I recently did a written interview for a new financial education website. The following is a copy of that interview. I thought perhaps people who didn’t know how Camp Millionaire got started might enjoy it.

1. When did you start the Creative Wealth website and why?

Our financial literacy website was started in 2001 as a way to publicize our first Money Camp for Kids summer camp. Since people were starting to look for things on the web, we knew it was important to have a presence there.

Over the years, the site has changed a few times (going to change again soon) but it continues to be the main source of customers and program referrals.

 

2. How did you come up with the idea of organizing camps?

I came up with the idea of building a profoundly effective financial education camp in 2000. I had been in the process of teaching myself about money and investing after I realized that the only reason I didn’t know about it was because no one ever taught me about it.

During that process, I noticed that people everywhere needed to learn what I was learning. I started thinking about how much I learned on the farms I grew up on and how much I knew about taking care of myself.

What I noticed was that without the skills to handle money and make it grow, I couldn’t care for myself when I was older. I would always have to work for money or be dependent on someone else. I didn’t like that idea at all.

Everywhere I went I noticed that people were talking about money in one way or another. How the price of everything was going up, how much in debt they were, the cost of gas, the cost of food, how much they saved…I heard people talk about money literally everywhere. On the street, in the store, at dinner parties, in the restroom!

The turning point happened when one day, I read a letter to the editor from a retired business attorney named Walt who was chastising people in Santa Barbara who were whining about how expensive real estate was. He basically said, “If you’d been doing with your money what you should have been doing with your money since you started making money, you’d have money to invest in a house…even in Santa Barbara.”

But it was his next paragraph that hooked me. He asked, “So…when, as a nation, are we going to start teaching our kids about money?”

Well, it hit me like a lightning bolt. I stood up at work a few hours later (I’d been thinking about this for a few hours) and said aloud, “Why doesn’t someone just create a money camp for kids so they can learn what we didn’t when we were young?”

I said it just to say it but you know what happens when you ask questions like that. YOU end up doing it. And that’s how it happened.

3. Why is financial literacy for kids so important to you?

Because I think to not teach kids about money and investing is child abuse. If our number one responsibility as parents is to make sure our children grow into adults who can be 100% responsible for themselves and their future families, then we MUST teach them how money works. If we don’t, we have failed as parents…period!

A mother lion makes sure her cubs can hunt before sending them out on their own. As a nation, we are filling our children’s heads full of useless information they will more than likely never use as adults and we call that giving them an education.

An education would be empowering them to create happy, successful, healthy lives…full of satisfying relationships and wonderful life experiences.

It takes learning about money, about health, about communication, about the difference between girls and boys (women and men), how to dress, common sense, common courtesy and a whole lot more to make it in this world.

My Camp Millionaire workshops (the name was changed in 2006) and The Money Game teach kids more than money. They learn to shake hands. They learn supportive financial belief systems.

They study the habits of successful, wealthy people. And no, teaching children about money doesn’t make them greedy or care about money above all else. It teaches them to respect the power of money to make their dreams come true and help others make their dreams come true as well. Our campers learn that making money doing good is the best thing you can ever hope to accomplish.

4. What challenges have you faced with your business and how did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge is that most kids would rather go to soccer camp or zoo camp or baseball camp than go to a money camp. Why? Because they don’t know how much fun it is and the don’t realize how vitally important the information will be to them when they older.

They also see how stressed out their parents and other adults are about money and they might already think it’s not a fun subject.

But the biggest challenge is empowering parents to be parents…to do the right thing for their kids. To make sure they know what they need to know to grow up and be responsible adults.

I overcome that challenge by empowering the parents I talk to do the right thing. I paint pictures of kids who end up moving home in their 20s or worse. I ask them questions about what they really want for their kids.

The other challenge is that the school systems are bogged down in the ‘no child left behind’ act and the only thing that has done is to leave every child behind.

Teachers can’t teach anymore. They teach to the tests and the tests mean absolutely nothing.

