Episode 316: Money Talks: Teaching Kids Financial Literacy at Every Age with Charlotte Geletka, CFP®

Teaching kids about money is one of the most important things we can do as parents, but it's also one of the most overlooked. Melissa Joy, CFP® sits down with returning guest Charlotte Geletka, CFP® and owner of Silver Penny Financial Planning, to talk financial literacy at every age and the charming children's book she co-authored with her 12 year old son, Battery, the Bulldog and the Funny Money Tree, released on March 17th.

From tooth fairy moments to teenager debit cards to the real cost of college debt, Charlotte breaks down how money conversations can and should evolve as children grow. She and Melissa explore the dangers of TikTok financial advice, the gamification of investing, and why conscious spending beats the YOLO mentality every time.

What You'll Learn

• How children begin forming money concepts earlier than most parents realize
• Why giving small kids cash to spend at the store is one of the best financial literacy tools around
• How kid friendly debit cards like Greenlight are teaching real world money management in middle and high school
• Why TikTok financial advice and gamified investing apps are a growing concern for parents
• How to have honest conversations with your kids about income, debt, and what things actually cost
• Why the financial decisions made in your early twenties have an outsized impact on the rest of your life
• The difference between payment focused thinking and understanding the true cost of credit
• How Charlotte and her son Andrew created Battery, the Bulldog and the Funny Money Tree together and what it took to get it published

Connect with Charlotte: Instagram: @silverpennyfinancial 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlottecowangeletkacrpc/ 

Book: Battery, the Bulldog and the Funny Money Tree: https://littleripples.media/books/battery-the-bulldog-and-the-funny-money-tree

The previous presentation by PEARL PLANNING was intended for general information purposes only.  No portion of the presentation serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from PEARL PLANNING or any other investment professional of your choosing. Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and it should not be assumed that future performance of any specific investment or investment strategy, or any non-investment related or planning services, discussion or content, will be profitable, be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful. Neither PEARL PLANNING’s investment adviser registration status, nor any amount of prior experience or success, should be construed that a certain level of results or satisfaction will be achieved if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. PEARL PLANNING is neither a law firm nor accounting firm, and no portion of its services should be construed as legal or accounting advice. No portion of the video content should be construed by a client or prospective client as a guarantee that he/she will experience a certain level of results if PEARL PLANNING is engaged, or continues to be engaged, to provide investment advisory services. A copy of PEARL PLANNING’s current written disclosure Brochure discussing our advisory services and fees is available upon request or at https...

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Women's Money Wisdom Podcast. I'm Melissa Joy, a certified financial planner and the founder of Perl Planning. My goal is to help you streamline and organize your finances, navigate big money decisions with confidence, and be strategic in order to grow your wealth. As a woman, you work hard for your money, and I'm here to help you make the most of it. Now let's get into the show. If you're like me and many of our listeners, talking to your kids about money is both so important, but also it can be really challenging. And today I'm going to have a guest who's also a friend who is tackling that subject by co-authoring a book along with her son. Charlotte Guletka is the owner of Silver Penny Financial Planning. And she's also a huge financial literacy advocate, a certified financial planner. And like I said, I call her a friend. And Charlotte is releasing a new book called Battery the Bulldog and the Funny Money Tress with Andrew Galetka, her 12-year-old son. The book is being released on March 17th. Charlotte, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me, Melissa. It's so great to see you. I should say welcome back because you are a returning guest, and it's been a minute since we spoke. And since then, you've got this beautiful book, Birth into the World. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Thank you. I'm a proud book parent now. Battery, the Bulldog, and the Funny Money Tree. We're super excited, along with my 12-year-old son Andrew. Uh, we wrote this book, gosh, four years ago. And it just takes a long time to get a book out in the world.

