Handle money like Grown-ups
Financial education for Kids from the Mobiles
Aleks Gridin

Illustrator А. V. Skorokhodov

Translator A. A. Semichakova

Translator А. V. Gridin

© Aleks Gridin, 2021

© А. V. Skorokhodov, illustrations, 2021

© A. A. Semichakova, translation, 2021

© А. V. Gridin, translation, 2021

ISBN 978-5-0055-6874-8

Created with Ridero smart publishing system

Aleks Gridin

Most parents want their kids to be successful, happy and financially independent when they grow up.

But how can it be achieved? What should we teach them? How to teach? When should such education start? We have found answers to these and many other questions for you.

The book you are holding in your hands right now is unique. It is the key to your children’s future success. There are fairytale characters in it – the Mobiles – who will tell us how to learn to fulfill your dreams, set life goals properly and manage your personal finance. Its pages provide the basics of financial knowledge in a very simple and engaging manner, explaining the complicated economical terms and giving recommendations about how to preserve the family budget.

The book is intended to be read by parents and their children from 7 to 13 y.o. Read it to your children or read it together with them. But keep in mind: just reading a book will not lead to any results. It also requires constant work on a child’s own mind and putting the gained knowledge into practice. You should stay close to your children at such moments and help them with it.

This book contains certain tips following which your children can truly become rulers of their destiny.

Good luck!

Introduction
To how and where kids got acquainted with the mobiles

Have you ever heard anything of the Mobiles, dear friends? Nothing at all? Very strange indeed. It seemed to me that all kids knew they existed because, after all, most of us own mobile phones. Well, if you really know nothing about them, let me tell you.

Somewhere very far away, in another dimension, there is a magical world where mobile phones come alive and turn into the Mobiles. Yes, just imagine, mobile phones are able to walk and talk, and each of them has a name of its own. Besides, they know many interesting stories everyone should listen to.

Well, it just so happened that, by an incredible coincidence, a girl named Lera from the 4th “B” grade and three perfectly ordinary boys named Stanislav, Daniel and Max had made their way there. Finding themselves in the world of the Mobiles and realizing they had got lost, friends have met a funny Mobile looking like a robot on their way, whose name was Bobby. He walked them to a huge city built of mirrors called Terapolis where he introduced them to his friends Robby Star, Larry, Donna and Mia.

Robby Star (who was the most brave and courageous of them all) has introduced Bobby to the kids as well. As for Larry, he was the one familiar with all kinds of things in the world and even gave classes at the Mobile academy.

Despite the serious look his glasses gave him, Larry turned out to be a kind and responsive Mobile. Later, his knowledge would help him come to the rescue to his friends and clarify the most various and tricky questions for them.

Next Bobby had introduced two pretty Mobile girls to the kids – Mia and Donna. Mia, who was slim, tall and covered head to toe in shiny rhinestones, was completely the opposite to short, plump Donna whose purple shell looked quite formal in style. Yet the friends just would not stop chit-chatting and it seemed that nothing in the world could put the end to it.

The Mobiles invited our kids to visit their favorite spot – “Mobby-café” located on the 88th floor of the skyscraper. To get there, they had to use the special neo-gravitational elevator.

They served various mobby-cocktails at the café, but instead of real ice drinks there were devices with new programs and apps in the serving tubes, which were successfully downloaded through Wi-Fi by the Mobiles.

Conveniently having settled down on soft couches, Lera and the boys avalanched the Mobiles with questions.

– We are not able to move in the human world, yet we notice and understand everything. We are also there to help our owners by pitching ideas with them as replies to their inquiries. Only at night, when the whole world falls asleep, we whoosh through the time tunnel back into the Mobile world where we can all come as we are. Time ticks faster in here. One hour only equals to a few minutes in the human world, – Larry told them.

– But still, we took you here for a different purpose, – he continued. – You’ve got an incredible chance to know about one more world – world of finance.

– Curious, – Lera said, – it’s the first time I hear of this world. It must definitely belong to some other galaxy.

– Too funny! – Stanislav exclaimed. – To some other galaxy! I’ve heard something about it from my parents before. Finance is everything we own: money, things and different assets.

– And plenty of other stuff, – Robby Star added.

