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A glass of cold pink lemonade, or a sucking pig? That was the choice facing 9-year-old Almanzo Wilder who would grow up to become the husband of Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of Farmer Boy, book No. 3 in the beloved Little House on the Prairie series.
On July 4, 1878, young Almanzo was unwittingly preparing for a very different kind of Independence Day, and according to a recent report on youth financial literacy, many Hoosiers could benefit from Almanzo’s lessons. The boy hopes for 5 cents from his father in order to join his friends for a cool glass of pink lemonade. His father, aware of the temptation knocking on the young boy’s heart, shrewdly sums up the stakes. He took out his wallet and opened it, and slowly took out a silver half-dollar.
“Almanzo, do you know what this is?” Father asked.
“Half a dollar,” Almanzo answered.
“Yes. But do you know what half a dollar is?” Almanzo didn’t know it was anything but half a dollar.
“It’s work, son,” Father said. “That’s what money is; it’s hard work.
“You know how to raise potatoes, Almanzo?” Father asked.
“Yes,” Almanzo said.
“Say you have a seed potato in the spring, what do you do with it?”
“You cut it up,” Almanzo said.
This is the part where busy parents can be tempted to conclude, “Good, I’m glad we had this discussion.” But the object lesson is just about to take root in Almanzo’s soul; the boy could very well be at a crossroads in his life, where he continues down lemonade road, like most do, or opt to explore down the road less traveled. Father is wise to not rush a moment like this.
“Go on, son.”
“Then you harrow – first you manure the field, and plow it. Then you harrow, and mark the ground. And plant the potatoes, and plow them, and hoe them. You plow and hoe them twice. … Then you dig them and put them down cellar.”
“Yes … and if you get a good price son, how much do you get to show for all that work? How much do you get for half a bushel of potatoes?”
“Half a dollar,” Almanzo said.
“Yes,” said Father. “That’s what’s in this half-dollar, Almanzo. The work that raised half a bushel of potatoes is in it.”
Almanzo looked at the round piece of money that Father held up. It looked small, compared with all that work.
“You can have it, Almanzo,” Father said. Almanzo could hardly believe his ears. Father gave him the heavy half-dollar.
“It’s yours,” Father said. “You could buy a sucking pig with it, if you want to. You could raise it, and it would raise a litter of pigs, worth four, five dollars apiece. Or you can trade that half-dollar for lemonade, and drink it up. You do as you want, it’s your money.”
This year the Indiana Youth Institute announced results from a test of Indiana teen financial literacy that confirmed what we see too often in our wealth management practice – kids don’t know the difference between a compact disc and a certificate of deposit.
Six in 10 failed the test, three in 10 passed with a grade of C or D, less than one in 10 earned a B, and not one received an A.
The report, available at www.iyi.org, doesn’t just grumble, it also points to organizations reaching out to parents with innovative and effective online resources to teach children the value of money, wealth management and wealth creation.
Almanzo’s friends didn’t think his father would pony up the nickel needed for a cool glass of pink lemonade, which, we could imagine, also doubled as a type of proxy membership in their exclusive, sophisticated, cash-burning, cool crowd.
“He didn’t give me a nickel … he gave me a half dollar,” Almanzo said.
The boys wouldn’t believe it until he showed them. Then they crowded around, waiting for him to spend it. He showed it to them all and put it back in his pocket.
“I’m going to look around,” he said, “and buy me a good little sucking pig.”
If the object lesson wasn’t lost on a young boy 130 years ago, Hoosier parents can take inspiration from Almanzo Wilder and look for opportunities to save and invest now, and profit later. The Indiana Youth Institute’s report refers to a number of Web sites devoted to teaching financial and investment literacy, and while pigs might not be your cup of investment tea, what is?