Early Lessons: Tooth Fairy To Checkout

SPEAKER_01 1:49

Well, it's such an amazing and ambitious project. And before we talk about the book itself, I would love to talk about, you know, what you think about teaching kids about money, like what's age appropriate, how do you approach it as a financial professional? Give me the scoop as a mom of two of about those money talks.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Well, I think that you would probably agree, Melissa, that one of the things that we hear all the time is I wish I knew more about how money works when I was growing up. I wish I understood money. I wish my parents talked about it. Or, you know, people don't necessarily put it on the parents, just say, how can we go all the way through school without knowing basics about money? Um, I also, as you mentioned, am very passionate about financial literacy. And so for the past 10 years, I've been going out in the uh in my community, I live in Atlanta, Georgia, and just talking about basic financial literacy concepts across all ages, you know, from elementary kids all the way to high school kids. I also do kind of a money 101 recent grad talk I do for my clients. Uh, we produced a video that we've just sending people to have basic understanding. And I think that um our industry, the financial services industry, cannot, it doesn't always do a great job of being super educational and inclusive to these types of conversations. Um and so having my own children, I realize, hey, I want to do it a little differently. I want to talk to them about money. And it starts quite early. Um, if you think about some of a child's very first interactions with money, I like to go to the tooth fairy, right? So how old is how old were your children when you lost their their first teeth? Do you remember? Probably four or five. Okay. So four or five years old. A child understands something valuable when there's money underneath the pillow, right? It's true, yeah. If you think about that at that point, the child is understanding, like, ooh, I want the money. Money is good. And I think it's a little bit challenging because children aren't seeing money change hands the way they used to. It's true. I agree. You, you know, and we all have the funny story of the we've heard it from years, years ago, where the child talks to the Alexa and orders a bunch of things from Amazon. And, you know, I at some point a child has to have the consciousness of, hey, for the things to show up from Amazon, somebody had to pay for it.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Right.

Inside The Children’s Book

SPEAKER_02 4:27

They're seeing us though in the grocery store, they're seeing us tap the wallet, the credit card. Um, so I say from an early age, children are picking up on the concept that there's an exchange of value, right? So if I buy groceries, there's an exchange of value. If I'm, you know, at Target with my mom, a kid's in the grocery, you know, I want this, I want that, they've got that. Um, the gimme's, give me this, give me that. They understand because they're told, no, that costs money. We can't buy that, you can't, you know. And then they start to understand, ooh, if somebody gives me money, like the tooth fairy, that I can go spend it. Um, and I would say a really fun exercise for a small child. Give them, give them$5, give them$10, let them pick something out at the grocery store. Let them actually give the money to the cashier and pay for it and get it counted out. It's a really fun exercise for a small child to start to understand the exchange of value, right? So that's the very early concepts. And in in the book, Battery, the Bulldog, and the Funny Money Tree, it's a fun, whimsical kind of fable-like story. But we're we're telling very small children. It's geared towards kids four to eight. Although kids, you know, all the way to 99 can read the book and enjoy it. Of course. Um, but it is going to let them know like, hey, money is something that is a resource that has to be managed, right? So the characters in the story, one's a saver, one's a spender. They kind of see how that plays out. And it's the very beginning concepts of, hey, if I have this money, I can spend it or I can save it. How am I incentivized to do each? And of course, delayed gratification is really tough for small children. And so we're trying to have this concept, but we've all come across kids, you know, piggy banks had been around forever. And, you know, I oh, you know, I pose the question of you. Are one of do you have two children? Yeah. Are one of them the saver, one of them the spender? Like, what is their natural inclination with money?

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Well, first of all, I'll tell you, I remember how I like how I was labeled as a child. I was definitely a spender.

unknown 6:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

And so was my my brother was a saver. And um, you know, that label kind of sticks with you. But I I definitely have um my older child is more of a spender, even a giveawayer. And um, my younger child, um, it may be because we have more control over that money and kind of the allowance and things like that, um, less less access to the debit card, but she's more of a saver and intends to have her money accumulating. Um Yeah.

Middle School Independence And Debit Cards

SPEAKER_02 7:14

So it's interesting how children have that natural, you know, inclination, right? Before they've had the test of it. And I think, you know, it's an interesting point you just said, like before they have access to the card. So let's fast forward past, you know, past kind of preschool elementary age. Now they're starting to understand the concept of money. Then in middle school, children start to get some independence, right? True, definitely. That that could be what I think. They should, I agree. That could be a whole nother topic. We all know that kids are, I think the tagline is under monitored online, over-monitored offline, like in real life, right? Um, and I think cultural is starting to kind of realize that. But as a child is in middle school and you know, late middle school, early high school, they might go out and do things with their friends that involve money. And so I don't know how how you handle that, but um, there are a ton of companies now that are offering child-friendly debit cards.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yep, we use Greenlight ourselves. Um, not an endorsement, but it's been good. Same.

