to work hard while not make life too cushy for them is critical in avoiding the parent nightmare: a spoilt brat who had no interest in financial responsibility.

Pape, who is lobbying state governments to rollout out practical money lessons in classrooms around the country, says spending time with children and teaching them about work is better than just giving them toys.

While the 43-year-old stresses he’s not a poster child for parenting, the savings guru says its about “spoiling them with love and them understanding that you don’t need to be the Disneyland parent”.

The Fletcher family, with their money jars, will be featured on Scott Pape's Foxtel show Money Movement. Picture: Brad Fleet

Pape enjoys taking his older kids camping, where they have to dig a hole with a shovel if they want to go to the toilet.

“That whole idea of breaking the idea of convenience, roughing it a little bit,” he says, adding there are no phones or reception to distract anyone.

“The thing about when we go camping is from the moment we wake up in the tent, which is whenever the sun comes up, to the moment we sit around the campfire, we are 100 per cent in the zone.”

So what are two top tips for a raising a considerate, money-savvy child?

PAY POCKET MONEY TO YOUNG KIDS

“Most parents have done pocket money, most parents have been broken by their children, and its fizzled out,” he says, adding that chores become another thing that parents have to nag their kids about.

In the Pape household, they have the “333 method”, which is three jobs a week, three jars and three minutes.

Scott Pap says pocket money isn’t about money but a “visual tool for financial education”.

“So every Sunday night I yell to the kids just before dinner, ‘Have you done your jobs?’ and the answer almost always is ‘no’, and I say ‘time to do your jobs’,” he says.

Once the kids do their jobs around the family farm in Victoria, they get paid and then they all have dinner.

Pape, who is working as a financial counsellor, says pocket money isn’t about money but a “visual tool for financial education”.

As well as teaching kids work ethic, it also allows parents to have a conversation in a way that kids understand, he says.

But parents need to be careful that they don’t train their kids to “love money” meaning they won’t help around the house unless they’re getting paid.

Pape says his entire family “pitch in at dinner time”, whether it be with the cooking, setting the table or loading the dishwasher.

“It’s not a job that you get paid for, it’s pitching in as a family member. And again, I would never want my children if I asked them to do something for them to put their hand out and say ‘pay me’.”

EXPLAIN HOUSEHOLD FINANCES TO TEENS

Pape says it’s probably not a subject for primary school kids because “you don’t want to freak them out, especially if you’re having a tough time financially”.

But teenagers should know about the costs of running a family and how to pay bills.

“To expect children to pop out and just work it out when they turn 18, I think is a really big mistake.”

Pape also believes kids should be taught to give to charities and people in need, which he believes will make them more content and empathetic adults.

“You don’t want to raise a tight-fisted, miserly young person,” he says.

Rather, it’s about raising generous and grateful kids.

“I think if you can teach kids to enjoy working and to be kind, I think they are the two behavioural building blocks that all parents are chasing”.

MONEY MOVEMENT GAINING MOMENTUM

Pape’s Money Movement campaign to get practical money lessons taught in classrooms is gaining strong momentum, with the NSW government first off the blocks recently with news it will introduce a financial literacy challenge.

The Victorian government, which was the first to ban school banking programs in the country last November, is committed to teaching kids about managing their finances.

Darcy Fletcher uses three jam jars to save and manage his money. Picture: Brad Fleet

Primary school student Darcy Fletcher is a big fan of Pape’s Jam Jar Project for primary school kids after meeting the money guru during his visit to Sandy Strait State School in Queensland’s Hervey Bay in 2019 as part of Pape’s Money Movement campaign.

Two years on, the 10 year-old is still using his three jam jars to save and manage his money. It has also got his family talking about their finances.

“Over time, I‘ve just been doing chores around the house and saving,” says Darcy, who recently emptied out one jar to buy a $50 bluetooth Rubik’s cube.

Another positive from Pape’s money lesson is that Darcy and his siblings are asking their parents less often for something to be bought for them, easing the pressure on the family’s finances.

Scott Pape’s Money Movement starts on Foxtel’s Lifestyle channel on Wednesday.