Episode 16 : Wealthy Kids Investment Club

In this episode, we capture an inspiring interview with Maya Corbic, CPA, who started the "Wealthy Kids Investment Club" to help parents and kids learn how to be smart with money early. Hear her incredible life story and what she's doing to equip parents with the tools to raise money smart kids. Stay tuned, the Cash Kid Podcast is underway! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript 

Wealthy Kids Investment Club

Teach.Kids.Money

It only takes one person to change the generational wealth trajectory of the family. Let that person be you. Welcome to another episode of the Cash Kid Podcast, where we focus on building super financial literacy skills for kids and teens to build a greater financial future at a younger age. If you aren't already, follow us on social media at CashKid Podcast and subscribe to our mailing list at CashKidPodcast. com. We have another special guest on the show today who works to change the generational wealth trajectory of families. Parents, you'll walk away from this episode feeling you have the resources to change your financial journey and that of your children. Stay tuned. The CashKid Podcast is underway.

So, you got some cash.

Maybe from an allowance, or that money your grandma gave you [00:01:00] for your 7th birthday. Here you go, sweetie! Woohoo! Thanks, Grandma! Whatever it is, what are you going to do with it? Spend it? Hide it away? Or maybe invest it? Let's start learning how to make that money grow. Time to learn how to be a cash kid.

Joining us today is Mrs. Maya Corbic. Mrs. Corbic is the founder of Wealthy Kids Club from her Instagram page, teach. kids. money, where she has over 133, 000 followers and growing. She provides some solid advice and steps parents can take to teach their kids about money and investing together. Mrs. Corbic, welcome to the show.

Cash Kid: And first off, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Maya Corbic: Okay. Well, thank you for that lovely introduction and thank you for having me on the show. So a little bit about me, I am first generation immigrant. [00:02:00] I immigrated from war toward Bosnia when I was almost 15, uh, with both of my parents and my brother, we lost everything in the war and we immigrated with two suitcases and 50 and I lived in government shelters, government housing, and when I was a teenager, I even had two part time jobs.

So, um, I learned how to hustle and I worked very hard, um, to, you know, become, you know, in a better financial position. So I became a CPA and, um, when I got married, I had some student loans and so did my husband and we ended up paying off all of our debt, uh, including our mortgage by the time I was 32, because we were very disciplined with money.

And at that Point in time, I, um, decided that it was really important to start teaching my own children about money. Uh, but also being a CPA, I learned from some of my clients that they were struggling with money. So I realized that the [00:03:00] root of all that struggle really started in childhood because a lot of the clients that I had were struggling with money because nobody ever taught them about money when they were growing up.

Cash Kid: That's really an interesting story, and we definitely agree with you on your point. So, where did you get the idea to start Wealthy Kids Club?

Maya Corbic: So, Wealthy Kids Club only, uh, was only started about three years ago. Uh, before that, for the past 11 years, I have been teaching parents about money, by going to schools and doing workshops. But then with pandemic, all that changed because I wasn't able to go into schools anymore. So I started doing more online workshops and still access the parents and classrooms that way. But then, um, I also started my, uh, Instagram account, teach. kids. money. And. When I was actually posting on that account, I realized that a lot of parents were coming [00:04:00] back to me because they were struggling with, uh, investing and how to teach their children to invest.

Um, a lot of them were able to teach their kids, you know, the difference between needs and wants and budgeting. But they just did not know how to teach investing. And I realized that this is where a lot of parents needed help. They needed to learn some of the basics themselves so that they could teach those basics to their kids.

And that's how Wealthy Kids Investment Club was born. Um, and, um, you know, I started that membership. I tried to make it accessible to everybody, um, regardless of where they are, um, you know, in the globe.

Cash Kid: Yeah, tell us about your club and what parents and kids can expect to learn.

 

Maya Corbic: So the club, uh, it's actually currently undergoing a big facelift, uh, but, uh, essentially in the club, you start off as somebody who is intimidated, uh, an intimidated investor, and then you learn some [00:05:00] basics, uh, in terms of what investing really is and you That's not as scary as it first may seem to be.

