I am so excited to share my new book, The Lemonade Stand, with you today. It’s the continuing money adventures of Lauren and Taylor as they teach their friends, Ryan and Christopher, how easy it is to save, spend and share. As many of you know, I base the characters on real life situations and people I love. It’s a real pleasure to introduce my godsons, Ryan and Christopher, as new characters to my book series.
These books mean so much to me. They are thank-you to my father for teaching me about money and my way to honor his legacy. They are for my daughters as a testament to the financially confident girls they are turning into as we continue working towards creating a long-lasting, healthy relationship with money. But most of all — they are for you.
It wasn’t my original plan to become a financial advisor. Growing up, I intended to follow in my father’s footsteps and become an oral surgeon. Yet something kept holding me back. In my heart, I knew where I could make the biggest difference was helping people find their money happiness and feel more financially confident.
I saw so many people burdened by their money, whether they had too much or too little, and how few had been taught to use their money in a truly joyful manner in alignment with their values and goals as my father had taught me. I switched gears and decided to follow my heart and my true calling and became a Certified Financial Planner.
It’s been almost 10 years since my father passed away, and I miss him every day, but I am also incredibly grateful for the many gifts he gave me, including the gift of financial literacy. I realized how rare and special his gift was when I started working with clients to rebuild their financial confidence and uncovered how their money hang-ups often originated in childhood. The money mistakes they made as adults were born out of observing the money habits, beliefs and actions of their parents who unknowingly passed along their hang-ups. The problem is further magnified by a lack of education around money.
Because money is a taboo topic in so many homes, children observe silently and they don’t always correctly connect the dots. Sometimes parents make good money decisions, but don’t teach their children how to follow in their footsteps. Other times, parents make poor choices due to their own lack of financial literacy. It is a vicious and growing cycle where both parents and children are victims.
My father waited until I was a teenager before he started his money lessons with me. And he had to help reshape some of my money beliefs and habits that were already deeply entrenched in me. I realized that we needed to start talking to kids when they were very small before money habits and beliefs were already set. I began writing down ideas before I even had kids or knew that I wanted to be a Mom, but what I did know was that we needed to start teaching kids about money if we wanted to stop our growing financial illiteracy epidemic.
Eventually I did become a Mom to two beautiful girls who I love so much and want to do everything within my power to give them the best life possible. And for me, that includes helping them build a healthy relationship with money. So when they were toddlers, we started having simple money conversations. Often times, it was more about modeling good financial behavior and emotions to them. When they turned six, the conversations started to deepen and they set their inaugural save, spend and share goals. We have never looked back.
Every day I meet with incredibly successful and intelligent individuals who feel overwhelmed by their finances. They second-guess themselves and don’t feel in control. Money mystifies and scares so many people and it’s really not scary at all. But I know parents who don’t feel financially confident are unlikely to talk to their kids. This is why I developed The Heavy Purse. I wanted to help parents find their own financial confidence and give them the tools to take their kids with them on their journey to financial literacy. Don’t believe you have to know all the answers before you start talking to your kids about money. You can learn together.
Even though I chose not to follow in his footsteps, my father was proud of my decision to become a financial advisor. I know he is smiling down on me today as I release The Lemonade Stand and continue to realize my dream of helping other parents raise financially confident children. It is because of him that I am able to do this. And you making the choice to help your kids build a healthy relationship with money will change their lives too.
To celebrate, we have some fun things planned for the next few weeks. I’m starting with a $3 discount (coupons code TOUR3114) on The Lemonade Stand. As a special bonus, anyone who purchases The Lemonade Stand can also buy The Heavy Purse (print version only) for $10 with the coupon code HPSALE. These discounts are only valid at The Heavy Purse Shop.
Sponsored by The Heavy Purse
Co-hosted by Are Ya Gonna Eat That, Broke Millennial, Budget and The Beach, Budget Blonde, Budgeting for More, Busy Mom Budgets, Cash Cow Couple, Cents and Sensibility, Club Thrifty, Color Me Frugal, Debt Debs, Debt Roundup, Disease Called Debt, Eat Laugh Purr, Enemy of Debt, Eyes on the Dollar, Femme Frugality, Financially Blonde, Frugal Rules, Living Richly Cheaply, Luke 1428, Making Sense of Cents, Money Saving Dude, Monster Piggy Bank, Not Now Mom’s Busy, Reach Financial Independence, Shoeaholic No More, Stacking Benjamins, Tackling Our Debt, The Broke and Beautiful Life, The Finance Girl, The Frugal Farmer, The Random Path, Thrifty Dad, VeegMama, and Young Adult Money.
Help celebrate the release of The Lemonade Stand and join me in my mission to increase financial literacy in both children and adults.
* A winner located outside of the United States will receive a cash equivalent prize via PayPal.
Good luck and happy reading!
SHANNON RYAN, CFP®
Also, I enjoyed reading about how you personally teach your own girls about finances - you seem like an incredible financial role model for them!
And thanks very much for inviting me to participate in your giveaway. I really appreciate it.
I hope they teach their American Girl Dolls, given by grandpa, me, to read using your books.
They ran a business and never owned a credit card.
have no kids,learned on my owl..i failed though