Читать книгу Handle money like Grown-ups. Financial education for Kids from the Mobiles - Aleks Gridin - Страница 3

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^th floor 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.

– So my parents had it all wrong then, and that’s why they were not able to buy me a scooter, right? – Max asked.

– Not really. There is a whole science behind how one should build his train of thought properly, – Larry replied.

– It’s a pity we don’t study it at school, – Max said disappointedly.

– I’m sure, – Mia said, – that every school will have this subject in the nearest future. Because only fifty years ago people could only have dreamt about the existence of mobile phones, that most people on Earth would be able to communicate with each other from the distance. Due to the evolutional power of thought, dreams of one generation could become true for the next one. When you are a little older, I will definitely reveal all secrets of mind control to you. In the meantime, you can practice like this: imagine that you are safe and sound, happy, able to memorize perfectly well everything we are talking about and to put it all into practice, pursuing your dreams.

– Could anyone, please, reply to my other question: where did hoverboards come from? – Larry asked.

– I know! – Max was the first to reply. – They were shipped to us from China, Japan and some other countries.

– Nonsense, – Stanislav added. – At first, they were designed and manufactured at factories, and it doesn’t really matter where they were shipped from then.

– You are both right, – Larry said, – but originally, they were born in someone’s mind first. This is somebody’s realized dream. For example, the hoverboard was invented by Dean Kamen, a researcher from the US, while other engineers have improved its construction and removed the steering pole, which made the hoverboard easier to steer using not your hands but your body weight shifting from side to side…

At that moment, Bobby joined in:

– Guys, I also have an interesting task for you. I will help you to improve your memory. While drilling into finance topic, we will have to say many unusual terms which are difficult to remember. However, there is a key to any memorizing challenge. When each of you gets a bunch of such keys, you will be able to memorize any new word, even the difficult one, like magicians and wizards do. To do this, you will have to find a match to this new word among those words and expressions you already know well. So, for example, it would be easy to remember the word “permission” if you connect it with what you usually hear from your parents: “Don’t take things without permission…”

– Yes, this way I’ll never forget that one, – Daniel said, – seems like I’ve memorized it forever.

– Let’s try once more, – Stanislav said, – but this time we’ll pair the words ourselves.

– Great, – Bobby replied. – I suggest that we tried the words “assets” and “liabilities”. Can you handle these?

– Easily, – Stanislav replied. – I’ve already made them up. Our Lera is very active and self-motivated, which makes her an important “asset” of our company. On the other hand, our classmate Sveta Kukarekina is passive about everything and “liable” to staying away from our games. When I see Lera, I recall assets right away, whilst seeing Sveta reminds me of liabilities.

– Just brilliant! – Bobby exclaimed. – Dear friends, I expect more frequent usage of this first magical key from you. The second key lies in attention and repetition. When you listen to or read things attentively, do not get distracted and you will remember them all much better. And if you recite the same material on the following day, this “key” of yours will really turn to gold. And now let’s get to the third key, the last one. Any information could be “digested” better once you have told it to others, to absolutely any person you like: your classmates, friends, parents.

– Oh, no need to worry about that! We will surely share our knowledge about how to treat your finance properly with our friends and parents! – the kids all exclaimed at once.

– But don’t forget the crucial point: it’s necessary that you put this knowledge into practice, to make this your daily habit, – Bobby added.

– And how long does it take a person to acquire a new habit? Can anyone tell me? – Robby Star asked the kids.

– I know. To develop the habit, one might need 21 days at least, – Stanislav responded for everyone.

– Remember: a habit builds character while character builds destiny, – added Bobby to finish his story.