What if your dad was a bank? Besides a number of confusing questions of biology it would raise, you probably wouldn’t have much luck getting money out of him without an income, assets or business plan.
One St. Louis-area 6-year-old found this out the hard way when he asked his dad for $20 to buy a new toy and got a very bank-like rejection letter from “DAD Savings and Loan” with the tag line, “Because, apparently I look like I’m made of money” (via Reddit). No word yet on whether the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going to get involved here.
Teaching financial literacy key
Assuming the letter is genuine, it seems like this was a fun way to teach the kid in question that money doesn’t grow on trees.
Despite the tongue-in-cheek tone, it’s good to see a parent making some efforts toward teaching financial literacy, the lack of which is a serious problem in the U.S. Worldwide, Americans rank 14th in financial literacy, according to an international poll conducted by Standard & Poor’s and other organizations. Only 57% of American adults could answer a simple, 5-question financial literacy test correctly; in contrast, respondents in the highest-ranking countries — Norway, Denmark and Sweden — answered 71% correct.
So let us applaud this dad for striking a blow toward teaching the value of a dollar (or $20).
What do you think? What’s the best financial literacy lesson you ever got as a child?