– This world has an incredible effect on your life and the lives of all people on Earth, – Larry explained to the kids.

– We also used to know nothing of this world ourselves. But thanks to the new app we have installed, each Mobile knows about it more than any university professor now.

– Finance is a tough issue in my family: my parents are short of money all the time, – Max said. – Our old car wouldn’t start up for three days in a row and so we couldn’t visit our granny in the countryside. It would be so great if things changed and my parents could afford a new car for themselves and an electric scooter for me.

– It will be so, – Larry replied. – It is especially for this that you are here. We will tell you how to develop an ability to achieve success and treat your financial resources right. And most importantly – you will learn to make your dearest wishes come true. To have enough money, people need to strive to increase their assets that generate income for them and also plan their expenses wisely.

Speaking of family budget, by assets we mean anything that brings you additional money. The opposite to assets is liabilities. This is what leads to loss of your finance, what takes your money away from you. And now let me reveal an interesting rule to you. It is, actually, a law and not a rule. The law of cause and effect. The core of this law is, your thoughts represent the cause while your status represents the effect. What you dream of, what you strive to achieve, would be likely to come true.

– Yes, it is true, – Stanislav said. – Listen, just during my swimming contest I wanted to be the winner so much that I constantly thought about it, imagining I had already won and had been awarded with a medal. And guess what? I have done it!

– Good job, – Larry said. – But you were using one more tool you did not know about, which is called visualization.

– Visu… what? – Lera asked again.

– Visualization. It is simple. You think of something you want to have and, at the same time, imagine you already have it. For example, Max, imagine you already have the modern black electric scooter and you are riding it feeling absolutely happy. Once you have pictured a dream in your brain, think of how it could be fulfilled, what could possibly be done about it, and take action. Because if you do nothing about it, nothing else will come around. When you expect something good might happen to you, it often turns out the very same way. And when you are afraid of something, like getting a splinter in your toe while walking barefoot, you can be sure the splinter would be just there.

– So my parents had it all wrong then, and that’s why they were not able to buy me a scooter, right? – Max asked.

– Not really. There is a whole science behind how one should build his train of thought properly, – Larry replied.

– It’s a pity we don’t study it at school, – Max said disappointedly.

– I’m sure, – Mia said, – that every school will have this subject in the nearest future. Because only fifty years ago people could only have dreamt about the existence of mobile phones, that most people on Earth would be able to communicate with each other from the distance. Due to the evolutional power of thought, dreams of one generation could become true for the next one. When you are a little older, I will definitely reveal all secrets of mind control to you. In the meantime, you can practice like this: imagine that you are safe and sound, happy, able to memorize perfectly well everything we are talking about and to put it all into practice, pursuing your dreams.

– Could anyone, please, reply to my other question: where did hoverboards come from? – Larry asked.

– I know! – Max was the first to reply. – They were shipped to us from China, Japan and some other countries.

– Nonsense, – Stanislav added. – At first, they were designed and manufactured at factories, and it doesn’t really matter where they were shipped from then.

– You are both right, – Larry said, – but originally, they were born in someone’s mind first. This is somebody’s realized dream. For example, the hoverboard was invented by Dean Kamen, a researcher from the US, while other engineers have improved its construction and removed the steering pole, which made the hoverboard easier to steer using not your hands but your body weight shifting from side to side…

At that moment, Bobby joined in:

– Guys, I also have an interesting task for you. I will help you to improve your memory. While drilling into finance topic, we will have to say many unusual terms which are difficult to remember. However, there is a key to any memorizing challenge. When each of you gets a bunch of such keys, you will be able to memorize any new word, even the difficult one, like magicians and wizards do. To do this, you will have to find a match to this new word among those words and expressions you already know well. So, for example, it would be easy to remember the word “permission” if you connect it with what you usually hear from your parents: “Don’t take things without permission…”

– Yes, this way I’ll never forget that one, – Daniel said, – seems like I’ve memorized it forever.

– Let’s try once more, – Stanislav said, – but this time we’ll pair the words ourselves.

– Great, – Bobby replied. – I suggest that we tried the words “assets” and “liabilities”. Can you handle these?