I tell the teens in my programs that college is A way, not THE way to having a successful life. They get it! Most kids already question how relevant the information they are learning in school is to their future. When you provide relevant information they see they need and can use, they never stop asking question. They are starving for information they see is relevant and important to their lives.

In truth, I’m still overcoming both of these hurdles but every year it gets a little bit easier because more schools are actually looking for good financial education programs and teachers are willing to do whatever it takes to bring this information to their students.

Parents also are looking for ways to teach their kids about money. With so many adults struggling financially these days, the pain is motivating parents to make sure their kids don’t end up in the same place or have to learn the hard way like they have.

Now the only challenge is that people want FREE and you always get what you pay for. That’s all I’ll say about that.

5. What successes have you faced and how did they help you to improve?

My first success was my first Money Camp for Kids in 2002 with 39 kids! I have no idea what we did with 39 kids but they learned a great deal and we learned even more than the kids about what it was going to take to build the best financial education program on the planet.

That first camp led to my discovering and becoming an expert in what is called accelerated learning. These teaching techniques propelled The Money Game and Camp Millionaire to the top in terms of fun and effectiveness.

Another success was my first Teacher Training in 2004 with 25 attendees. I had never done anything like that before and when we were finished after 3 days, they stood up and gave me a standing ovation. That was an amazing feeling and I knew I was onto something huge.

That training eventually turned in our 5-day financial education Train-the-Trainer that blows people away in terms of how to teach what we teach, how The Money Game works and oh, yah, there’s a ton of personal growth that happens in that program. People leave my train-the-trainer as different people, better people…people much more aware of their actions with money and motivated to change what they’re doing (if they need to) and take the information to as many children as possible.

The successes that I love the most, however, come as emails from parents who tell me about the conversations they’re still having with their kids. A favorite is when we get cards from teachers who tell us they love teaching even more; that their students love coming to THEIR classes because they now use the accelerated teaching techniques to teach everything.

Sometimes we get telephone calls from someone who took a camp from us just to say thank you.

But the best is when we run into someone on the street who waves us down to say that we changed their life. There is nothing better than that!

6. What are some powerful tools/resources you suggest for kids/parents who want to learn more about money rules?

The most important thing is to make an effort to teach your kids everything you possibly can about money and investing. But you can’t do it by lecturing. Do it by giving kids the opportunity to learn for themselves.

In my Ultimate Allowance book I give parents the three keys to raising money savvy adults:

Set the best example possible. In other words, if you’re in debt, get out. Use a budget, pay cash, only buy what you can afford, save some money and invest some of what you save. Let your children SEE you and HEAR you and WATCH you be responsible with YOUR money.

Talk to your children about everything money related. Parents often want to spare their kids worrying about money. But they’ll worry about money if you DO spare them this conversation. Talk to your kids about bills, your mortgage, insurance. Let them help you with the family budget (you have one, right?), take them to see the family accountant, let them write checks, etc. Let them know what being financially responsible looks like.

Give them the opportunity to learn by experience. This means they nust be put in charge, as early as possible (age 6 is good), of handling money and buying what they need. Each year you add a few more things they’re responsible for. Basically, you run the money you would normally spend ON them THROUGH them instead. Let them learn by making mistakes, having success with money, etc. The system I each includes helping them learn to invest and donate some of their money as well.

BONUS #1: Teach your children to start their own businesses so you empower them to be the CEO of their own lives. Let’s create independent adults who can think for themselves and take care of themselves, instead of adults who are always dependent on jobs and others for everything they need.

BONUS #2: For parents with have older teens, I always suggest they PAY them to read books about money and investing. Give them $25 per book and require a book report on each chapter and a conversation with the teen about how they can use the information they read in the book. This is one of the best investments parents can make in their children’s future!

Elisabeth Donati Bio:

Elisabeth Donati is the owner of Creative Wealth Intl., LLL, creator of  Camp Millionaire and The Money Game. She is author of The Ultimate Allowance and writes a weekly blog called Financial Wisdom with a TWI$T.

Elisabeth is an expert in teaching the basic financial principles people need in a way that is engaging, empowering and fun. For information, visit www.innerwealthpublishing.com or call 805-957-1024.