Like most parents, I think a lot about my kids' financial education.

 

They are six, four, and four (yes, twins!), so it's simple stuff for now: they all have piggy banks and wallets, and collect bills I give them. For Christmas, I got them all those coin-holding cardboard folders where you collect all the different state quarters.

 

And next year my oldest will start helping me collect coins from laundry machines in an apartment building we own. I think he'll love feeding them into the Coinstar machine and getting an Amazon coupon back as much as I do.

 

I just want them to have comfort and ease around money. 

 

So, I'm going to start doing something that they will almost certainly grow to hate. Yup, once in a while, without warning, we are going to drag them to open houses.

 

My mom used to take me and my siblings to Sunday opens after church. What a bleak day for a kid. I grew up in Calgary, Canada so it was all cookie-cutter suburban boxes, one after the other. 

 

When we pulled up to a strange house and that RE/MAX balloon on the For Sale sign came into view, all five of us…mom, noooooooo…..

 

But my mom liked looking at houses, kids in tow, and guess what… 20 years later, when I started shopping for a house…I knew how it looked.

 

Granted, I'm not in real estate because my mom took me to open houses. I got into this as an investor after reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad.”

 

But certainly, when I started shopping for a house, my brain had a background in it. And that helped me. Because so much of what we call “privilege”, which is just a kind of advantage, is the leg up of comfort and knowledge around being in surroundings, where we feel like we belong.

 

That was the idea behind Take Our Daughters To Work Day, rebranded in 2003 as Take Your Child to Work Day.

 

Also, 4 out of my 5 siblings are in the real estate industry. Coincidence?

 

Get your kids comfortable now in worlds that will matter to them later. 

 

And comfort around real estate, as a financial education, is infinitely more important, I believe, than piggy banks and allowances. The MAJORITY of your kids' wealth will be in their homes, and the majority of money they will ever see or spend will be around the buying and selling of the 2-3 homes that will constitute their primary residences.

 

So feel free to bring your kids to our opens - we almost always have Courage Bagels on the first Sunday. And our coffee cart vendor does a mean hot chocolate. With marshmallows. 

 

Hopefully they don't whine as much as we did.

 

🔑 4565 Dundee Drive, Los Feliz - 1927 Mediterranean masterpiece by renowned architect Henry Harwood Hewitt - Listed at $7,245,000 - Open Sunday 1-4pm

 

🔑 4935 Agnes Avenue, Valley Village - Newest offering from Diaz + Alexander Studio - Listed at $2,099,000 - Open Sunday 1-4pm

 

🔑 1143 Coldwater Canyon Drive, Beverly Hills - The Sommers House, 1954. So this one is not open this weekend, but if you're in the market, schedule a private showing because this exceptional mid-century home by Robert Kennard, FAIA and Marmol-Radziner Architects is a must-see - Listed at $5,500,00

 

 

 

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