My Ice Lolly Experiment - Investment Barriers

© GC Diaries

My children asked me to buy them some Ice Lollies, so we did.

It was in the evening so we said, "you can't have that much sugar this time of the day - put them in the fridge and you will have them tomorrow."

I then decided to run an experiment!

I said to them, "lets make a deal - if you dont have your Ice Lolly tomorrow, I will take it and give you two Ice Lollies after seven sleeps."

They smiled, looked at each other and all said; "Yeah! I am not going to have mine tomorrow."

I said, think about it and let me  know.

I arrived from work a few minutes ago and guess what:

THEY FINISHED THE ICE LOLLIES!

So I began to think about the possibilities:
1. They don't trust me to give them 2 Ice Lollies in seven sleeps?
2. Seven sleeps is probably too long?
3. The reward of an additional ICE LOLLY is insufficient?
4. They just want to have it today?
5. All of the above.

So I asked them.

The eldest said she was feeling so hot like a stove and she had to have the Ice Lolly. She even went for swimming, it was such a hot day.

The second one....i couldnt even ask - he was busy putting water in the plastic packaging of the Ice Lolly and playing with it.

That made sense, right - perhaps he was more interested in the packaging than its contents.

The youngest is 2 years old so she is excused.

I couldn't help it but think that actually, most of us adults may not be very different from the behaviour displayed by my children when it comes to investments.

We like the idea but we fail to actually do it - WHY?

1. We think its risky, we may not get our money back?
2. We think that after "seven sleeps" we will get another Ice Lolly or we won't need it anyway?
3. We are more interested in talking about investments and sounding clever around the dinner table than actually its value to us?
4. We just have to spend our money today?
5. All of the above.

Do children think about investmemts the same way adults do?

 The answer is YES!

Perhaps, growing up is not the answer to overcoming our barriers to investing;
And its hardly useful as advice when it comes to investments...especially to an adult!

The truth is:
1. It's too risky not to invest.
2. We will need the money later; for one, retirement is real.
3. Our knowledge must work for us.
4. We can spend less today.
5. All of the above.

I am not saying I get it. I am still trying to expose my barriers to effective investing.

For now though, I have established that the behaviour of my children, when it comes to investing, is not too different to that of adults.

I will continue with my little experiment in order to understand myself better. More importantly, in order to understand my children better.

© GC Diaries