Earning, QR Payments, And Teen Side Gigs

SPEAKER_02 8:24

If anyone from Greenlight is listening, they're an Atlanta-based company. I would love to partner with you, but uh no, we use Greenlight as well. And um Greenlight, if for those of you who are not familiar, is an app-based um kind of financial education and kid-friendly debit card. And the concept, I believe that Capital One has one. Um, step up is another financial kind of debit card use, which Mr. Beast just bought, if for those of you that follow that have children that follow the Mr. Beast phenomenon. Um so when we say green light, we're talking about the concept. I think Capital One has one, and a lot of financial institutions want to get in arm this. So the child has a card. It looks, it appears to be like a physical credit card, and then the parent has an app. Okay. And it's linked to my bank account. So, and it is actually giving them money. You can give it. I've got it set up so that it's coming weekly. Yeah, you can attach chores to it. You can also, um, there's different levels of subscription, but there's a savings bucket and an investing bucket. But back to the conversations of independence. So um just for a frame of reference, I have a 15-year-old who's a sophomore in high school, and I have a 12-year-old who's a sixth grader. And the 12-year-old who's in sixth grade has just started to, after school, walk to a local kind of hangout. I guess our equivalent when we grew up would have been the mall. Kids don't go to the mall anymore, but man, I've heard it. Okay, literally, I would have loved my own credit card at the mall. I would have, I would have crushed the Hello Kitty situation. But anyways, the child, but so the 12-year-old has a card and he goes and buys donuts and tacos and whatever 12-year-old boys like gum, you know, like to buy. Convenience stores are their, you know, right. They're convenience stores. Right. So a few things are happening then. That one, the child is getting some autonomy, independence, but also the money, whatever's on the cool thing about the cards is it's not unlimited. There's a limited amount of funds on that card.

SPEAKER_01 10:38

So they are boundaries and it will be declined if it doesn't work.

SPEAKER_02 10:42

Yeah, correct. But it's like, hey, I just spent, I bought donuts for my entire friend group, and now I just spent$40, you know? And so they have a concept, they see what happens and they see it run out. So now all of a sudden they're getting the concept of um, you know, that that money, the the use case, right? Uh, and also the limited quantity, what it's got, it's gone situation. So you're beginning to kind of do in a management. So that's middle schools are kind of you know, raising the independence, using their money on their own. And kids love that. They're able to use that and then they can see, and kids are processing it differently. High school kids, so um these a lot of these apps now have the feature. It's like the pay me. So remember when we were babysitting and you had to get paid in cash? Yep. Now you can send a QR code. Um, there is a high school girl in our carpal at our school, and she decided she was gonna wrap presents for busy working moms. So I loaded up my car presents, gave it to her. She sent me the QR code of how to pay her. The money goes directly on her green light or equivalent card. And then, so she's earning money. So now they're they're understanding the concept of, you know, working for the dollar, appreciating the dollar. And then also then they have the choice are you saving it? Are you spending it? And my son started an interior mobile detailing business, same thing. So he worked all summer, and then as the school year progresses, he's using that money to go out to eat with his friends, and that money is dwindling. So it's going to be interesting for him to see.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

Um I see that too. My my son has um he's not started his own business, he's an employee of the school district. So I see when the paydays happen, and so as does he, um, it's every other week. And then um, he's watching kids after school. And then, you know, I also see like for my spender, like, oh, you just got paid and you're not getting paid for two weeks, but you're spending all the money, like, you know, day one or two. And so that's a good conversation. It's not, I'm not micromanaging it, but it's like, hey, don't you want that money to last and things like that, where you can kind of learn that skill set in the wild versus just doing what your parents tell you to do.

Investing, TikTok Advice, And Gambling Risks

SPEAKER_02 13:13

Right. And also your I, you know, different uh parenting analogies, but you know, they sort of have a safety net under them. And you want people to understand this before they get launch, right? Yes. And so there's so many concepts that are paramount to understanding this. And I think too, this, these are the basics. Money, you know, switching something of value, having money. Money is what we use to exchange goods and services, sort of the basic premise. And then through that, as the basic platform, you know, maybe you go into savings and compound interest. Oh, you're getting 3% on that. What does that mean? Uh oh, we want to invest it. And then a lot of this investing conversations, you they need to happen because your child or the children in your life are going to learn about it, but their exposure to it is going to be different. Think about what's out there in the world. They're going to get TikTok financial advice. So they're going to see, and remember, people on TikTok that are giving financial advice can say anything they want. These are not certified professionals. So they're seeing the gamified version of investing. It's not only investing, it's also gambling. You know, we're having the conversation. I'm having the conversation with my teenage son about gambling because it's so accessible to him. They have this in their hand and they can, they see trading, they see investing, they see gambling. And so those conversations as well um need to happen. You know, they you need to be transparent because they're not getting investment advice from you. They're getting it from the parent, they're getting it from somebody else. I.e. whoever they're staring at on their screen.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Um well, and some of it's not even investment advice, it's consumption, consumption demonstrations that have no context to financial realities that are, you know, on social media, and you know, just like the gambling you mentioned, like prediction markets and so many things that are like gamified in a way that's um great for whatever company your money ends up at, but not necessarily healthy for the consumer themselves or your kids.

