Price Is Not Worth
This is the most valuable conversation in the unit and almost nobody has it with a young child. The price is the number on the tag. The worth is how much it matters to you. They are different numbers, they come from different places, and the entire skill of investing later on lives in the gap between them. Start it at six.
Find two items that cost about the same — at the store, online, or just from memory. “These cost the same. Which would you rather have?” They will answer instantly and with total conviction. That conviction is your opening.
Now put the same question to a sibling, the other parent, a grandparent. Different answer, same two prices. Let them notice it themselves: “You picked different!” Yes. “Same price. Different worth. Worth is not printed on the tag — it is different for every person.”
Ask for something of theirs that is worth a lot to them but would not cost much at a store. Most kids have one immediately — a rock, a drawing, a stuffed animal missing an eye. “How much would I have to pay you for that?” Watch them refuse actual money. That is the lesson, self-taught.
Then the other direction: something expensive they do not care about at all. There is always something. “That costs a lot. Is it worth a lot to you?” No. “Right. Expensive and worth-it are not the same word.” Two examples, opposite directions, and the idea is fixed.
Hand them the line to keep: “The price is what it costs. The worth is what it is worth to me.” Have them say it once. Then use it, casually, for the next month whenever something is on sale — “cheap, sure, but is it worth it to you?” The sentence does the work over time.
Everything later in this line grows out of this five minutes. Deciding whether a company is a good investment is exactly this question, asked about a business instead of a toy: here is the price, now what do you think it is actually worth? Plant it early.
Not financial advice · Educational only