Fun Financial literacy for kids

Back when Jeff and I were first married we went through several different finance courses (I’ll include links at the bottom of the post), and when the kids were born I looked for some financial literacy for kids stuff and wasn’t all that impressed.  Most of them were obviously self-serving or they were full of junk that I wasn’t going to use with the kids because it added clutter to our house.

I already struggle with clutter enough, no need to add to that.

{Disclosure, I received a free copy of the book, and was compensated for my time}

Enter Pirates of Financial Freedom, Financial literacy for kids

Pirates of Financial Freedom answered a couple of the problems I’d seen in financial literacy for kids materials.

• It’s fun (unlike most financial literacy materials)
• It doesn’t have random twaddle to load down my house with junk
• My kids enjoy the lessons
• The lessons are short and to the point

 

What is Pirates of Financial Freedom like?

Well, I’m glad you asked.  If you’re familiar with Life of Fred math curriculum, you’ll enjoy this.  It presents math concepts in the midst of a story.

So far the kids and I have stopped in the midst of chapters to discuss:

• setting goals, and talked about Princess saving for 6 months to get all her money for a LEGO set
• making wise buying choices, after saving all that money she decided she would rather spend it for a different goal and saved for a few months because it was more important to her
• pirates pouring rum on their cereal, they thought this was hilarious and keep bringing it back up
• what all the financial terms in the book mean, he packs them in there
• the plot twists in the story

It’s a fun story about a pirate’s crew with financial problems, and the captain’s son is a financial planner who comes to help his Dad’s crew and teach them financial literacy (as a side note why is it called financial literacy?).

A few things I really enjoy about Pirates of Financial Freedom:

• It clearly lays out the financial advice in the book, and has a few side stories to show you different applications of how to use the advice (I particularly liked the hat story line)
• the puns, they’re horribly cheesy, but they make me laugh.  Especially because it’s the financial planner making all the puns.
• The real life examples and the math problems thrown in throughout the book
• The riddles, I like riddles

A few things to beware of about Pirates of Financial Freedom

No book or curriculum is absolutely perfect, and here’s a few things that may give you pause, or may not depending on your thought process:

1. If you are a complete Dave Ramsey fan, this book will not 100% line up with his advice.  It’s a slightly different take on financial planning, not in complete disagreement, but not completely the same.  I’m a Dave Ramsey fan, so I don’t completely agree with his advice, but I think it’s a good opportunity to talk with my kids about the different financial plans people have and no one plan is right for everyone (I think Dave Ramsey also has some drawbacks, but that’s another post)
2. Because this book is aimed for teens the main character (Joey) occasionally notices the opposite sex.  It’s a PG rating, but the occasional comment about how the women looked or his noticing it stood out to me because I was reading it with my kids.  If I was reading it to myself I wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

 Still not sure Pirates of Financial Freedom is THE financial literacy course for your kids?

Then join the treasure hunt.  Each of the five bloggers reviewing Pirates of Financial Freedom have a treasure for you, two chapters of the book.  Yesterday Karyn from Teach Beside Me shared the first two chapters, and tomorrow Alicia from Investing Love will have chapters 5 and 6.

Today, I’m giving you chapters 3 and 4 of Pirates of Financial Freedom.  Be prepared for skuldruggery and pirate trickery.  Oh and a bit of silliness on the way.

 

But wait, I want to win financial literacy for kids, not buy it, think like a pirate man!

Well when you read the book you’ll discover these pirates are learning you can’t get it all by taking, and they’re actually pretty nice pirates.  But since you haven’t read the book yet, here’s your chance to win the book AND two hours of advice from the author himself.

Resources for Financial Literacy for Parents

•  The Total Money Makeover(referenced in Pirate’s of Financial Freedom, also a radio show and podcast)
• Your Money Counts: The Biblical Guide to Earning, Spending, Saving, Investing, Giving, and Getting Out of Debt
• Clark Howard’s Living Large for the Long Haul(also a radio show and I’m assuming a podcast)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad (referenced in Pirate’s of Financial Freedom)