– Easily, – Stanislav replied. – I’ve already made them up. Our Lera is very active and self-motivated, which makes her an important “asset” of our company. On the other hand, our classmate Sveta Kukarekina is passive about everything and “liable” to staying away from our games. When I see Lera, I recall assets right away, whilst seeing Sveta reminds me of liabilities.

– Just brilliant! – Bobby exclaimed. – Dear friends, I expect more frequent usage of this first magical key from you. The second key lies in attention and repetition. When you listen to or read things attentively, do not get distracted and you will remember them all much better. And if you recite the same material on the following day, this “key” of yours will really turn to gold. And now let’s get to the third key, the last one. Any information could be “digested” better once you have told it to others, to absolutely any person you like: your classmates, friends, parents.

– Oh, no need to worry about that! We will surely share our knowledge about how to treat your finance properly with our friends and parents! – the kids all exclaimed at once.

– But don’t forget the crucial point: it’s necessary that you put this knowledge into practice, to make this your daily habit, – Bobby added.

– And how long does it take a person to acquire a new habit? Can anyone tell me? – Robby Star asked the kids.

– I know. To develop the habit, one might need 21 days at least, – Stanislav responded for everyone.

– Remember: a habit builds character while character builds destiny, – added Bobby to finish his story.

Chapter One
Where each of the kids gets a “Dream map” of their own

– Well, my young financiers, the time has come to do the most important and interesting thing. Now we are going to draw a real map of your dreams, – Robby Star said secretly.

– Wow! There will be a pirate island on mine, and I will mark the spot with buried treasure with a cross! – Max exclaimed.

– And I’ll draw the flying fairies on my map, – Lera said.

– Wait, – Stanislav said, – we should let Robby Star tell us first what kind of a map it is. I think this map should picture something we dream of and what we want to achieve. We have the same one at home, on the kitchen wall. Parents have added photos of a beautiful house, a theme park of their own and their dream car. And you know what, recently they have bought the very same car that was in the photo.

– Well done, – Robby Star praised Stanislav, – you have got everything right. You must include something you dream about in this map. I also advise you to put the map onto your bedroom wall so you could take a look at it every night before bedtime, speaking your mind and imagining your dreams to come true.

– By the way, I heard an interesting expression from my parents:

“If one has no dream of his own, he will spend his whole life working on helping others pursue their dreams”, – Stanislav said, looking proud of himself.

After a little chat and a discussion of what should be drawn on their dream maps, the kids took their pencils and got down to work.

Lera was the first to finish.

– Oh, how marvelous, – she said, admiring her own drawings, – who would have thought!

– Cool! Can we have a look? – Daniel asked, trying to peek at Lera’s masterpiece from behind her shoulder.

– Alright, here you are, – Lera unfolded the poster on the table. – The green palm trees by the sea represent the Spanish coastline. My parents had promised to take me there long time ago, but father is always busy at work, and the tour price is so high that we have to delay our trip for two years in a row. The concert hall with figurines represents my performance at the ballroom dance tournament. My partner and I win the first prize there.

– And what are these wigwams on the right? Is it an Indian village? – Max asked.

– Oh, you don’t understand! I’ve always dreamt of a camp where kids could arrive from all cities and countries, where you could live in tents, cook food on a fire and swim in the mountain river! – Lera exclaimed.

Max was the next to show his map. There was a new car on it, a tablet and a hoverboard. The last to display their masterpieces were brothers Stanislav and Daniel. They both had a cottage by the sea where they both wanted to live, mountain bikes and a theme park that looked like Disneyland.

– Great drawings! – Robby Star praised them. Your dreams turned out to be so colorful and amazing that I want to have some of these for myself.

– Then join in and start dreaming with us. Let these dreams be yours as well, – Lera suggested.

– Thank you, I will think about it, – the Mobile thanked her.

– And now, friends, choose your top-level dream and trace it with a marker, drawing number one next to it, – Larry asked. – Try to make this red line bold enough, like this. Ready? Then put number two next to your other dream, the little less significant one. Do the same with all your dreams down to the last, smallest one. Done it? Great! Now your dreams have become clear-cut and turned into goals, the importance of which you have just determined. The first step is taken. But please, mind: you will have to work hard in the nearest future to achieve these. Perhaps, you will come across some temporary defeats and disappointments, but be sure they are only your point of leverage for the further achievements and success. “Give me a lever and I’ll move the Earth”, – Archimedes, the Ancient Greek scientist once said. Ordinarily, only determined people gain success, not afraid to fail or look ridiculous and different in the eyes of others. Those who believe their dreams can be real. You definitely know such people – Steve Jobs, Elon Musk and many others.