Credit, Payments, And Real Costs

Openness About Salaries And Life Costs

SPEAKER_02 15:29

Right. And that's how, and the guess what? The fine the companies that want to make the long play, they know this. And so they are out there gamifying it. There's some large companies I won't name who have made entire large business cases for this. They wrote people in in their teens and early 20s, and then they want them to become investment clients. And so over time, that's their first exposure. And this is just one side of the money education. I think, along with it, like, you know, different professions. Um, but I'm hearing a lot more intelligent questions of, hey, how much money would I make if I did this? Um, you know, and kids also can see, they can see how much houses cost, Zillow. They can see, so they're having a realization of, wow, what kind of job do you need to get paid to have that college debt? I think the high school kids of today are questioning and wondering, like, hey, if this costs this much, what kind of job I'm gonna have on the other end? What is the cost of college debt? The generation right above them has been very vocal about this, which is good. But these kind of concepts, then you kind of launch into credit, the cost of credit, the cost of using other people's money. I touch on that a little bit in the book. One fun story is one of the characters um uses that we call it the bulldog bank to purchase his things. And so you see that he he, you know, is is basically living on credit, right? So he's he's the house, the car, the fancy lifestyle. You know, we we try to have that thread in a very developmentally appropriate kid fun story. But, you know, you see the keeping up with the Joneses, right? And you it's payment focused versus what you can actually afford. And that's something that I really want people to understand at an early age is hey, when you buy the car, don't just focus on the monthly payment. Think about the cost of interest that you're going to pay over the lifetime of the loan. Right. So concepts like this um, you know, when you buy a home, how much of each payment goes towards interest and goes towards principal? That's a concept I think people don't realize until they're well into adulthood. And these are these are things that we can start to have conversations with to help people and people want to know this. People want to know this information. It's just not part of the um, you know, normal high school curriculum. Although I will give a shout out to the state of Georgia because financial literacy is now required. Same for Michigan. Yeah. Yeah, to be part of the curriculum. And we're seeing this more and more, this basic financial education. And I think it's great. And I think we need to have open, honest conversations. You know, I don't know what it was like for you growing up, but typically when you asked an adult, how much money do you make, they wouldn't really tell you. Um and I get that it can be slightly uncomfortable. So I would suggest give a range. You're like, well, I may, let's see, someone's a PA, a physician's assistant. They could say the range for PAs in the jobs that I've had and the job in this area could be between, you know, 90,000 and 200,000 or something. Give, give a range. But it needs to be realistic. We need to have open, honest conversations about money so that we're telling um kids the reality and also the reality of what life costs.

SPEAKER_01 19:06

And I think like one of the first places you can introduce that, or not first, one of the critical places you introduce that is paying for college, because that is one area where uh in many cases families um commit their students to repaying loans um without always knowing the repercussions. It's it's not the first time that you make a financial decision, but it is so critical depending on the family's financial circumstances and how much parents will pay.

College Debt And Early Adult Choices

SPEAKER_02 19:38

And you and I know that that you know, the reality of there is a desire to give your kid everything at the cost of expensive costs. But if if it's the the first largest decision, financial decision that you make. And let's just say that you walk out with$200,000 of college debt and you become um a social worker, it's gonna be really hard to climb out of that. So you're beginning your financial life as an adult in the whole. And so that's a concept, um, you know, a lot of financial reality. Or I always try to tell people when I'm giving money 101, the decisions that you make early in your life, your financial life in your early 20s, really sets you up for the rest of your life. And I say you can choose. You can be on the pay now, play later plan, or play now and pay later. And I know that's an oversimplification for a lot of really complex financial topics. But if you think about and have a fun illustration, if you think about, you know, you're 25, you got your first job, you move out. Do you get a roommate and you have to spend a little less on rent and save a little bit more? Do you put a little bit more in your 401k before you have larger financial responsibilities? And then we fast forward 20 years and say, what happens when you're 45, right? And the decisions that you made at 25 financially have a very large impact. Um, I was fortunate enough that I was raised by people who um were my dad was in the industry, and so we talked about money openly. I was the only eight-year-old with a money market account. So I had a concept of this, but when I was young and early married, um, my husband at the time was a physician, and we actually lived very below our means. And some friends made comments like, I don't understand why you guys are living, you know, uh, I forgot the con, like, why is everything like super Ikea? Like, because we both we knew that the decisions that we made early were going to impact the next phases of life.