And then you progress and learn more basic stuff like investment jargon, who is who in the world of investing, how the brokerage accounts work, as well as what accounts are available to you. To start investing on your own behalf and behalf of your children. Um, and then you, um, learn about the power of investing in ETFs and index funds, which are my favorite investments.

Um, and then if you want to do more than that, there are different lessons where you can learn about investing in bonds, um, investing in REITs, which are, uh, real estate investment trusts. Dividend stocks and so on. Um, it's a, it's a great way to go from an intimidated investor to a confident investor through a lot of, um, fun video lessons, as well as we have games and we have worksheets and we [00:06:00] have an active community where you can ask a question.

Cash Kid: Uh, what do you hear? From parents about their struggles in teaching kids about money. So, as I said, a lot of parents struggle very much with teaching their kids about investing, because that's one area where, you know, they, they lack the knowledge themselves. Um, a lot of parents struggle with the concept of delayed gratification.

And, um, you know, Teaching their children to save money. So usually for those parents, I tell them that there are different ways that they can encourage saving, um, money when it comes to their children. One of the things that they can do is they can put a certain as their children to put aside a certain portion of money when they receive it as a, from allowance or monetary gifts and teach the kids to pay themselves first.

And they say that 95 percent of what we do, we do out of habit. So if we teach our children to do that, hopefully when they become [00:07:00] adults, they will not be able to spend all of their paychecks, but instead they will be putting aside a certain amount of money into savings and then eventually investing that money.

And then I also like to encourage. Children, my own Children as well as I tell other parents to do this as well, but, you know, if, for example, if my child is saving for something particular, I like to match their savings, especially if it's something big that it would take them a long time to save up for.

So, if my child saves 10, I will give them another 10 or, you know, you can give them more or less. It's entirely up to the parent. Um, you can also reward them by, you know, uh, doing their favorite activity or maybe even going for ice cream when they reach a certain, uh, goal or, you know, you can give them interest on their savings.

So if they've saved up 100, maybe you can throw in an extra. 2 or 5 as interest, you know, to reward them for saving that money.

Cash Kid: Yeah. So that's [00:08:00] definitely a good habit and it kind of leads into our next question. What are practices or habits that you implement in your own home around money and why?

Maya Corbic: So when my kids were little, I have two teenagers now, so I have a 16 and a 14 year old, but when they were younger, uh, we used to give them allowance.

And, uh, this was a weekly allowance. And the reason why I liked the allowance is because it transfers the purchasing responsibility from parents to the child. So instead of me deciding whether or not to purchase, uh, candy or a toy for my child, they had that Uh, decision that was the decision rested with them.

So they were the ones in charge of that decision and they manage their own money very differently than, for example, they would have managed my money or the expectation of me spending money on that. Because. We, as parents, you know, we have a certain amount of money. We have our budget and our children don't really know what that budget is or how [00:09:00] much money we have in our bank account.

So, you know, they're constantly asking for more. But when you give allowance, you are essentially teaching your child that, you know, money, uh, There's only a limited supply of money. So once we exhaust that, there's no more. So they have to make smart choices. And if they don't make those smart choices, they learn from these mistakes and mistakes are good for learning.

Um, because next time, hopefully they make better choices.

Cash Kid: Yeah, mistakes are the best teacher. Mom's laughing in the background. On your website, you state for parents to stop feeling insecure when the conversation turns to investing.

 

Maya Corbic: I'd say this insecurity is what holds a lot of families back. How can they overcome this?

So I would say, um, You know, it first is realizing that you want to change and realizing that you have the power to change. A famous investor, Peter Lynch said that anybody who has completed grade four math is capable [00:10:00] of learning how to invest. So I find that very, uh, positive affirmation or news that every, almost every one of us Can learn how to become successful investor with a little bit of effort.

Uh, so with that being said, I always suggest that people start with kids books. Um, they are, you know, there's a book behind you that's on investing for kids. There is my book that's right behind me. It's called from piggy banks to stocks, the ultimate guide for a young investor. And that book, when I wrote it, I wrote it originally for children, uh, ages 10 and up.

But while I was writing the book, I had some testers and those were families, um, parents with children. Many of these parents are teachers and they were testing the book and giving me feedback to make the book even better. But what actually ended up happening is that these parents were coming back to me and saying, thank you.

