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

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!

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 4 th“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 88 thfloor 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.