Conscious Spending And Tradeoffs

SPEAKER_01 21:50

Makes sense. And, you know, in an ideal world, eventually you get to an equilibrium where you can um use your financial resources now and also have The confidence that you are saving for later. And um, in the meantime, though, overspending early, going into debt, things like that are just really difficult to dig yourself out of. So starting to serve always helps.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

Yeah, 100%. We're not saying don't, you know, I understand the YOLO concept and like, but how can you have, I like to call it conscious spending. You know, so that's fine. If you choose to go on that like super awesome vacation, you might need to keep your car another year. You know, those types of I'm sure you're trade off every day.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Is such a builder of resilience. You can do anything, but not everything. Um, and spending for contentment versus spending for more and abundance and the most is, you know, it can be defined, may result in different choices or outcomes as well. Tell me a little bit about the book itself and how you and your son decided to put this together. Like, what was the genesis?

The Book’s Origin And Publishing Journey

SPEAKER_02 23:03

So uh fun story. I mean, you're you're reading at night to your small child. He was about four, and um, you know, I'm pretty tired at the end of the day, so I just didn't have the energy to read stories. So I said, I'll tell you stories. So we would come up with stories together. And I'm also thinking I need to teach him about money. And so, you know, we kind of created this story together where I said, Hey, you know, there was a character and he named him Battery, and which is kind of a funny whimsical, but that's that's how it is with four-year-olds. They they have an amazing imagination, and and so we talked about that, and uh, you know, I was telling him what happens to, you know, we kind of created it together. And then I thought, this is a really great story. And as a parent, you read a lot of bedtime stories, and I'm like, I'd like to read something that's like easy to read, you know, not the the not too many words. Thank you for saying it, but I was thinking about that. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what can I read? And then what is fun and enjoyable? But hey, there's also an important kind of story tucked in there with fun characters. And so he he and I wrote this together, and then I said, Hey, this is like a cool story. I'm gonna write this down and see if we can't make a book of this. And so I kind of wrote it, come through it, um, and then thought this, I want this to be a children's book. I want this to be out in the world. I want other kids to hear this story. I want parents to have something fun and engaging to read. And people did ask ask me all the time, like, what are some ways to get started with your kids? And how can you teach them about money? Like, start from the very beginning. And so then we started to go out and look for publishing. It's really difficult for a first-time author to get a book published. Uh, the this process took, gosh, four to five years. And, you know, I got a lot of no's. And then a local Atlanta publisher was going to open a children's book in print. And I learned about that, reached out to them, and they said yes. And I think also having a child author, you know, having my son be a major contributor and writing the story was really exciting to them. And he attended all the publishing meetings, so that was really fun. He selected the illustrator, which is also a really fun process. Yeah. So we got to interview illustrators, and um then I recently have told him, like, okay, now it's time for us to go out. We we've created the book, but I told him books don't sell themselves, so we have to go out. And I said, You're gonna do a lot of story times. And he said, What? You know, he's a 12-year-old boy now. And I said, You're gonna have to read the stories to little kids, so that's gonna be an interesting process.

Launching The Book And Story Times

SPEAKER_01 25:53

Oh, that's so fun! So Andrew's excited about his work, and um I think this is just such a fun way to start the money conversation, and I can see it being a um gift for young kids of pro planning clients. So congratulations on you know, bringing something into the world that has legacy, has impact, and is really contributing to better outcomes for families and their kids.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Oh, thank you, Melissa, and thank you for the work that you do to help women become more financially knowledgeable and empowered because we know that women are helping the community at large, you know, in their work in the home and outside the home. So thank you for furthering that mission.

SPEAKER_01 26:40

Well, we know that women are both breadwinners and change makers, and um I just appreciate you. Thanks for coming on the podcast, Charlotte. Thank you so much.

Closing Thanks And Disclosures

SPEAKER_00 27:01

Thank you for listening to the Women's Money Wisdom podcast. If you found value in this episode, the best way that you can support the podcast is to forward an episode to a friend or leave a review. Go to ProPlan.com and the podcast link to get all the resources and links mentioned. This presentation by Pro Planning is intended for general information purposes only. No portion of this presentation serves as the receipt of or substitute for personal investment advice from Pro Planning or any other investment professional of your choosing. Copies of Pro Planning's current rent and disclosure brochure and form CRS discussing our advisory services and fees are available upon request or on our website platform at PerlPlan.com. The information that we share is meant to educate and inspire, not serve as personalized financial advice. Everyone's situation is unique, so be sure to consult with your own financial professional for guidance that fits your life. And just so you know, the opinions shared in this podcast are Melissa's own and those of her guests. They don't necessarily represent any organizations with which Melissa is affiliated. For more important disclosures, please go to our webpage at proplan.com.