– Coca-Cola’s creation history is a clear example of how one man could fulfill his dream about creating a unique drink, and the other man had pursued his by creating one of the largest companies in the world.

– How did they manage to do it? – Daniel asked.

Robby Star started his narration:

– In the distant year 1886, an American pharmacist John Pemberton dreamt of inventing a multi-purpose medicine from all diseases and becoming famous. However, persistent experiments have finally led to the creation of Coca-cola drink. It was called this way because its main ingredient was the tincture of coca leaves mixed with the extract of tropical cola tree nuts. Coca-Cola has turned out to be a powerful tonic. The problem was, its taste had been quite unpleasant in the beginning, so Pemberton had to work hard, mixing ingredients and updating the formula for multiple times. In the end he succeeded in improving the taste, but unfortunately, John Pemberton wasn’t able to live to the moment when Coca-Cola became popular among the people. Long after his death, a talented entrepreneur Asa Candler had found a Coca-cola manufacturing company, and also registered the trademark. Coca-Cola has been acknowledged the most valuable brand in the world for multiple times. For many years this company has been bringing sufficient income to its shareholders.

– Cool! I had no idea Coca-Cola had been invented so long ago, more than 130 years already, – Stanislav said surprisingly. – Wish I could have that much success and own a company that huge!

– Success doesn’t come to you by itself. You are the one walking towards it, – Larry explained. – By the way, the road to success is not always smooth. But you should know, that first of all, you need money and other material possessions to gain more freedom and do more good deeds in benefit of your country and the world as well. Also, one should never forget that money could never replace solid friendship and true love.

– I suggest stopping here and “going beyond rhetoric”, or rather say, getting down to work, because only with the help of labor one’s dreams can possibly be achieved – Bobby said, interrupting his friend Larry.

Chapter Two
Where the mobiles tell us stories of labor and production

– Labor is human performance in creating the essentials of life, – Bobby explained. – Its most important criteria is called labor capacity. If you work at the candy factory and pack candies, the bigger capacity will belong to those who will pack more candies within the same time period. For example, one hour.

– And my favorite proverb goes like this: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime”, – Larry joined in.

– Things are quite simple on Earth. Those who work for others are called employees, and those who work for themselves are entrepreneurs, – Bobby continued.

– From the word “enterprise”? – Stanislav asked.

– Correct, – Larry replied. – Entrepreneurs deal with manufacturing and selling things or providing different services. When you attend personal dance classes or the swimming pool, know that it had all been organized by entrepreneurs who receive tuition fees from your parents.

Now let’s get back to employees. Employees are people who sign labor contracts and work for others, for example, companies or entrepreneurs. When applying for a job, they take a special paper with them – a resumé. It is written down there where the employee had been studying and working and what he or she is good at.

– You can have some help in finding a good job with recruitment agencies, such as “HeadHunter”, – Bobby continued.

– Headhunters? “Bounty hunters”, you mean? – Daniel asked again because he knew English quite well.

– Right. They were called this way because they seek the qualified employees for the companies and entrepreneurs, “the best minds”, so to say.

– Father had told me and Stanislav that the employees’ salary depends on what they do, how well they can do it and how difficult it is to replace them, – Daniel said.

– There are many people able to sweep the streets, but those who can design spaceships are really hard to find. Their job is difficult and demanding with lots of responsibility. It’s not easy to replace them with other employees quickly, so their labor is paid in a much better way, – Stanislav explained.

– It’s all correct, – Larry confirmed. – And now let’s talk about production. Production is a process of creation of different essentials.

Production includes three factors. First one – the human factor – is labor. We already know that people with proper knowledge and labor skills are required to start production. Second factor – the means of labor – tools, machines and different equipment. And factor number three – the subject of labor. It is a thing or a combination of things a person can adapt for his own needs. For example, it could be a wooden workpiece processed with the help of a milling machine.

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