I finally understand investing because it was really intimidating for [00:11:00] me to understand some of these concepts before. So start with like kids books and then, you know, progress. To something that's a little bit more complex. Um, and then, you know, if you're interested, you know, feel free to explore and find out more about my wealthy kids, uh, investment club, because that's where we teach, um, all the basics of investing and we turn intimidated investors into successful investors.

Cash Kid: What do you consider a healthy money mindset in today's investing world? And how has that changed over time?

 

Maya Corbic:  So, I mean, I think everybody's idea of healthy money mindset is different. I think we all need to decide what ours is. And I think it may also, the healthy money mindset may also change depending on the situation.

stages that we go through. So to use myself as an example, being an immigrant and living in government shelters, I was pinching pennies for many, many years. Um, and I, you know, [00:12:00] watched all of my expenses. I budgeted, I was very frugal with my money. Um, while. Simultaneously trying to build my wealth. So, but now that that has changed, you know, like now actually I'm in a different stage of my life where, you know, I have accumulated a significant amount of wealth.

I don't necessarily need to be watching every single penny. Like I can loosen up the belt a little bit and enjoy myself, but money mindset is also, Being okay, like for example, for me, uh, it's about being okay with spending money because for so many years I learned to conserve money and not to spend it, um, and just, you know, save, save, save, save, save, and invest.

But now that I'm older and I'm in my mid forties, I realize, you know, life is short and money is there for us to enjoy, but enjoy respect. So I'm trying to be okay with enjoying some of my money, even though, you know, every [00:13:00] once in a while there is this creepy feeling that I get, you know, I shouldn't be spending, I shouldn't be doing this.

I need you to just like, I just need to save and save and save. But. Just having piles of money and no experiences or quality time with my kids is not the answer either, especially because now my kids are teenagers and soon they will be leaving for college. So I'm just trying to balance it all. So that's my money mindset around money, but somebody else's could be different depending on their circumstances.

Cash Kid: Yeah. We love your books you have outlined on your website of recommendations. Do you have a few that you could spotlight for our audience? Yeah. So obviously, I mean, my, my book is my baby and I absolutely love it. So it's called from piggy banks to stocks, the ultimate guide for a young investor. It's available on Amazon and any other, um, major bookstore.

If you go online, it's written in a language that a 10 year old can understand. So if you're an adult. Um, you know, you will definitely understand what [00:14:00] it explains and you will like finish that book and you will understand how investing and the stock market works. Um, so the other book that I really like is called grandpa's fortune fables, and it's by my friend, uh, Will Rainey.

He's the author. Uh, it's a lovely book. It's, uh, written in a, in a. Like it's like fables, but each fable has, um, a message with it, with regards to money.

Cash Kid: Yeah. Is there anything that we haven't asked you that you would like to share with our audience? I just, you know, want everybody to understand that You know, money may seem intimidating and complex, but once you are committed to changing your generational wealth, um, you can do it.

Anybody can do it. It does take some self discipline. Uh, it does take some time. But [00:15:00] as you start learning and as you start doing certain things, it gets easier. So it may seem like a lonely journey, but there are a lot of communities out there, Facebook communities or Instagram communities. Um, You know, I have one where parents are teaching kids about money.

So my Instagram is teach.kids.money. Um, you know, where hopefully I can get you inspired to learn and not just only to teach your child, but to learn yourself, uh, because a lot of times some of my followers tell me, well, I'm learning so much from your Instagram page. So that really is the goal is that to inspire adults so that they can teach the kids and we can really have money smart younger generation.

 

Cash Kid: Mrs. Corbic, we appreciate your time and your expertise. Thank you for joining us on the Cash Kid podcast and boosting the financial knowledge of fellow Cash Kids everywhere. As we say on the podcast, anyone can be a Cash Kid, just have to learn how to become one. Cash Kid out.[00:16:00]

Disclaimer: The information presented represents the views and opinions of the guest. This podcast does not intend to provide personal investment advice. This content has been made for informational and educational purposes only. To make a full and informed investment decision, we advise you to speak with a financial advisor, and for kids, definitely your parents first before investing.