Ep. 36 | A Story for My Daughter

This episode is different. It's a reading of a children’s story called The Four Money Bears, recorded for our daughter, Ariyah.

It’s about spending, saving, investing, and giving — but more than that, it’s about balance, care, and intention, and a reminder that how we use money should help us take care of ourselves and each other.

However someone finds this episode, I hope it reminds you to tell the people you love how important they are, because we're only human and nothing is guaranteed.

Love you baby girl.

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Transcript

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This episode's a little different. It's a reading of a book that was given to me for Ariyah, to read to Ariyah. So this episode is for Ariyah, I guess. The book is called The Four Money Bears. Mama Bear and Papa Bear enjoy spending time with the family. They would all hop into the car on shopping days and head to the store. Mama Bear and Papa Bear realized that though they could afford to buy nice things for their baby bears, Mimi and JJ Bear didn't truly understand what can be done with money. Papa Bear thinks it's a good time to teach Mimi and JJ the story of the Four Money Bears. He asked them a simple question. What are the four things you can do with money? Mimi Bear answers. We can spend it to buy things. JJ Bear said we can put it in our piggy bank. That's great, said Papa Bear. We can spend money and save money, but there are two other important things we can do with money. We can invest money or we can give it away. Here's the story of The Four Money Bears. There were four very special bears that lived in a village. Spend A Bear, Save A Bear, Invest A Bear and Give A Bear. Spend A Bear spends every dollar he has on the neatest and coolest stuff. He buys the nicest clothes, the latest toys, and spends his money on sweet treats. But when an emergency comes Spend A Bear has no way to help himself or others because he has no money. He doesn't save, invest or give. Save A Bear saves every dollar she earns. She always has money in a piggy bank, in her closet and in her toy box. But she doesn't buy nice things or have much fun. She also doesn't share with others. She doesn't spend, invest or give. Invest A Bear invests every dollar he can find. He can make a lot of money investing in businesses and buying buildings, but investing can be risky and he can also lose a lot of money. He doesn't have a savings account for emergencies, and he doesn't share with others. He doesn't save or give. Give A Bear, gives all her money away to everyone she knows. She gives to everyone whether they need it or not. Everyone loves when Give A Bear is around, but because she gives all her money away, she can't buy nice things for herself and she can't save or invest for the future. Each bear can do things on their own with their money that can be both good and bad. When the Four Money Bears work together, they discover that they can teach each other how to manage their money for today and for the future. They decide to start a program called a Budget to teach each other how to manage money. They now work together to follow the Four Money Bear rules: spend cautiously, save diligently, invest wisely, give generously. Spend cautiously. We all have to spend money to get the things we need. We should be very careful and be aware of how much money we have and how much money we have left over after we buy things. If we spend less than what we have, we will always have money left over. Save diligently. Saving is easy to do. If we can save a little bit of our allowance, we can fill up our piggyback. Saving money will allow us to have money in case of an emergency. The more money we save today, the more we'll have tomorrow. Invest wisely. We can invest our money to make it grow for years to come. There are many ways to invest money. The most popular way is to invest in a business. We can do this by buying stocks, bonds, and mutual funds. Buying land, buildings and gold are other ways to invest for the future. Give generously. Giving money to others allows us to help those in need. We can help people who do not have as much money as we do. When we give money to others, they can help themselves and their family. There are many ways we can give to family, friends, and those we care about. Now Mimi and JJ Bear understand that money can do many things for them. When they get their allowance, they follow their budget and make sure to follow the rules of the Four Money Bears. They look for deals when shopping. They make sure to save. They learn the stock market and they share more. And that's the story of the Four Money Bears. Hopefully, I'm always around to read you a story Ariyah. But if I'm not, just know that your dad loves you very, very much and is very proud of you, and make sure you listen to your mom. Okay.